Swimsuit Questions--Leg Opening Elastic

I've had a few emails lately concerning sewing swimsuits.  Since I was working on my next batch of suits here last week I thought I'd answer them here again for anyone else who might have the same ones--and then I can also throw in some pics for better clarification...hopefully.

__________________________________

1.  Do you sew the lining to the print before sewing the suit together? 

No, because I don't want to pull out the basting once I'm done.  Call me lazy, but if I can, I eliminate as many steps as possible or consolidate the steps.  I will pin through all 4 layers--suit fabric right sides together with the lining on the outside (this is wrong sides together with the suit fabric)--and sew that in one pass.  The layers would be lining, suit, suit, lining.

However, if you are uncomfortable with this, then by all means quickly baste.  I just tend to pin more, instead of basting, if I feel the pieces aren't staying where I want them.  I always tell people to pin as much or as little as you need to in order to feel comfortable.

2.  When you're doing the elastic around the leg openings, do you pull it at all or just leave it relaxed?

Both. 
Probably not what you were expecting me to say but I'll explain. 
And this is based on what I learned from Kwik Sew directions.  I've found their patterns and info to be the most helpful when making suits.

So first let's look at panty bottoms pattern pieces.
This is what the front piece will look like.

This is what the back piece looks like.

And then hopefully this visual will help you see how they would be sewn together (in this pic it includes the lining)

Sew the elastic piece in a circle before attaching it.  This is how Kwik Sew instructs you to do it--and their elastic measurements are based on the entire opening, not just for the front leg opening or the back leg opeining.

The front leg opening is the length/area starting from the side seam up and around the front, thru the legs to where the crotch portion of the front piece attaches to the back.  This entire length you DO NOT stretch the elastic. 

Just pin it to the leg opening so that the elastic and suit fabric are the same--flat and even. Try not to stretch either the elastic or the fabric.

This will leave you with a portion of the elastic that is smaller than the remaining back leg opening.  This is the part that covers up the fullness of the backside.  This is where you will STRETCH the elastic to fit that space.  It ends up being any where from 1-2" shorter than the fabric.

When attaching the elastic, ONLY stretch the elastic just enough to fit the suit fabric--if you stretch more than you need to, so that the fabric is stretching too, you may end up with a permanently stretched out suit.  You don't want this.  You want the fabric to fit nicely around the backside.

3.  Do you just turn over the edges on top of the elastic?

Yes. 

If you end up with something that looks like the pic below--you serged your elastic on and didn't catch all the lining--DON'T pick it out and start over.  This can be fixed.

Just tuck the lining up under the elastic as best you can.

And then fold it over to the inside of the panty bottom, and pin.  This will hold it where you want it so that you can make sure it gets caught up in the topstitching.

When you topstitch the leg openings just stretch the elastic enough so that the fabric is flat and there are no gathers.  Below I've already topstitched the front of the leg opening and I am getting ready to topstich the backside of the leg opening.  You can see how it is gathered up a bit onto the elastic.

Pull it only enough to make it flat and then topstitch.

This is the same for any of the elastic edges:  i.e. neckline, armholes--only stretch enough to get the suit fabric to be flat.

Once you topstitch the back of the leg opening it doesn't always look gathered (like the above pre-topstitch pic), but it will have a nice curve to it that will conform to where you want, which is covering up the backside.

___________________________________

I'll have a couple more swimsuit questions to answer later next week--all about straps and binding.