New swimsuits!

Yesterday I finished sewing the matching swimsuits that I've been wanting to make for my kids for over a year now. Then I rushed out the door with the youngest two so we could pick up the oldest two from elementary school and make it to the zoo in time for a couple good hours of swim and play time.

Our zoo has the neatest swim/water play area and I must admit that sometimes we stay there until closing time and never make it around to look at the animals (sorry giraffe, alligator, and sea otter friends). That's what happened yesterday.




I've never sewn matching outfits for all four of my kids  before (do swimsuits count as outfits?) and it was so nice for me because all the other moms knew exactly which kids were mine. Just standing there watching them, I met another sewing mom... Hi Melinda, email me so I can send you that pic of your kids!

Here's my little man making the suit look so good. When he first tried it on he got upset because the legs were too short. He even got out his baggy board shorts to show me how I messed up (yeah, I have a 5 year old boy critiquing my sewing abilities). But then when he saw his skinny taller brother wearing about the same size suit, he conceded that it was okay.

The boys' suit design and the girls' suit design both came from Ottobre 3/2009 issue, although I changed the girls design to have the ruffle on the top instead of their seahorse applique. I bought that adorable striped knit from Girl Charlee. It's a cotton/spandex blend so I'm not sure it's specifically made for swimwear, but I think it worked great here. The girls' suits have a little lining anyway.

I really like the modest fit of the girls suits. 

And okay, if you've read this far I'll tell you that I  photoshopped out all of the other kids so you might think we had the whole pool to ourselves. It was crazy there yesterday!

Happy Spring Break to you too!

p.s. don't miss the Fabricworm 2 yard giveaway running on SewCanShe.com right now!