Hi All,
I hope you’re having a wonderful start to the summer season! I always love to kick off summer with a new swimsuit for my birthday in June and this year I made a swim skirt to go with my swimsuit and I LOVE it! Super quick, super simple and perfect for a bit more coverage -especially if you’re trying out some of the more cheeky bottom styles that are popular now. As soon as I tried it on I knew I had to make a PDF and tutorial for you all, so you can make one too! This seriously is a 10 minute project so even if you’re on your way to the beach today, you can have a swim skirt to go, and you don’t need a sewing machine- just fabric and scissors!
This pattern is what I like to call a ‘negative’ pattern, and it shows what you need to cut away from your fabric to leave a swim skirt behind- which means a much smaller pattern piece and way less printing!
I recommend using swimwear fabric for this (which is perfect for a matching set!). If you find that your swim fabric rolls at the raw edge you can finish the edges with a simple serge. If you want to use a non-stretch fabric then you will have to add allowances for hemming the edges, and consider making it bigger around to accommodate for the lack of stretch.
After you’ve printed out your pattern and taped it together, lay it along the selvedge edge of your fabric with your fabric folded right side out selvedges together.
If your fabric cut is more or less than 50cm, then you’ll need to cut along the lengthen/shorten line and adjust it to the height of your cut. My fabric was about 1″ longer than the pattern piece so I cut along the line and separated the pieces by 1″ evenly. The fabric to the right of the pattern piece will be your swim skirt.
For my skirt fit I like to have a little bit of exposed leg, so I took my hip measurement, divided in half then measured from the mid point of the skirt (which is at the lengthen shorten line) outwards, then adjusted the fold of the fabric to be at this point.
You can make your skirt as wide as you like with the maximum width being the width of your fabric. The fit is very forgiving because it’s stretch and can be tied higher or lower on the body. * If you do need to make a skirt wider than the width of your fabric, then you can add a seam and piece more fabric in, or you can cut along the length of the fabric (if you do this you will need to order a cut of fabric that is the width you want at the hip plus 12″/30cm).
Once you have your width chosen and your pattern piece in place you cut along the pattern piece. If you’ve lengthened or shortened the piece make the transition smooth between the two pieces. What you’re left with is a swim skirt, the top forms the ties and there’s a nice curve at the bottom hem.
I feel like I’m going to make one of these for every swimsuit I own from now on! Besides the bonus of extra coverage, a matching swim skirt also gives a really polished feel to any swimwear set. This skirt was made with our Tropical Diamonds swim print.
Do you have swim skirt making plans? Or any other swimwear sewing plans? I’d love to hear them!
xo
Erin
Hey, I’m unable to download your sarong pattern I’m getting a 404 error
Hey! I’m not sure why that’s happening, but if you send me an email to: emeralderinsews@gmail.com I can email you a copy of the pattern 🙂
Great idea you came up with.
I have collecte many swimsuits over the years. The intent was to have at least two swimsuits – in a pattern – to be able to cut up and repurposed them for tankini tops and swm skirt bottoms. Possibly a mid height bikini bottom and a swim skirt.
I need to go with multiple gores on the swim skirt to have enough fabric if I am working with two one piece. Two tankini can make a top and a swim skirt.
All the suits coordinate with each other. I can use 3 or 4 fabrics for the gores…. thoughts?
Hi, I was wondering is it possible to make it so that there isn’t the exposed leg, so that the two sides overlap over the opening, if that makes sense? Thank you
Hi Rachel, Not with this design because it’s a simple tie on the side, you’d have to have another way to tie it if they overlapped.
Fantastic, thank you! I just got the last necessary swimsuit materials from you and now I’m going to add this skirt to my first bathing suit pattern. I love swim skirts and this one is so chic.