For my entire adolescence and adult years I have been very self conscious of my body.  I can look at a picture and pick apart the ways that I don’t look good.  I bypass the fact that I love my smile or the way a shirt looks on me, I am simply blinded by the flaws.  Since starting this blog and specifically my pattern business I am looking at pictures of myself all the time.  Sometimes I look at them and think DAMN I look hot, but other times I see the hint of a muffin top through my shirt or how wide my hips look and I get down on myself.

I see and feel these things knowing full well that this body has done amazing things in my lifetime and I shouldn’t be ashamed of what I look like.  Not only has this body grown and birthed two babies but this body has run a 15k and climbed literal mountains.  Those two kids that I spend my days with look at me and model everything I do whether I like it or not, hello swear words out of my 3 year old 🙂  I don’t ever want either of my kids to have body issues so I work really hard to keep those negative thoughts about my body to myself, and well lets be honest sometimes my husband.

I decided this spring that I didn’t care what people thought, that I was going to wear shorts and not worry about what my thighs looked like and more importantly I was going to rock a bikini like a freakin super model.  I am tired of tearing myself down and really just want to spend time with my kids, they will never look back and think that I looked bad in my swimsuit but they will look back at a happy mom swimming with them.

This is exactly the look I was going for when I pictured myself in a bikini, high waisted bottoms with a bandeau top.

The perfect pattern happened to be the High Waist Panties by Ohh Lulu.  Right in the pattern descriptions she links to a blog post where she walks you through how to make them into swim bottoms, done and done!

The best part about this pattern is that it takes very little fabric so you can use scraps like I did to make both pieces.  I also realized while taking pictures that I could pull down the bottoms to just below my belly button which gives them a different look not only in the height but also giving gathering at the sides which I found to be flattering to my body.  Win win if you ask me.

I decided to keep things super simple for the bandeau top and just model the construction of it like an infinity scarf.  I used my bust measurement for the pieces and just make sure to take 3″ off the length to account for the negative ease you need to keep the top up, and the gathering at the front is courtesy of a small piece of elastic.  Easy Peasy!

I joked with my friends today that it was going to take everything I had to hit publish on this post, not because I think I look bad but because it meant putting pictures of myself in a bikini for the world to see.  But you know what, I feel great about myself in this swimsuit so why not show it off!

So there you have it world, I rocked my high waisted bikini and so can you!