How to Sew a Swimsuit — Cutting out the Fabric — Swimsuit Sewbration Sewalong Day 3

It’s the exciting time to cut out your fabric! I get a little anxious whenever I cut out fabric I love but I just have to trust myself. And if you read yesterday’s post you heard about how to alter your pattern pieces and how you should ALWAYS cut out your lining fabric first, baste it together and check the fit. That way you know what you are getting before you even cut into that gorgeous fashion fabric you bought.

I want to say I do this every time with new patterns but I don’t. I actually just made a suit that I had to recut the bottoms to fit better.. so I should listen to my own advice. 😬🤷🏼‍♀️ But it will save you a lot of time and frustration if you do that first! 

So again I will remind you, once your pattern pieces are ready you should always cut out the lining first. To start you just need the pieces you want to fit. If there are any ruffles or decorations that are being lined don’t worry about them at this point. Baste the front and back pieces together so that you can try on your suit and get. A feel for how it will fit. Now it won’t fit exactly because the elastic is missing, but you can get an idea for how it will look.

You should check to see if the length is right or if it pulls too much. Do the bottoms cover enough of the bum or are they covering too much? This is your suit and you get to decide exactly how you want it to look! So check all of the fit now so you won’t have to worry about it as much later. The elastic will add some security to the pieces but it will actually be folding the fabric under so you will loose about 1/4” wherever elastic will go, which is usually on all the edges. Now go to your pattern and make the alterations, some I talked about in yesterday’s post.

Once your pattern pieces are exactly how you want them, then you can cut out the final pieces of lining and fashion fabric. In my post on the 10 Tools you need to make a swimsuit, I talked about how I ALWAYS cut out my fabric with a rotary cutter, mat, and pattern weights. Swimsuit fabric is very slippery and cutting it out with these tools makes it soooo much easier. You can see what tools I recommend in that post as well. 

Today is short and sweet and that’s just how I like it! I want you to get everything cut out today and then get prepared to SEW tomorrow!

See you tomorrow friend! Happy sewing! — Alex