Skirt Tankini Tutorial - Sewing (3)

The final post on the Tankini tutorial.  

Read the Part 1 on Pattern and Part 2 on Cutting first. 

Bodice

1) Pin the front and back bodice, Right side facing, along the side seams.  As I'm using a ruffle fabric, do remember to match the seams/ruffles. Pins as many as you like so that it will not shift out when you sew.

2) Using a stretch needle and increase your stitch length slightly, sew the side seams together.  You can serge the seams for a neater finish.

Skirt

1) Pin the side seams of the skirt, Right side facing, together. Try to align the ruffles at the side. Sew.

2) As I've cut the skirt using the full width of the fabric, I need to do some gathering to fit the skirt to the bodice. Using the widest stitch length (4 on my machine) and longer tension (8 on my machine), I sew a row of stitches near the waistline of the skirt. This will automatically gather my skirt. Leaving a long thread after my last stitch, I cut off the thread and use the leftover thread to adjust the skirt width to fit the bodice. 

Sewing the skirt to the bodice

1) Position the bodice and the skirt like so. With the front bodice facing down, Right side face out and the skirt facing up, Right Side face in.

sorry, this is the pic of skirt before I sew the gather

2) Pin the skirt to the waistline of the bodice, matching the side seams as close as possible. Be care to ensure that your ruffles stays in same direction too. 

 3) To allow for stretch, I use a zig zag stitch to attach the skirt to the bodice.  Sew all around the skirt waistline.

4) Pull out the gathering stitches that you've sewn earlier so that only the final zig zag stitch remain.

5) Flip to the Right Side and you have your tankini with attached skirt.

Bottom Pantie

1) Place the ruffle, Right Side face up, to the back pantie (right side face up). Pin the sides and baste it using the biggest stitch.

2) Then, place the back pantie over the front pantie, align the sides, with Right Side facing each other.  Sew the side seams together. You can serge the seams if you like.

3) Sew the crotch together. I actually sew the crotch Wrong side facing and then flip it out and sew again to encase the raw edges, similar to that of a french seams. I think it will be more comfortable this way. 

4) Sew the elastic band to the leg area using the tutorial from Creative chick at play or Zaaberry. Just remember to keep the elastic about 1" shorter than the width of your leg opening. Pin the elastic to the edge of the opening so that the elastic lay flat for the front part but slightly stretch in the back portion. Using zig zag stitch to attach elastic to the leg opening and then fold over the elastic so that it is hidden and use the Stretch Twin needle (note: It's STRETCH twin needle) and finish the leg opening.

5) for the waistband, I use 2 methods to finish up both pantie so you can see which one your prefer. For the little sister, I fold over the waistline and sew it all around, leaving a 1" gap to insert the elastic. I've used a 1" elastic for the little sister.  For the big sister, I use the same method as the leg opening and sew up using the thin 3/8" elastic.

front

back

Straps

1) To encase the raw edge on the top of the bodice, cut a piece of lycra, 2" wide and attach to the front, Right side facing together. Sew.

2) Cut a piece of elastic same length as your strap and sew it on using zig zag stitches. Then, flip the lycra to cover the elastic and fold over to the wrong side. Using Stretch twin needle, sew the strap to cover the edge.  [Zaaberry's tutorial has more pictorial explanation]

2) Sew the strap on with the elastic, following zaaberry's tutorial.  For the 2T, I use a shorter strap like 38" and the 7T I use 46". You can use longer strap and then cut accordingly but make sure that the elastic encased in the straps are slightly longer than the strap. I also crossed the strap behind so that it will not slip off so easily.

The final version for Big Sister.

Little sister's version

The back view

Can you see that she enjoys her new Tankini?

That's all folks!

I'll be most grateful if you can share with me your finished tankini.

Let me know if my instruction is not clear.