A Late Victorian or an Edwardian bathing suit for my daughter

I made myself a historical bathing suit last year and this year I wanted to make my daughter one so that we could wear them together. I didn’t have a pattern but I could take some measurements and shapes from my daughter’s existing trousers and her Edwardian bodice.

Materials and drafting as you go as a method of sewing

Historical swimsuits during this period were mostly made out of wool. However, finding such wool nowadays is pretty impossible so once more I turned to cotton. This quilting cotton with bright turquoise stripes suited the purpose well and I found ready bias tape that matched well enough.

I will not spend much time describing the sewing process as I’ve already made a video of it last year. You can find it here.

I made the bodice originally too long and left big seam allowances to have room for fitting. I had only 2 metres of fabric and that should have been plenty as I made my own bathing suit out of a similar amount of fabric. However, my fabric was solid blue and I could cut the pieces in both horizontal and vertical directions whereas here I had to align the stripes. In fact, I had to piece together the waistband of the romper underneath the skirt.

I found just perfect turquoise buttons in my stash. However, when I had to make the buttonholes I couldn’t find my buttonhole foot. Thus, some accidental historical accuracy happened when I was forced to make the buttonholes by hand!

The skirt is a simple rectangular gathered skirt. Those seemed to be as popular during the late Victorian and early Edwardian period as they are today – at least what comes to the children’s clothes.

We were supposed to try swimming together during a historical sports event at the end of July. However, other activities kept us so busy that we skipped swimming. Well, we still might get a chance to try our historical bathing suits as the waters are still warm!

I have been sewing and crafting a lot during the summer. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much chance of updating this blog or edit videos. So, there will be a lot of summery content coming in the autumn!

Thank you for reading and see you soon! You can subscribe to this blog by typing your email down below! Happy sewing!

Katja