Hello friends! I have been back to my bread and butter sewing projects – swim and athletic. It seriously is my favorite thing to sew. I love to stay active and having clothes that fit me just right and make me feel happy gives me that extra bit of motivation. I have some photos of my most recent projects to show you today that are *really special* to me. So, be warned, I may cry a little.
I received two panels of fabric from The Styled Magnolia for their ombres and stripes current preorder, and for today’s post, I will show you everything I have made with my panels so far and update you on life at the moment in my house.
I got THIS ONE in swim fabric and THIS ONE in ABP. For both panels that I ordered, I chose the white stripes option.
This photo does an excellent job of showing off the full 1.5 yard panel. We are both too short to get all the stripes in one pair of leggings, but we can sure put our legs together so that you can get the idea of the full ombre available on the tropical mermaid panel. It goes from purple to blue to mint to green. It is beautiful!
I imagined this photo shoot at the beach without shoes and my toes wiggling in the sand. Maybe you can just imagine the peaceful ocean waves in the background?
Even without the beachy background, these photos are so special to me. I really am not sure how to communicate that her being so happy to wear something I made and pose in a photo doing yoga with me makes me want to cry and act all sentimental, but well, that is what is happening here.
My bra is made from a different panel. It is the black orchid on swim that was left over from a North Shore swimsuit that I made with that panel.
The Swimsuit
I super love the North Shore swimsuit pattern. The one-piece option is super flattering on, and I am really happy with myself that I remembered to do the back clasp option in the pattern. It makes it so much easier to get on and off.
I did a sewalong for this suit last summer, and it is one of my fave patterns to make! You can find all the videos from the sew along here.
The Sports Bras
I used the Greenstyle Power Sports Bra pattern for both my daughters and my bra.
The nice thing about making sports bras is that you can use left over swim fabric and notions and then use it as a regular sports bra and wear it in the pool!
For the back of my bra, I used a hack from Melanie Burns’ (the ultimate queen of hacking the Power Sports Bra). The only difference between my version and her version is that I cut two shoulder straps and then just made them straight instead of having the one down the middle. You can find her tutorial HERE.
For the back of my daughter’s bra, I did it as written in the pattern. I shortened her straps by several inches to get the perfect fit just for her.
I also used Sarah Connell’s trick to eliminate the front princess seams in her bra so that I didn’t have to match stripes there. This hack is great for A and B cups. I don’t recommend it for cups above a C-D because you will lose some of the fullness you need for those cup sizes.
Lately, I have started doing more yoga, Pilates, stretching, and incorporating work outs that are more focused on allowing me to cope with stress. I have noticed 3 benefits right off the bat (1) my oldest daughter is also joining me for the fun, (2) my ankle that has hurt off an on for the past decade has eased up on the pain level, and (3) I am enjoying it so much I am getting in more workouts.
The Athletic Tights
My athletic tights and my daughters are the Greenstyle Inspire tights.
This is my GO TO pattern when I want a (1) quick leggings pattern that (2) has no side seam. When dealing with stripes like this, there is no reason to give yourself the extra trouble of matching up that many stripes when you don’t have to. The Inspire tights pattern has an optional gusset too so they still work great for athletic movement and all the workouts I have been doing.
On her tights, I used the waistband included in the pattern. For mine I used the contour waistband that is available separately as a FREE download. I shortened both of ours for our height and graded out the calves.
Resources
- Fabric: Black Orchid on White Stripes Panel on swim and Tropical Mermaid on White Stripes Panel on ABP
- Patterns: The Greenstyle Inspire Tights, Power Sports Bra, and North Shore Swimsuit
Life
What I am Listening to: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. I just finished the Penny Reid Winston Brothers series. It was a great series! So far, I am enjoying Talking to Strangers. It reminds me a lot of Freakonomics, which was really great!
Home Project I am Working On: painting the walls in my house this color. Lots of taping, priming, and listening to audiobooks! I have been super busy trying to organize and clean my house too. We are getting new flooring in our upstairs next month!!
Educating the Kids: We are continuing to homeschool this year and started back to school 2 weeks ago. We use BJU Press curriculum for language arts based subjects (reading, spelling, English, etc.), Horizons for math, Apologia for science, and the Story of the World for History. We are on Volume 4 this year and have a lot of supplemental books to go with each subject since it is covering modern history. I need to write a “day in the life” post at some point! For art, we are doing YouTube videos at this point. I feel like art is the hardest subject for me because 5 kids with messy stuff makes me feel a little crazy.
What I am Reading: The Dragonfly Pool. I am reading this out loud to a few of the kids, and they are enjoying it! It is about a girl sent off to a boarding school during World War II. We stop a lot to discuss historical context, and I think it is a nice way to start the discussion of World War II with the kids this year. This is a very light and fun book and doesn’t discuss the harder topics.
My Current Fave Workout Channel: Boho Beautiful has some wonderful pilates and yoga classes on her YouTube Channel. Her vibe is so calm, and I love that she does voice overs rather than trying to talk while she is working out. I try to do a different video each day depending on what mood I am in. I usually do them right before dinner (or after if my day gets too busy).
Let’s Stay Connected
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*Disclosures
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.
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