Soma somewhere near Sona - Papercut Soma Swimsuit

One of my favorite shows to have EVER been on television is Prison Break! I, to this day, believe that the writing and acting were touched by a literal angel lol. I'm pretty good at predicting tv shows and movies. More than pretty good actually, spot on most times. The thing about Prison Break was that as soon as you start catching on to how the plots work and the spins in the writing, they put a spin on THAT spin. Pretty much, you can never see what's coming next. Check it out on Netflix. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Most people that read my blog know that my mom's side of the family is from Panama. I had the pleasure of going back to Panama again last week for vacation and had a BLAST. Back to why I was telling you about Prison Break. There is a point in the show where the lead actor gets sent to a prison in Panama. The name of that prison is SONA. That season of the show is so outlandish and intense that it made me proud that they used Panama as the place to shoot it lol. Even though Sona isn't REALLY a prison in Panama, every time I go to a beach in Panama I feel like it's right on the other side of the bushes.

So I said all that to say that I made a swimsuit to where to Panama for vacation LOL. The pattern I chose is the Soma Swimsuit by Papercut Patterns. I cut the Bikini Variation 1 in a size small.

I used 3 different fabrics for this swimsuit. The 2 main fabrics I got from Fabric Mart. Both look like they are sold out. The white swimsuit lining was a remnant from JoAnns I had in my stash. I had a black swimsuit lining remnant as well but not enough for this suit.  I used the patterned fabric for the front and the shiny black fabric for the back of the swimsuit pant. Only because I felt like having and all-black back.

I really like how the swimsuit looks. In regards to fit, I will be making changes for next time. for the back of the bikini panty I will cut a size medium instead of a small. It's a smidge too tight in the back. I would also cut a medium in the bikini top but keep the same length of FOE and bra strapping as the size small.  I need a LITTLE more coverage in the bust but because my chitties are heavy, I want to keep shorter straps to compensate for the weight. I hope that makes sense.

I got the bra strapping from an Etsy shop called BiasBespoke. I told them I needed it as soon as possible and I got it in the time I needed it. I was able to start and finish the swimsuit two nights before my flight lol

I wasn't really sure what kind/size to get so I made a guess and thank God it was just what I needed. I got 3 yds of 11mm Plush Back Bra Strap Elastic in Black.

This was a quick make. The instructions were very well written. The suit looks a bit wonky in flat photos but stretches out fine when I'm wearing it.

I decided to do this month's homework for Gillian's Better Pictures Project and show how much I edit. For the most part, I mess with exposure and the saturation of colors. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll adjust the contrast and maybe add a LITTLE bit of clarity.

I don't try to TRANSFORM the pics in any way. Just make the colors richer and more true.

 After reading Heather's guest post on Gillian's blog and asking a question or two, she showed me how to resize my pictures in Lightroom so that my export does not make the pics grainy or lose their quality! So hopefully you noticed that the pics on this post are bigger than normal lol They fit the width of my post finally :-D

I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm really excited to have actually made a swimsuit! I definitely need more practice with FOE but really, I need more practice with every technique I've tried only once lol. If you have any tips for FOE or swimsuit elastic or on the Soma pattern itself, let me know down in the comments!

Be back next week with my trip pics from Panama!