A big part of sewing something you love is finding the perfect fabric. It can be hard to find swim fabric here in Hawaii, so here are some great online resources that I can personally vouch for! Please leave a comment if you have other good suggestions, in the US or internationally!
Starting off; you can't go wrong with the matte nylon spandex from
Blue Moon Fabrics. (the colors on the website don't match the colors in real life very well, so just beware. Or order their swatch book to make sure you're getting exactly what you want. In general you can expect the colors in person to be a lot lighter and more vibrant).
Below is the Hot Coral color in View B of the Cowrie Kini, and I think it looks amazing on just about everyone! The fabric is such good quality and fairly easy to work with.
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Also from Blue Moon Fabrics is this neat Seersucker Swim fabric. They have a lot more colors, the bikini below is in the white/beige colorway. It is thinner than other swim fabrics, so I would recommend lining it in the same fabric. |
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When I was in Australia last year, I found this amazing micro French terry swim fabric in a retro brown color from
The Fabric Store. I don't think they have it anymore as it was dead stock, but I managed to find something very similar from
Blue Moon Fabrics (and I actually like it even better, it doesn't pill like the brown one!). But once again, the colors on the website don't match at all. I ordered a color called "seagrass" and it looked like a nice muted chartreuse. Instead I got a very bright, almost neon lime green. I rectified that by using a very diluted brown polyester dye bath to bring the brightness down, and I think it worked very well! I paired it with a
pistachio colored FOE from Elasticbytheyard.com for the edges.
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Next couple fabrics are from Raspberry Creek Fabrics. I was actually able to design my own prints and they printed it on their swim spandex. Such a fun way to get a completely unique bikini! The quality of their fabric and printing are both excellent. I made a blue/brown hibiscus print, and a funky plaid print. The Cowrie Kini constructions for these are different than the way I show in the instructions, but you would be able to figure it out (and I'm planning on having a video tutorial of how I did this.) |
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I was kindly gifted this swim fabric (in the middle) from Julia Cost. She is an artist from Maui, and not only can you buy her paintings, but she prints them on many types of fabric. Bikinis use small pieces of fabric, but can you see the beautiful bouquet of flowers depicted on the fabric? I also made a Sommar Camisole in the fabric which shows the motif better.
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Some other resources that I can personally vouch for:
Swim fabric:
Saltlake Sewciety
Surge Fabric Shop
1" Fold Over Elastic:
ElasticByTheYard.com
Bowtique Emilee
Etsy Seller
1/4" and 3/8" Cotton Elastic:
(I don't recommend rubber elastic because it doesn't allow you to seam rip and sew over again, the more perforations you make, the bigger the chance that the elastic will just tear apart, like perforated paper. Also, when you attach the straps in View A, the bartack just cuts the rubber elastic. Thats why cotton swim elastic is recommended.)
Etsy Seller
G-hooks:
Etsy Seller
Bra Makers Supply
Bra Builders
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