The things I do for this blog…..

I mean, seriously folks. It’s winter. And not only that, it’s only 12 degrees (53 for those of you reading Fahrenheit), and feels colder due to the lovely winds that are gusting up to around 100 km/hour.

And yet, I trudged down to a reasonably secluded beach (on the South coast, no less, just to get the full brunt of any winds coming off Antartica) with my long-suffering partner in tow to get photos.

Of a swimsuit.

A bikini, in fact.

(And that’s another thing – I never thought I’d be brave enough to wear just a swimsuit on this blog for the world to see. And yet, here I am. Clearly a few years blogging has made me a heck of a lot braver! I blame all you lot. Grrrr.)

Anyway, I present to you…. the new Papercut Soma swimsuit! (Bikini variation 1.)

Now, this is the first time I’ve ever made a swimsuit. I always kinda expected it to be tricky to do, and especially tricky to fit. Guess I was just waiting for the Soma pattern to come out because this pattern? It’s fun! And easy!! Easy to sew, and easy to fit – a complete win all ’round.

Soma swimsuit from Papercut

As with all the Papercut patterns I’ve made so far, the instructions are great – easy to follow, and with good construction tips and techniques that result in a great finish on the inside as well. (That bikini top? No fabric edges at all on the inside, they’re all fully enclosed. And the only ones on the bikini briefs are the edges where the elastic is covered by the swimsuit fabric for a nice, clean finish there, too.)

The instructions call for fold-over elastic for the edging of the bikini top, and bra strapping for the shoulder and cross-back straps, all of which give a great finish and are really easy to use. (First time I’ve used fold-over elastic. Now I want to make many, many things using it, for it is fun and easy and I am now in love with it. *daydreaming of fold-over elastic….. Mmmm……*) All I had available was black for both, hence the contrast colours, but I kinda like the result anyway.

Please ‘scuse the slightly-too-large-for-me cup size – normally I would have done a SBA, but my girls are gonna grow with the whole pregnancy-then-breastfeeding thing, so I figured I may as well plan ahead and make something that I won’t be bursting out of for the next year and a half.

(In case you were wondering how I sewed this up so quickly, since the pattern was only released about a week ago – I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of the pattern testers for this collection, so it’s been sitting there waiting for me to build up the courage to get photos of it for a few weeks now.)

I normally would have chosen bikini variation 2 (with the cute bustier style top and the high-waisted bottoms) but I’m hoping to get in a bit of swimming (in indoor, heated pools!) over the next few months to try and stay vaguely fit, so I needed something that wouldn’t stretch out of shape with the ‘baby bump’. 😉

However, I fully intend to make the other bikini version for summer, and then I’ll have gone from owning one 15-year-old swimsuit to owning two nice, shiny new ones instead! Total win, yes indeed. 😀

(In case you haven’t guessed yet, I totally recommend this pattern.)

Want proof that it was kinda cold during this shoot? Here’s me bundled up again straight afterwards. There’s a woolen jersey, tshirt and long-sleeved silk/merino top under that wool jacket. Only reason I didn’t have a scarf and gloves was we weren’t too far from the car. Note the hair? Yeah, it was a bit windy, too!

So there we have it, folks. Something I thought I would never be brave enough to do – wear a swimsuit. On my blog. Eek! And all in the name of sewing. ‘xcuse me while I go hide in a corner with a book now and pretend this whole event never happened….. (Well, except for the creation of my Soma swimsuit, that is, because I am rather proud of making that. 😉 )