MIAMI MOTHER'S DAY TANKINI

My mum was coming to visit Miami. Mother's Day was coming up. I had swim fabric and a serger. The decision basically made itself.

THE STARTING POINT

I already had a tankini top I liked the fit of, so rather than buying a pattern I just used it as the basis for drafting my own. Laid it flat, traced the shapes, made a few adjustments, and that was the pattern sorted. The shorts came from a pair my mum already owned — same process, traced and adjusted to get the fit right before cutting into the actual fabric.

THE FABRIC

The top is a purple floral swim fabric — the kind of print that's cheerful without being loud, which felt right for a Mother's Day gift. The band at the waistline and the shorts are in a coordinating lime green swim fabric, which sounds like it shouldn't work as well as it does. The green picks up one of the colors in the floral without matching it exactly, which is usually the better call with prints.

MAKING IT

Everything went together on the serger, which is how swimwear should be made — the stretch stitch handles the fabric properly without breaking when it moves. It took a couple of days from cutting to finished, which for a two-piece set drafted from scratch is pretty satisfying.

THE SANDALS

I'd done a sandal making class and thought this was the perfect excuse to use what I'd learned. Green and lilac leather straps to pull the colors from the floral, hand-stitched soles, the whole thing built by hand. Making a complete outfit — swimwear and shoes — entirely from scratch, and it turned out to be one of my favorite projects.

SHE LIKED IT

Which is really all that matters when you've made something for someone specific.