Birthday Cottesloe
Pattern: Cottesloe Swimsuit by Megan Nielsen Patterns
Fabric: Swim lycra from Spoonflower, print design by Mind Over Pattern
Sewn up: July 2020
This is my birthday (swim) suit! I sewed this over Fourth of July weekend – cut the pieces on Friday night and sewed it up on Saturday. Turns out if all you do all day is sew, you can make a lot of progress!
I have always shared my birthday – with my twin sister Katherine, whose birthday is the same as mine, with my other sister Lizzie, whose birthday is the day before, and to some extent with our country, whose birthday is a few days before all of ours. So birthday week is always a rush of celebrations, and by the time mine rolls around I’m often a bit partied out.
Last year I was tempted to pendulum-swing my birthday vibe to the completely other side by spending the day alone with my thoughts and reflections. I shared this plan with my friend Erik, who said, “Please don’t do that. I have done that before and it’s a bad idea. You should spend your birthday with people you love, doing something that will make you happy.”
I took his advice, and last year had my version of a lowest-key dream birthday party – Code Names and cupcakes. I had a few friends over, we played Code Names, we ate cupcakes. And that was it! Erik was right – it was a wonderful way to celebrate.
I was excited to channel this lesson into this year, and came up with my dream party concept, quarantine edition: go over to my sister’s for badminton (quarantine has really increased my interest in racket sports!), swimming, fried chicken, and cake. I thought a new swimsuit would add an extra layer of festivity to this plan.
Sewing is a good way to be alone with your thoughts and reflections, so I still got to have that end-of-another-year lookback time as I worked on this. In the ~15 hours of sewing that it takes a slow sewist like me to make a swimsuit, I got to sit with the ups and downs of the past year – starting this blog, starting a new job, watching a pandemic unfold, meeting many new and wonderful people, searching for things still out of reach. I spent a few of those hours on the phone with my twin, and ended up sew-crying to/with her about some difficult things that have come up for me recently. On the other side of our call I felt much lighter, and also had finished the least fun (for me) part of swimwear sewing – inserting elastic around every edge. Throughout the project I made mistakes in my construction (cups too close together, elastic too tight) and found myself pausing way less long than I would have a year ago before undoing them and starting again. I think one of the best things about getting older is how much you learn each year, and I really believe that sewing – with its own ups and downs, and the space it creates for processing other parts of your life – can expedite and amplify that learning.
I wore this over to my sister’s the evening of my birthday. We took these photos, then played badminton, then swam, then ate fried chicken, then cake. My dream came true! And some bonus things also happened: Lizzie presented me a box that accidentally perfectly matched my swimsuit. My brother-in-law told me I was good at badminton (he has very high standards so this felt like a big deal!). They both sang happy birthday to me while my dog-nephew sang/barked along at first, and then, soothed like me by the sound of the singing, stopped and listened. Turns out that when only two people are there to sing you happy birthday, you really get to hear both of their voices.
My present matched my bathing suit! <3
While it might not seem like the year that one’s best birthday yet is possible, that is truly how it felt. I’m excited for the year to come – more things to sew, more lessons to learn, hopefully positive changes around us all. By this time next year, maybe my sisters and I will all have hugged again. Maybe I’ll know how to do a full-bust adjustment so I can get my next swimsuit to fit better. Maybe I’ll be celebrating alongside someone I have yet to meet. It is a mystery for now, but I’m grateful for what’s in the rear view, and eager to see what’s ahead.
~ Photos and birthday dream enablement by Lizzie - thanks sis! <3
Drawing process reel: floor photo, pencil sketch, digital drawing.
