Project Run and Play: Advanced Sewing Swim Lesson: Colorblocking!

With today's tutorial, you can now bring all your color blocking swimwear dreams to light! Today Audrey is going to share some tips for color blocking when making swimwear!

I used the Saltillo Swimsuit pattern and solid fabrics from Raspberry Creek Fabrics.

Before you ever cut or sew anything, you MUST begin by planning! Taking time on this step will save you lots of recutting or resewing in later steps. I began my planning with paper and color pencils. After dividing up the line drawings into the sections I wanted, I tried out various color combinations and locations.

Once the fabric/location decisions had been made, I still wasn’t done with my planning! Next I had to plan HOW to cut out the pieces so that they would end up in the right spots with the right side of the fabric facing out.

I folded my Saltillo pattern pieces where I wanted the color lines to be. Then when I was cutting I MADE SURE TO ADD SEAM ALLOWANCES around the edges where the piece was going to be sewn to another piece. In the photo above, you can see seam allowanced added along the top and center of the back piece. *Note* if your pattern piece says cut on the fold and you are using that for one of your color block lines, be sure to add seam allowance there too!

After cutting out all the pieces, I laid them out to make sure I was still on the right track. In the photo above, you can see that the color block sides are longer than the other side. They will be the same length after they are sewn together because they have that extra seam allowance on them.

Next you start sewing your blocks together. Be sure to baste the junctions together before serging or sewing. This is to make sure they match up where intended! In the above photo, I’ve basted and then serged two pieces to make up half of the back. Another tip is to press your seams with a lot of steam as you sew them. This will help any wavy seams shrink back to their intended size.

In the above photo, I’m getting ready to baste and then serge the other half of the back together. Once you have your color blocked pieces created, lay the pattern piece back over them and trim up anything that’s necessary!

The final tip I have is to be sure to include the lining on the inside! Those color block seams could be scratchy to the wearer, or susceptible to catching and tearing a hole in one of them when they are dressing/undressing.