D I Y- VINTAGE HIGHWAIST

So Ive been wanting to show you guys these little vintage high waist bathers that I made for a while now. Basically I bought a vintage full piece suit and refashioned them into a high waist bikini bottom. I have others in the pipeline that aren't quite done yet because I want to refashion bikini tops to go with them! Ill show you those when I get there... haha. Anyway, Ive done a little tutorial for those that are interested in making some for themselves. Im a self taught sewer, so I basically guess how to do things. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't... but thats the way I like it. Luckily for me, these worked out just fine : ).

This is the full swim suit before I hacked into it :)

Step One:

Before cutting the suit in half horizontally try them on and mark the best spot. Since they will be 'stretched' when you put them on always mark at least 2cm above where you think you should cut.

Step Two:

Try the bottoms on. You will notice that they are very floppy around your waist! You will need to pin darts(shown below) on each side of your hip to make sure they fit nice and snug around your waist. Dont do them too tight or too loose. One youve been the darts, stitch them on a sewing machine.

Step Three:

Pin thick or thin black elastic all the way around the top edge of the bottom piece. I always use lots of pins when I use elastic. I find it much easier to sew!

Step 4

Sew the elastic with your sewing machine. I usually use a zigzag stitch on thin elastic like this. If you use thick elastic (which I would recommend for these because it will help flatten your tummy and therefore you avoid bits hanging over the top) you should just do a straight stitch on both the top and bottom edge of the elastic.

et viola :)