Retro Floral Swimsuit

Retro Floral Swimsuit

Pub­lished 02/27/2014Retro Floral Swimsuit

Ever since col­lege, I’ve mused about mak­ing a biki­ni. They are easy to make and require very lit­tle fab­ric (obvi­ous­ly), so I’m not real­ly sure why it took me so long to make one. Per­haps it’s because of my taste for poly­ester swimsuits.

Grow­ing up, my sis­ters and I went through so many lycra swim­suits, because they would fade in just a few weeks from the chlo­rine and sun. So when Speedo & TYR start­ed offer­ing longer last­ing poly­ester suits, I nev­er went back to the lycra suits.

Even with all the beau­ti­ful lycra fab­rics avail­able in my local stores, I was nev­er inspired enough to make swim suits out of it. I just wasn’t con­vinced that it was durable enough to with­stand the chlo­rine and sun.

Final­ly after my sis­ter’s per­sua­sion (and com­mis­sion), I decid­ed to give vin­tage bathing suit mak­ing a try! Nei­ther of us are string biki­ni gals. We like more coverage/support. So we decid­ed on a retro swim­suit design. This design requires much more work than your typ­i­cal lycra swim­suit. Why? Because the fab­ric is polyester/rayon (looks like linen) and not stretchy, so the fit must be exact. In addi­tion, I’ve also added bon­ing to the cups and side.

sewing a swimsuit

Before begin­ning my sister’s suit, I decid­ed to make one for myself first. I found a sewing pat­tern to help me pat­tern the cups, but the pattern’s direc­tions were slim so I used it as a guide instead. I also changed it up by adding bon­ing to the cups with elas­tic and snaps on the back, rather than hooks.

floral bustier top

I LOVE this swim­suit! It’s extreme­ly flat­ter­ing & fun!

Good thing I made a prac­tice suit because I have a few things I want to change to the design for my sister’s swim­suit! You’ll have to wait to see it, in the meantime…

sketch of swimsuit

 Here’s a sneak peek!

One of the lit­tle girls we babysit for want­ed to design her suit!  I told her if she drew up dif­fer­ent designs, I’d choose one of them! Here’s the draw­ing we are using for inspiration!

floral bustier top

Retro Floral Swimsuit

floral bustier top
The straps don’t fit the dress form

Retro Vintage boned bustier floral swim suit Marusya Anagrassia

Retro Vintage boned bustier floral swim suit Marusya Anagrassia
Some of her oth­er swim­suit designs

Retro Floral Swimsuit

I made turquoise poly­ester bot­toms to go with this top! I also plan on mak­ing a match­ing high-waist­ed skirt to go with this top too!

6 thoughts on “Retro Floral Swimsuit

  1. susan

    that is one nice look­ing busti­er swim­suit! love the shape of the cup and the fab­ric work so well with the design.

    Reply

  2. black red floral vintage bustier swimsuit boning marusya | Marusya Marusya

    […] my sec­ond vin­tage inspired swim­suit. (View my first busti­er bathing suit top here.) It’s anoth­er boned busti­er top made with a polyester/rayon […]

    Reply

  3. Nonye

    Okay this is just too cute. Can u pls tell me wht pat­tern you used as a guide and where I can buy the fabric?

    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. marusya

      I’m glad you like it! I bought the fab­ric over a year ago and the pat­tern is Bur­dastyle’s busti­er pattern!

      Reply

  4. Hillary

    I tried mak­ing this with the Bur­dastyle pat­tern and the pieces did not match up. Did you have the same problem?

    Reply

    1. marusya

      I don’t remem­ber hav­ing an issue. But since I made this over a year ago, I may have forgotten.

      Reply

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