Project Run and Play: Advanced Sewing Swim Lesson: Sorbetto Backstroke

Mix and match swimwear is a hot trend right now! Today we have Dora showing us how to turn Sorbetto into a two piece reversible set!

One swimsuit, Thousands of options… - Make it reversible!

I fell in love with the Sorbetto swimsuit (by Call Ajaire), the first time I saw it. The discrete color block that enhances the side lines, the small flutter sleeves that are just enough to protect my girl’s shoulders, but don’t annoy her when playing in the water… I liked pretty much everything! But…I love to hack patterns and this one was no exception!

I chose view C (top) and F (bottom) and hacked them into a cropped swimming top and made it all reversible.

Join me on this journey.

Turning your swimsuit top into a cropped swimming top

The first thing I did after choosing the option to sew, was deciding how long I wanted the top to be. I measured my girl from her armpit till where I wanted the top to hit and then added the hem allowance. I ended up taking 3” from the original pattern (view C).

Don’t forget to do this. Otherwise you’ll end up with your top either much shorter than you’d like or too long.

If you’re not sure about the length, just leave it a bit longer. It’s better to have too much length and cut it off later than trying to fix it if you cut it too short! Make sure you have enough hem allowance, too…

Since I was doing this pattern reversible, I cut every piece twice: one in each chosen fabric (let’s call them fabric A and fabric B).

From then on, I sewed everything as stated in the Sorbetto instructions till step 3… twice - once for each fabric.

With bodices already attached by the shoulders, I proceeded to step 4: the sewing of the flutter sleeves. I had to do it in a slightly different way to make them reversible.

Since I had cut 2 sets of sleeves in different fabrics, it was now time to sew those together (right sides – fabric A to fabric B). I gathered them as per instructions and attached them to one of the bodices.

Now I had one bodice with sleeves and the other one without and that was perfectly ok. It was supposed to be like that.

After that, I got back to the instructions at step 7 and followed them till step 10 (sewing and attaching the side panels to the main ones).

Then, I placed the bodices right sides together, sewed the neckline (watch out for the double V- neckline… Don´t forget to clip it) and turned them right sides out.

To finish sewing the bodices together, I used the Burrito Method! It's always magic...

In the end, I just hemmed them together.

Ok… The top was done. Let’s sew the bottoms and make them reversible, too… Why not, right??

I started these out by joining the front and the back pieces at the crotch. I did this for fabric A and fabric B.

Then, I attached the elastic to the leg holes on one of the pieces. I placed these, right sides together, sewed the leg holes and turned right sides out.

To sew the sides, I took the front and back, right sides together of both pieces and sewed down the sides.

Before sewing the waistline, I added the elastic to one of the fabrics.

To sew the waistline, I placed the back pieces right sides together. I sewed them together leaving a 3 cm gap and a pin marking it. I kept on sewing till I got a full circle. I pulled the fabric through the hole and closed it by topstitching.