A seersucker swimsuit

Looking through rolls of swimwear fabric the other day I found some fantastic neon-striped seersucker that took me back to circa 1983, when I'm pretty sure I had a bikini made of something virtually identical. But I'm not a fan of bikinis on little girls, so a Cosi Swimsuit it had to be! I've used this pattern before (here and here) so it's a tried-and-true one for me. I made R the size 8 length and altered the width to size 5.

This morning R was desperate to go to the beach. The boys weren't even out of bed yet, but I did a deal: I take her to the beach; she models her new bathers. Since the photos only took me about a minute, I think she got the better end of the deal, but I did enjoy getting into the cool water even if the beach was a bit too windy (hence the quick photoshoot, and my failure to notice that the bathers look all scrunched up at the bottom - they are actually a pretty perfect fit, provided one pulls them up properly...)

The awesome fabric is from Joelle's Fabric Warehouse in Dingley, which is my go-to place for swimwear material. This seersucker was only $7 a meter, making these bathers pleasingly inexpensive to sew. Due to ear problems R hasn't yet learned to swim, but her specialist has given her the all-clear, so this will probably be a year of intensive swimming lessons. These Cosis are going to get a lot of wear! They're probably not ideal for extreme UV days at the beach, though, which is why I'm now moving on to a more sunsmart swimsuit... coming up shortly!