Sunflower Swim top SAL - day 3 - Patterns for Pirates

Hello, pirates! On day 3 we create the straps and sew the side seams. The Sunflower Swim top includes a full back and an open back option. The covered back straps are much shorter than the open back ones.

One of the most important tips I have for you for today is to not skip the elastic in the straps, regardless of which style swim top you chose. The straps are pretty much holding the rest of the suit in place. That, and the fact that swim fabric tends to “relax” in the water makes the straps elastic mandatory.

You can serge the elastic to the wrong side of the straps as Judy has in her videos or you can zig zag it on, as I did. Optionally, you can top stitch the straps along the center. Just make sure you use a stretch stitch or a chain stitch for that.

Last steps for today are sewing the side seams of the main and then of the lining. If you opted fro the open back style, your main and lining will be a flat piece. For the closed back style, once you sew the side seams you will have two “loops”.

In today’s video you can see how I create the open back straps and sew the side seams. Keep in mind that if you are doing the closed back option, the Sunflower pattern does include videos for that option as well. Once you finish today’s steps, post a picture of your progress in the comments of day 3 photo of this Sew Along album.