I recently made these absolutely adorable strappy bikini bottoms with 3 straps on each side!

To make the pattern for these, I just used a regular bikini bottoms pattern that I already had and that I knew fit me and altered it to get this style. It was actually a pretty simple and straight-forward pattern hack. So I thought I would make a tutorial to show you how to do this pattern hack too!

I’ll make another tutorial later on about how to sew up this style of bikini bottoms, but for today’s tutorial we’re just talking about making the pattern.

So you can watch the video tutorial below or scroll on past the video for written instructions. 🙂

What you need

  • regular bikini bottoms pattern that fits
  • pen or pencil
  • straight edge ruler
  • scissors or rotary cutter

Video Tutorial

 

Written Instructions

So, like I said, I started out with a regular bikini bottoms pattern that I know fits me. This is actually a high waisted, high leg pattern that I drafted a while back.

So once you’ve chosen the pattern you’re going to hack, you need to decide how much to take off the side seams of each piece. I wanted mine to be cut in further on the front than the back, so decided to take off 4 inches on the front and 2 inches on the back.

So let’s start with the back: I measured in 2 inches from the side seam and made a mark.

Then, I drew a straight line down from that mark to the leg curve – and I angled my line slightly towards the side seam edge. I just thought a slight angle would look nice.

Now I have my line drawn in, and here’s what it looks like:

Next, I just cut right along that line, removing the bit of pattern paper from the side seam edge. And that’s the back, done!

Now let’s move on to the front. I just did the same exact thing! I started by marking in 4 inches from the side seam.

Then I drew in my straight line from that point to the leg curve, angling my line outwards.

Then I cut along that line and discarded the extra bit of pattern paper.

And that’s it! All there is to it. Now when you cut it out, you’ll want to cut one main fabric and one lining front and back piece. You’ll also need to cut 6 straps that are the length of the amount of pattern paper you removed. So I cut 4 inches off the front and 2 inches off the back, which gives me a total of 6 inches removed. So I cut my straps 6 inches long.

And once again, here’s how it turned out! I’m so happy with it 🙂

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will give this pattern hack a try! If you are new to sewing swimwear, you might want to grab my Sewing Swimwear Quickstart Guide. It’s a PDF guide to get you started right with sewing swimwear! You can get it by clicking through the button below.