Making a prototype of the swimsuit was useful to discover any mistakes and reflect on the overall design and fit. The week before we embarked on our easter break, we all had a look at our designs on a professional size ten model….
Size ten model wearing my swimsuit.
I wasn’t too sure about the pom-poms on the shoulders. I was scared it was going to look too ‘crafty’. However, using different material to the traditional yarn-made ones created a look far from ‘crafty’. There was the option of cutting lots of circles in the same fabric and making them sit up with starching spray, but, I tried this, and it didn’t work. Woollen pom-poms were the gooooooo. I also figured that the bra cups were hideously small, so these needed to be enlarged by at least one centimetre.
Side view of swimsuit
I was pretty happy how the ruching came out. Though I had to be mindful of the gathers bringing the swimsuit in too much. When the model tried the swimsuit on, it was really tight around the bottom and loose up the top. To fix this, I needed to expand the ruching pattern pieces by one centimetre on each side. For the top seam at the back, it needed to drop by one or two centimetres. I wasn’t really keen on the bra tassels. It was hiding too much of the design, so it was out with the tassels and in with the simple.
Back view
Overall, I was pretty happy with the outcome of my first swimsuit draft. Not much had to be changed for the final piece. Just a few tweaks within the swimsuit back, bra cups and the tassels were removed. I was on the home straight…
