Lace-up back longline bikini using lingerie patterns by Ohhhlulu

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share one of my recent swimsuit ensembles. I used two patterns that are originally lingerie patterns: the Cindy longline and burlesque panties, both by Ohhhlulu. I will also be going over the modifications I made. Prior to making this, I watched the blog post/video tutorial by Ohhhlulu that go over how to make the Cindy longline into a swim top: https://www.ohhhlululingerie.com/2017/06/23/patter-hack-strappy-cindy-bikini-top-with-underwire/ I also watched the video by Lizsews that had general instructions about how to convert any lingerie pattern into a swimsuit pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EWe6MOx6Zk&t=231s

Here are the materials that I used:

• neon yellow lycra & black lycra

• black powernet

• beige powernet

• black cut sew foam

• black 1/2" heart sliders

• size 36 long underwires

• black bra channelling

• 1/4" plastic boning in casing

• 1/4" rubber swimsuit elastic

Here are the modifications I made to the top: foam cups, lace up back, and cross back straps. The pattern does not come with pattern pieces for foam cups, so I had to make them myself. I prefer to add foam padding whenever possible, for extra coverage & support. I noticed the trend within the lingerie sewing community to not add foam to bras, so sometimes I need to draft foam cups myself. It's generally easy, but I have made mistakes with removing too much or too little seam allowance before.

I decided to do a lace-up detail at the back instead of the 3-strap back described in Ohhhlulu's video. This was my first time attempting this; I was honestly a little intimidated at first because it looks complicated, but it was actually pretty simple! I just like everything broken down step-by-step.. I searched & searched for a tutorial on this, but only found short descriptions on how to do this. I figured it out with basic instructions from other sewers (basically cut some loops of fabric & sew it to the back, & sew channeling on top of it). To make the strap for the lace-up, I found that I needed 2x the entire width of the fabric. I cut two strips of fabric 1.5"x60". Then, I serged each strip together lengthwise individually to create 2 straps. I tied them together into a bow, then laced each end through the top of the swim top, and tied another bow at the bottom of the top.

As for the burlesque swim bottoms, I did the version with the cut-out at the back. I modified the cut-out to have a bow tied at the back. I cut the top part of the cut-out, then folded the sides under to form channels to thread through a piece of 1.5" wide elastic to form a bow. I then tied knots at each end. I liked how it turned out, but feel like the cut-out is too big/low for swimwear. I would definitely make the cut-out detail smaller in the future.. I would also experiment and see if there is another method to do the bow tied at the back.

As for fit, it's really comfortable! Although I felt like the bra cups were slightly too long..

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you have any questions about how I made these modifications!