Zero waste project 17: retro bikini

The zero waste one-piece swimsuit is now officially hacked into a non-zw two-piece suit ☀️

My very first attempt at swimwear wasn’t without difficulties. I used @zerowastewardrobe’s panties pattern as a starting point, with a higher waist and gathered halter top attached to the waistband. I made a plan for zero waste integrated bust support – using powernet, elastic and one of @zerowastewardrobe’s bralette patterns for foam cups (I’m used to wearing a bikini with underwires and boning, so hanging free under the suit didn’t appeal to me).

I bought this beautiful recycled swimwear fabric and lining from @s.t.r.a.g.i.e.r, and all the bust support materials from @bwear.se.

Round 1: used 50x90cm of fabric, but I struggled more than I expected due to a mixup with my lining. It was labeled correctly so I couldn’t be sure the problem wasn’t me until @eclipse_lingerie_studios confirmed this specific reference should have been perfectly stretchy. I emailed Stragier and they quickly sent out the correct lining, but I did have to unpick basically the whole thing (that took a very long time, I should have trusted myself earlier).

Round 2: I did eventually get the one-piece suit done, but made some waste along the way because I forgot to account for vertical stretch - so to get the bust support in the right position I had to trim some fabric. When I was finally done (after 1000 fittings and lots of unpicking/resewing), I loved the fit and retro look – but it didn’t feel very practical for moving or actually swimming in! So after some hesitation, I chopped it into a two-piece suit and left it aside a while to “marinate” 😅

Round 3: Now it’s finally finished with elastics and I feel much more comfortable wearing it – it’s not perfect but great for jumping into rivers and diving under waves. It still has lots of front coverage like I originally wanted, but I have full freedom of movement!

Lots of learning happened as usual: I now know what swim lining is meant to be like, sewing 6mm rubber elastic is hard for me to sew precisely, and gathers made it hard to fit accurately.

If I made this again I think I could definitely make it zero waste with all I’ve learned!