I started developing parts of this look going into winter break of 22/23.
I spent time during break testing out natural dyes. I originally wanted the yarn to be pink. I used beats which ended up being a stain rather than a dye
In the Spring semester, I began with researching upcoming swim trends.
I decided to instead go with tea dying since it was more accessible and more permanent. For the final project, the yarn was dyed in skeins instead of piece dyed.
thumbnails
Since I wanted the coverup to be more bodycon, I decided to knit it. You will also notice most thumbnails include a drawstring.
technical flats of chosen pieces
The swimsuit I ended up making and the model I chose ended up being a wonderful choice to cause me countless fitting issues. The design included a slit down the whole front of the swimsuit, and the model I chose had a fairly large bust, so this gave me the chance to learn how working with a bigger bust differs from working with an average bust.
Through a combination of elastic and changing the shape of the top, I was able to keep her bust inside the suit, and for her to feel supported without cups. The top piece is one continuous pattern piece, which I think helped a lot with this.
From the beginning, the bottom half of the suit fit fairly well requiring few adjustments so she had enough room to breathe.
The coverup isn’t shown because it was just a knitted tube with dropped stitches.
Juliet Maire Forehand 