Swim Suit Season

Making a Girl’s Tankini from McCalls 6729
It is summer and that means Swimming!
Which of course means having a swimming suit. I have a young daughter and I couldn’t find anything in local stores that I liked.

• I wanted a 2 piece so that she could go to the toilet facilities easier. She hasn’t been potty trained that long, I thought a 2 piece would be easier, and I have always hated having to peel off a 1 piece, and worse yet, putting the wet suit BACK ON!
• I DIDN”T want something that would be considered overtly sexy on my body, she is a little girl, and is going to stay that way for some years to come.
• I didn’t want characters or obnoxious prints. 

So I settled on making one for her. She picked out the fabric, which really was the only good choice to be had and I picked up McCalls 6729 since that was close to what I wanted and McCalls were on sale.

Overall I found the pattern to be adequate, with the exception of the elastic guides. The elastic guides are of course graded over the 4 sizes given, the instructions say “Lap ends matching Center Backs” but the center back markings are NOT graded. It would have been easier if they had said lap ends a certain amount. So I had to guess.

I did not use fold over elastic, but instead cut strips 1 1/2" wide the length of the guide, this was a bit bulkier but has a harmonious look.
I decided to not cross the straps in back and so far that has worked well. The suit has stayed in place and she can get it on and off by herself.
I need to work on sewing knits, I am not that good at it and my machine skipping stitches does not help! I sewed this on my regular machine using a stretch stich and zig zag for the bindings and elastic.

I thought I would share the skirt pattern piece I created for sizes 3-6, you will still need the original pattern.

So here is the additional pattern piece to making a Tankini from McCalls 6729!

 Tankini Adaption for McCalls 6729