2022 Suit Up for Summer with Raspberry Creek Fabrics

It is one of my favorite weeks of the year! The Suit up for Summer Blog Tour!!

I don’t know if I was more excited for this week, or my kids 🙂 They love Raspberry Creek Fabric so much! And I love getting pictures of them in their coordinating suits!

I do want to add a quick note… we have been lucky enough to be apart of the “Suit up for Summer” Blog tour for 3 years now, but this is the first time we have been able to take pictures in our own backyard!! We moved over a year ago and one of our big projects for the new house was to redo the backyard. We finally finished the big project and this will be the first summer that we actually get to enjoy it! It made this little photo shoot that much more exciting 🙂

Anyway, enough about me… let’s talk about these suits!!

If you have followed me before, you would probably notice that I sew a lot for my girls, and not a lot for my son. My son is a basketball and t-shirt kind of guy, and he is totally fine with me not sewing his clothes. However, when it comes to swim shorts, he begs for me to make them. So, since this is really the only time I sew for him, I always let me pick his fabrics first. He actually had a really hard time narrowing it down to one fabric because he loved so many of them! Nonetheless, he finally choose the “Tossed Flamingo” print from the “On the Lawn” Collection.

The flamingo fabric is honestly so cool! My girls loved it too, but like I said, I let him pick first 🙂

For his suit I went to my tried and true pattern, the Kayak Boardshorts from Love Notions. This is the only boardshort pattern I have tried, and although I am always tempted to try a different pattern, I just haven’t yet. My son has loved all of his Kayak Boardshorts so much, so I figure there is no need to ruin a good thing.

Landon is 11 years old, and he is right in between a size 10 and a size 12. I decided to size up to the 12, since I am sure he will continue to grow. I made the most basic version of Kayak shorts. I eliminated the pockets and did not do any color blocking. The only change I made to the pattern was instead of using a knit waistband, I just made a waistband out of the boardshort fabric and inserted 1.5″ elastic. I then stitched around the waistband 4 times to give the waistband a flatter, more polished look.

It was definitely a win!

Once I had the flamingo fabric picked out for Landon, I let me 13 year old daughter, Braelyn, pick out fabrics that would coordinate. She instantly knew she wanted a “cool, 90’s look.” I am not sure she even knows what we wore in the 90’s, but I loved the fabric combo she picked, so I guess that is all that matters! She chose the Navy and White Checker Print for the bottoms and the Navy Blossom Peacock Mint and White Paint Swirl for the top.

Braelyn is a competitive swimmer, which means she spends a lot of time in the pool and she has plenty of swimsuits; however, I she does not have very many fun suits to lounge around in. So we decided to go all out 🙂

For the bottoms I used the Hello Sailor pattern by Patterns for Pirates. Braelyn measures a XSmall in the women’s pattern. I made the solid version. I did take 1″ off of the length so that it would hit at the waist.

For the top I used the X Factor Crop top by Patterns for Pirates. I have never sewn this pattern before, but it is just so fun that I wanted to give it a shot. The X Factor top is not designed as a swimwear top, so I did decide to make a few changes. One of the changes was that I sized down. I had the youth pattern and Braelyn measured a size 14, so I sized down to a size 12 to give it a tighter fit.

I also inserted a shelf bra with cup inserts. I have never actually sewn a shelf bra or the put cup inserts in a suit before. I kind of just winged it and I ended make the shelf bra just about 1″ too short. I think next time I will try using one of her sports bra as a reference, or just know that I need to make it longer 🙂 Either way, I will make some adjustments with the next one, but I am happy to that this one fits so well and it is very comfortable.

Once Braelyn and Landon had picked their fabrics, I just went ahead and chose a couple more fabrics hat coordinated.

My daughter, Peyton, loves the color blue, so of course she quickly claimed the Dark Blue Sage and Blossom Dot Floral Print fabric. Peyton asked specifically for a one piece, so I thought it may be the perfect time to try the Maui suit pattern by Little Lizard King.

I made a size 10 for Peyton based on her measurements. She did say it felt a little tight in a few areas, but she literally wore it all day after we took pictures, so I think it is safe to say it is comfortable. I do think she may have some personal adjustments that we could make in the future, just to better fit her body. But like I said, she wore it all day and she loves it!

My favorite part of the Maui swimsuit is the back. I love an swimsuit with an open back and the bow detail makes me love the back of the suit even more! I used the Pink and White Check fabric for the little bow detail.

Last, but of course not least, is my 7 year old, Everly. She is pretty easy going when it comes to what she wears. She does not love to show her belly, but I do love the ease of a 2-piece suite, especially when it comes to a 7 year-old that needs a lot of bathroom breaks 🙂

I used the Light Pink and White Checker fabric for her suit and I used some white swim fabric from my stash for the accent straps. I chose to use the Mairin Suit from Sew a Little Seam. I have sewn this suit a few times, but I have never sewn the narrow cross-back option. I must say I tend to get nervous sewing those narrow bindings, especially when it come to sewing with swim fabric, but I took my time and sewed on a pretty low speed. That extra time spent on the bindings paid off, as I am really happy with how they turned out!

Out of all of my kids, I can tell you that the 2 youngest have the most fun coordinating with each other. I absolutely love Raspberry Creak’s fabric collections. I love being able to coordinate their suits without being too matchy-matchy, even though my youngest two kids would be totally fine matching each other all of the time 🙂