Swimsuit of compromises!

It’s official! Not doing Madalynne patterns ever again! (mayyyybe the simplicitys?? i don’t know…. but that’s a different quality control process so maybe it would be ok)

The top is the Roxie bralette. I thought it was a fun design, and figured, you know, the last frustrating Madalynne pattern was free, can’t judge a company’s output by their free offerings, can you (honestly, maybe you can and should?)? The bottoms are heavily modified Noelles.

The instructions for the Roxie felt marginally better to what I remember from the Barrett. But the drafting was worse. I was relieved, however, that it fit. Also, based on this review, I just decided to ignore the notches. This was a mistake, which I figured out at the 11th hour.

I cut out all the pieces before heading out on a family lake trip (sewing was a nice experience despite everything about the frustrating pattern, sitting out on the deck and enjoying the overcast days). So when I discovered that one piece was cut out backwards, I couldn’t recut it. I count that as 100% the pattern’s fault - I should be able to cut pieces face up and get the right results, not have to guess that the back piece should be flipped upside down for cutting. From what I can tell, this was printed wrong side up to save paper (Madalynne cites this as a reason for various choices in videos). I’d rather save fabric. Standard work saves pain - if cutting with the piece face down was required, it should be marked as such!!

So I compromised and just lived with the back being wrong side out.

I tried as much as possible not to use the instructions, which were wordy, confused, and would have one photo referred to a step (if you were lucky), usually one that was more “pretty” than informative. What I did do was lean on what I remembered from the (excellent) Spring Racer pattern to make finishings more swim appropriate (elastic basted to lining and fashion fabric, turned in and triple zig-zagged).

I found the overlay pattern piece hard to parse (especially in the pattern paper gluing/taping phase, oh my gosh, no letters/numbers to indicated columns and rows for the pages, no overall print diagram, coloured solid lines for all the pattern sizes so if you print in b&w like i did, there’s no way to tell them apart!!!), which led to me attaching it backwards. This of course I didn’t realize until final try on - the bottom band was on - so now I’m wearing the damn thing backwards with the stupid inside out piece right there at the front. I think this could have been mitigated with some signposting on the pattern itself, like if the words front/back appeared somewhere on each part.

As it is, it’s wearable, but kind of barely. The back piece isn’t a great volume for a boob, even a small one, so the right breast is fairly compressed. But I can’t wear it with the front to the front, because the neck is already a bit high for comfort on the overlay, and because I put it on backwards, I’d be dealing with the even higher back of the overlay on my neck. And I’m not going to try unpicking triple zig zag stitch top stitching over a zig zag seam to get the bottom band off and flip it.

The “back” of the swimsuit…the top is basically worn backwards in terms of the tiger print, in order to get the overlay to not choke me.

So it’s a compromise.

The Noelle underwear made for not at all great swim bottoms - they’re looser than I’d even want underwear to be, so a lot looser than a swim bottom should be. That’s partially on me, I should have sized down more - but also on the pattern, which is too loose to start with. I actually have taken in both sides an inch as it stands, and that gets the top of the bottoms to just about the right tightness for underwear.

I like how I recut the front legs but the back legs are a smidge too high. Not a deal breaker, but coupled with the too-baggy fit, it’s a bit of a frustration. I’m thinking I may take an inch out of the legholes eventually as well for a more snug fit. For height, I knew the Noelle’s would be higher than I wanted but I wasn’t sure by how much, so I got some help marking a lower line once I tried them on without elastic.

One thing I do like is the black mesh cutaways I added to the bottoms, which was meant just to help it work with the top.

And anyway, this was all done in a couple days at the lake, and that in itself is a nice little memory

Pattern: Roxie Bralette, Noelle Underwear
Size Made:
Measurements: B34, W31, H39
Next time: I dunno i might make the roxie again but If I do, definitely recopy the back piece so it’s right way up. Also if making a bra-bra not a swim top, trace off lining pieces 1/8” smaller to avoid the nightmare instruction to cut the lining pieces then trim 1/8” away (didn’t have to do this here thanks to turning the elastic under at edges)