Suit Up for Summer – 2021 Edition!

Hey y’all, and welcome back to my blog after the longest hiatus ever. If this is your first time visiting, welcome! If you’ve been here before, it looks pretty different since the last time you saw it, huh? That’s because it is! I moved over from self-hosting to WordPress in the nick of time to get this post ready for y’all, so this space is literally bones right now (and still very much a work in progress). Over the coming weeks, my older content will start appearing as I find time to move it. Anywho, let’s get to what brings you here today…

That would be the Raspberry Creek Fabrics Swimsuit Tour, no? I’m thrilled to get to be a part of this awesome group of bloggers a third year in a row to showcase these fun new Swim and Board Short prints that Raspberry Creek created for the Summer 2021 season. They are a small fabric business that prints all designs in house, and I’ve quite come to love their swim base a lot!

When we were presented with our options this year, I wanted to do something slightly different than my usual. As you may know by now through this tour and other spaces throughout the sewing world, my family is pretty partial to florals. I specified the word slightly before, because the print I chose actually is quite technically a floral, but it’s got tons of other cuteness going on that it kinda doesn’t matter, amiright? For the swim bases you’ll see pictured on myself and daughter, I combined the Tossed Fruit Floral Print Abstracts with the coordinating Vertical Stripe Print Abstracts. To “match” us, my husband is rocking the Abstract Tossed Shape Print in Board Short with the solid matte black for accents.

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For suits, I originally only planned to make myself one…but then I was like “hey, let’s try the board short fabric” so I signed up for some of that, too, and decided to jump into making some board shorts for my husband. I wanted a swimsuit that could showcase two prints without being a two-piece, so I chose the Shelly from Made for Mermaids. The style is super adorbs, and I really like the way M4M patterns fit me, so I didn’t really hesitate on the decision. I chose the regular front (without ruffles) and the cutout back. I love how it gives a two-piece vibe! It was pretty much a straightforward sew for me. I changed the strap method in the tutorial because I was speed-reading the instructions and missed something, but they still turned out perfectly fine and do not twist. For construction, I used my serger and sewing machine. After experimenting the past couple years with using my coverstitch vs my sewing machine for topstitching swim, I think I still prefer my sewing machine. The matte swim was a breeze to sew with, as always, and the colors are nicely saturated and vibrant. I am in LOVE with this swimsuit and can’t wait wear it out and about!

For my husband, I honestly had NO CLUE what pattern to use. I’d never even considered board shorts before, so I asked the blogging team if anyone had sewn them before, with not very many recommendations. Jalie was mentioned, and since they are one of the lovely sponsors of this tour, it seemed perfect to use their Board Shorts pattern. As for the fabric, the quality feels lovely, it has a nice matte finish to it, which I find pleasing, as that matches RCF’s swim prints. I strongly recommend serging all your raw edges with Board Short fabric, as it frays quite a bit the more you handle it. Sews lovely, otherwise. As for the pattern, I will say, for a non-woven sewist, it was a little tricky, took a few hours on a couple different days. I wanted to be precise to prevent any errors, so I drew every single seam allowance with sewing marker, straight stitched with my sewing machine, then went back and serged every seam to reduce the excess fabric before topstitching. These steps definitely added to the time it took to make these! I also don’t follow illustrations as well as I follow actual photos in tutorials, so I struggled in some places, but I managed push through it all, get em done, and I’m darn proud! I won’t bring attention to the “flaws.” My husband quite likes them, and that’s what matters the most to me.

Just like with last year’s tour, I ended up having a “bonus sew.” Our daughter agreed to a new swimsuit, which made my heart swell. I always enjoy sewing for her and haven’t gotten much opportunity as of late. I told her to go pick her favorite me-made swimsuit from her drawers, and she chose the Waterfall Swimsuit from Ellie and Mac (another gracious sponsor). I had a large amount of the main fabric leftover and such a tiny bit of the stripe left. In fact, I had to remove 2″ from the flounce to make the pattern piece fit on the leftover, but it still worked. This suit is adorable and she loves it. I call it a win 🙂

All in all, I adore how all of our suits came together. I love that the three prints look like a set and can’t wait to sew some swim trunks up for our littlest. He was a bit jelly he didn’t get to partake in the photoshoot, but I promised to order more board short fabric to make some for him before summer. Though we are still social distancing and staying home at the moment, who knows what summer will bring our way? Here’s some extra photos for your perusal! I hope to see you on the blog again soon. Oh….read to the bottom 😉

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As a little perk to you for having read through this, save 15% on all swim fabrics from Raspberry Creek Fabrics this week only using code SWIMTOUR! Make sure to stop by and check out all the other bloggers on the tour for some extra inspo and also by the RCF Instagram for giveaways! Their links can be found below.

*All fabric in this post was provided free of charge from RCF and the patterns were provided by sponsors. All of the thoughts/opinions presented above are entirely my own.

Made by Kates  Violet and Jewels  Sweet Mama Life  All Things Katy!

Intensely Distracted  Pins & Pinot  My Heart Will Sew On  The Petite Sewist

All My Spare Time  Kara Metta  Handcrafted by RED  Sincerely, Shantelle

Replicate Then Deviate  That’s Sew Kari  Desert Blooms  Boo + Lu

A huge thank you to our sponsors and don’t forget to check out today’s giveaway!!
Again, you can find the tour on Instagram with the hashtag: #suitupforsummer2021

Lowland Kids  Gingham Hive  Striped Swallow Designs  Honeydew Kisses  Little Lizard King  

Jennuine Designs  Greenstyle Creations  Made for Mermaids  Call Ajaire  Hey June  Boo Designs! 

  Sofiona Designs  Love Notions  Lil Luxe Collection  Jalie  Sweet Red Poppy