Summer Swimwear Part 3 : Jalie 3134

The girl whose torso just keeps getting longer (her dad's genes at work there) was in need of a new version of my favourite swimsuit: Jalie 3134

I've made it twice before (first and second versions) and I really like the shape and cut of this one. It sits quite high and close at the front so it's nice and stable for sporty swimming, but the back has a lovely cutaway so there 's no confusing it with a leotard type pattern.

As the straps don't cross over at all, there's also no confused kid trying to work out where to put their head or arms.

As with her other swimsuits of this season I traced the "j" width and "l" length. It was a bit confusing working out where would be best to lengthen and I ended up tracing my pattern width lines at about the height lines of the size 2 sizes up and filling in the blanks in the middle as best I could. I didn't end up with the side seams of the panels lining up as neatly as they would if I'd traced a single size. Annoying once it's pointed out, but hardly worth getting uptight about.

This was the first time I'd tried the "piping" effect on the front. A thin strip (about 1/4") of lycra fabric is cut and then, under some tension, it rolls itself into a tube. It's then stitched down with a zig zag stitch that goes side to side over the top of the tube and holds it in place. It took a little bit of practice and the trick seems to be starting well in the seam allowance so that's it's rolling in properly by the time you get to where it will be visible on the swimsuit. Getting both sides to match was also tricky as none of my fabrics pencils/chalk would mark the lycra convincingly. I freestitched one side, then folded the swimsuit vertically down the centre line and used pins to mark the stitching line from one side to the other.

Now, can I talk about the fabric please? The two shades of pink were A's choice when I put in a big order last year (everyone in the family got to pick a few colours and maybe I chose quite a few extras) for this extraordinary Lycra.

Through the Fashion Revolution hashtag on Instagram I found this image:

Image Source

I was immediately taken by the idea that discarded fishing nets were being collected off beaches and made into 100% recycled nylon filament. The other main source is discarded nylon carpets. To take ugly, hazardous waste out of the landscape and reuse it is delightful, and that cheery Slovenian guy had me determined to find myself some recycled swimwear fabric.

There are a few companies that are using the fabric to make commercially available swimwear, but I wanted it by the metre...  My research told me that the Slovenian company make Econyl, which is the recycled Nylon filament. Then I found Carvico, an Italian company who weave and dye it into various fabrics. The one I wanted was called VITA: It's a chlorine resistant, UV proof, 100% recycled Nylon lycra fabric with a beautiful feel and a spectacular range of colours. I was going to make swimwear, save whales, support an innovative industry.... Heck, I even had some new Lisette sewing patterns....

I contacted Eclipse Textiles who are listed as an importer of Carvico fabrics into Australia. They were extremely helpful, their minimum order is as little as 1m, but they only sell wholesale to fabric retailers. However, the lady at Eclipse was happy to post me the big fold out Italian swatch book with all the colours (and the luxurious feel) of the VITA range as well as the Australian importers copy sheet (some missing and a few renamed, but mostly the same).

I hit up a friendly fabric retail business (thanks, you're the best!) and she agreed to do a side order on my behalf. A few other Melbourne fabric hounds joined in and we picked our colours while poring over the swatches at a local wine bar. Then we ordered...

The fabric is fabulous. It's smooth, pleasantly thick but not "heavy". It has great compression and shape while still being very stretchy. The colours are beautiful and since it's yarn dyed, there's no loss of colour with stretch. Seriously, it's really, really good stuff.

Flipper and the kids chose some colours for themselves and I picked half a dozen too. The cuts, when they arrived were quite generous and it's a good 150cm wide. You can see I used a bit of my burgundy to do the piping on the swimsuit with A's two tone pink choice.

Normally with a pale pink lycra I would have lined the back panel of this swimsuit (although the pattern doesn't indicate it), but as you can see from the modelled shots it's not thin or see through at all. The big test will be to see how it stands up to a year of swimming lessons in a chlorinated pool. All of my previous kid's swimsuits have faded or become very thin over the course of a year. I guess they grow fast enough that it hardly matters, but I hate to think of them as that disposable.

Printed fabrics are all well and good but I'll happy mix and match my solids and eschew the prints 'cause this stuff is just too nice not to use. The orange in A's previous suit is one of the Carvico VITA fabrics and the feel of it and the sewing of it couldn't have been more different to the rest of that suit. Ok, just get yourself some somehow. Enough said.

Details:
Pattern: Jalie 3134
Size: "j" width, "l" length
Fabric: Carvico VITA recycled Nylon/elastane.
Swimsuit lining from GJ's, 1cm elastic from Vo-Le