Clara in Singapore

This is not a new make, I finished it in late January, wore it a few times while the weather was still warm but never blogged it because I could never get photos of it.

To be honest, I would rather not blog this at all and post pictures of myself like this all over the internet, but this is from an interesting, and largely unreviewed pattern company (SwimStyle patterns) and I wanted to put something out there about this pattern. I rely on blogs a lot when I'm making my mind up about an unknown indy pattern so I thought I should do my bit. There are no modeled pictures of this pattern on the seller's website, only photographs on a dummy.

This is the Clara Swimsuit by SwimStyle patterns, which as far as I can make out is a one-woman pattern brand based in Sydney.

I want to mix honesty with kindness in this review because while I think there are some things that could be improved, mostly to do with the presentation and instructions, I don't want to be harsh and I think she has some great designs and is putting out patterns you can't find anywhere else. The pattern maker has commented, very positively, on these bathers when I posted them on instagram and by following her back I could see she is a woman who is doing this all on her own, and probably doesn't have the IT/graphic design support or background some other independent designers do.

I finally got these photos when I went to Singapore for a holiday, stayed with a friend in her beautiful apartment, with an equally beautiful swimming pool that was always deserted. I never even saw people on the balconies, so feeling very private, I decided to go for it and take the pics. And yes, they are heavily edited and filtered!



So, first up, I made a quick toile out of some stretch jersey to do a rough fit check, I graded between a medium at the bust to a large at the waist and hips, then went ahead and cut into this rust coloured swim lycra and black swimsuit lining, both from Pitt trading in Sydney. The pattern includes an extra piece to hold foam cups, which I left out as cups I find very cold and heavy for swimming, although they would make this suit more, err, modest I guess? But I'm Australian, I make bathers* for swimming in.

All the elastic length are given, as are instructions for getting a clean finish for the lining. What I struggled with were the instructions, which are written in word, in quite a laborious and not very clear way, with a lot of bolding and underlining and italics, which add emphasis but not clarity. Here's an example, references to the centre side, which means the centre, not the side:

The other thing was that the instruction were inexplicably split into two files, one file for pages 1-11, another file for the rest of the pages.

When it came to the printing, the test square did not come out right, it was a good 2mm out, not a huge amount but enough to be well and truly out. The test square is an entire page:

As much as pattern exhorts you to check your printing, it turns out that if you print 'actual size' and the test square is wrong, there is nothing you can do but print the rest of the pattern, stick it together and hope for the best. Also the instructions to check the measurements on each page? No thanks. That's what the test square is supposed to be for. There are also a few typos and spelling mistakes in the pattern too, nothing disastrous, but not a great look either. Basically the whole thing was fine, but needed a thorough proof-read and copy editing job.

The suit was pretty straightforward to sew, you can see from the pictures it's not a complicated design. I think the drafting is very good, I love the shaping, the neckline and the elastic lengths given were absolutely spot on and made the whole thing very easy to sew. 

To sum up, I would recommend this pattern and this pattern company, the sizing is true and the drafting good and I'm delighted with the result, which is the main thing. My caveats would be that the it's not for beginners and you might want to do a toile. I was grateful to have sewn the Closet Case Sophie Swimsuit previously because it made me familiar with the techniques. 

I'm planning to sew the Collective Bikini this summer and I was quite taken with the Heiress Bikini on the Tessuti blog as well. She has some cool activewear designs as well.

*I live in Perth, Western Australia. We call swimsuits bathers here, so do people from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. In New South Wales people often say cossie (swimming costume) and in Queensland I think they say togs, but I'm not 100 per cent sure.

 

The pool was bliss. I'm still dreaming about Singapore.