Hi Everyone! In Part 2 we continue with our sew-along as we tackle sewing variation 2. This darling style features a one-piece swimsuit with an off the shoulder strap with ruffles that spread just over the arms. It's similar to the first style we demonstrated, with the full ruffle, but the method of attaching the ruffle is a bit different. Follow along to see how to sew this design and then grab your fabric and create one for your own collection!
Supplies and Resources:
- The tiny stripe fabric used in this tutorial is from The Fabric Fairy. The blue print paired with the coral is a Liberty London fabric (no longer available, sorry!)
- Fold Over Elastic can be found locally at stores like Wal-Mart, JoAnn, Hobby Lobby, etc. Look in the baby cloth diaper supplies, or even with the craft supplies, hair products, etc. You can also find a variety of colors and prints on Etsy, just search "Fold Over Elastic" and you'll see so many to choose from. I'd recommend minimum lengths of 1 yard per swimsuit.
- 1/8" width Double Sided Basting Tape (Amazon)
Ok, let's get started with the Variation One Sew-Along!
In this tutorial, we are going to sew the one-piece design with the full off the shoulder ruffle that has a deep "V" dip at center back.
- You will need pattern pieces One-Piece Front and One-Piece Back
- Ruffle - two cut from the Ruffle pattern piece
- Fold Over elastic - 1 yard cut into the lengths listed on the measurement chart.
- Thread that matches your elastic color.
- Double-sided quilters tape (1/8" recommended), optional but I love this!
Follow along in the video to make this swimsuit. The body construction is pretty much the same as Variation 1. So for this video, we've already sewn the side seams and the elastic on the arms and legs (same as variation 1) and we begin with the off the shoulder strap and ruffle. Be sure to watch this to make sure you space the elastic properly and place it on the swimsuit as instructed to get an optimal fit. Once you determine how your machine sews the elastic, you can adjust your elastic length to be exact (probably 16 inches), currently, it is designed to have a bit of excess at the ends because every machine is different.
Style tip! The off-the-shoulder straps can easily be pushed up over the shoulder too, creating a super cute new ruffled strap look! Yay!
Week Two task:
- Watch the Variation Two Sew-Along videos. Follow along and sew a swimsuit in this style!
- Check out the Ultimate Resource Guide for fabric and supply sources. (Find this in the SWC Bonuses section)
- If needed, Take some time to practice sewing on some small scrap pieces of swim knit fabrics. Try out different needles, stitch lengths, and stitch selections.
- Follow along and make the Variation One swimsuit and be sure to share it with the group!
- Jump over the SWC Facebook Group for conversation and project sharing.
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If you are new to SWC or simply need a refresher on sewing with swimsuit fabric, here are a few videos that go over everything in detail.
Here are a few more videos that are good to reference. The original Free Swimsuit pattern covers the basics as well as sewing in detail with thee fold over elastic.
This is an overview of sewing with fold-over elastic in more detail:
I'll be demonstrating these methods using several different variations from the Liberty Jane Swimsuit Variations pattern. Follow along to see how easy it is to make these adorable swimsuits!
It's going to be a fun course! Are you ready? Let's go...
Patterns Used For this Topic:
- LJ Swimsuit Variations for 18" Dolls
- LJ Swimsuit Variations for 14-15" Dolls
2 Comments
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Melinda
July 20, 2020
Why is everything referring to Variation one?