Synchronized Swimming Trio Suits

Many of you are aware of my background in synchronized swimming.  For those of you aren't aware, I joined the sport in the fall of 2005, my freshman year of college.  I met my best friend Jessie through the sport as well as all of my post-college friendships through that team.  I could have swam competitively (not synchro) in college somewhere else, but I wouldn't have been happy.  After my senior year in HS I was burnt out on swimming.  Synchro made me love the water again.  I will always hold a special place in my heart for that sport (regardless of how poorly I did in it).

With that mushy stuff out of the way, St. Patty's Day weekend was one FULL of synchro activities.  Jessie still coaches the college team and needed help on some trio suits for nationals which was the following weekend on March 20-23 (yaaay last minute bedazzling!). THEN on St. Patty's Day was the Age Group's Spring Fling meet at the pool by my house and I volunteered to judge (I used to coach, but it was too much for me and had to step down - I miss them, but it was the right choice for everyone).

So here goes a post about how Jessie and I "made" these suits.  Please know that this was our second time making synchro suits, we are not experts, so any and all suggestions on how to make this process easier is much appreciated!!

First, the girls had to find the base suit on which we would apply rhinestones/glitter/etc.  They found some epic suits on SwimOutlet.com.  They are Metallic V-2 Backs, color Purple.  (After seeing these in person, I bought one for myself.  Not to bedazzle, but just to make myself feel pretty at the pool).  Once they came in the mail, Jessie bought/gathered the following...

• Rhinestones with glue on the back
• Jones Tones fabric glue
• Glitter (that matched the colored rhinestones - this is key!!)
• Cardboard
• Paper and pencil
• Chalk
• Paper towels
• Some sort of rhinestone appliqueing gun/utensil (we used wood burning utensils... NO JUDGING, IT WORKED... and we couldn't afford new equipment...)
• Yarn
• Tweezers
• Tape measure/yard stick (both work best)
• Safety Pins
• Wine and Girl Scout cookies (this is a must).

First, sketch out your ideas.  Several ideas are a good plan so just in case your first idea didn't pan out, you can try something simple.  

The pattern we went with was the top one.  The bottom three didn't pan out as well for us. We opted to not do the back bedazzling either.  I joked it looked like fancy fart lines and that just ruined it for us, haha.

The first big stripe didn't look good/was requiring more glitter and glue than we had so we opted to go with squiggles of glitter and straight lines of rhinestones.

With the cardboard, you want to stretch the suit over it so it's taunt, but not over stretched (don't want to ruin the suit, but you also don't want the glue/rhinestones to crack when the girls put them on.  Synchro suits are traditionally tight... keep that in mind).

Some suits require some weight so it doesn't pop up in the process.  We used candles because that's what I had available.  Weights would work too.

Once you have the suit stretched, grab your yarn and place it on the suit about how you want the rhinestones to look.  Use the yarn first because it doesn't mark the suit at all and can easily be moved, adjusted.  We cut the yarn at different lengths on purpose to make it look better.

We played with the width between the yarn multiple times.  This was the final decision.

We had three different sizes of suits, so when you're making designs please keep this in mind.  If you have various sizes, the designs on the front of each suit are going to have to be slightly bigger or smaller so they don't look weird when they're standing next to each other.  We measured the distances of each piece of yarn, the distances between each piece, as well as the distance from the edges of the suits (example: 2" above the Dolphin logo).  Once we were satisfied with the placement of the yarn, we used chalk to mark out the line on which we'd place the rhinestones.

To remove the chalk we used a wet paper towel.  But we didn't remove it until the rhinestones were all securely on the suit.  Yes, we know it wasn't entirely straight here.  It's OK.

Once the chalk is on the suit, take your tweezers and place the rhinestones, all various sizes and colors, it all depends on your mood. We used three different sizes and three different colors.  All the suits have the big clear rhinestones, the medium clear, and the small clearish/beige ones.  However, depending on the color glitter the girls would be getting for their squiggles, the extra rhinestone embellishments would match their glitter.  So this suit was the purple/pink glitter, so the rhinestones were pink. Once the stones are all on the chalk lines (not secured on yet! JUST PLACED ON LOOSE. So don't kick it or your stones will FLLLLY) use the yard stick to make sure they are all as straight as you want them.  Since we didn't want them zigzagging, we used the yard stick to make them as straight as possible.

Easier said than done. Jessie did a good job though.

Straightening out some more.

Once they're straight or in the pattern you want, this is when we got out our wood burners.  I fully recognize that people usually use a rhinestone gun or some sort of craft gun, but this is our first experience with rhinestones.  In college, we hand sewed on our suits strings of sequins (WHAT ENTHRALLING PARTIES US SYCHRO LADIES HAD OOOOOHHHH YEAH) so don't judge too harshly.  Jessie researched online the appropriate temperature but we held the tip on the top of the stone until we felt it slide a little (not too hard or the tip might slip and burn the suit - you really don't want that!).  The sliding sensation is the glue on the rhinestone melting.  

Firmly, but carefully placing the tip of the burner on the top of the stone. 

This is the LONGEST step of the process.  It took us forever to rhinestone one suit.  So if you're lucky enough to have multiple people working on these suits, have them use the pre-cut yarn, the pictures, and the tape measure to set-up the next suit (placing the rhinestones and ensuring it matches the suit currently being rhienstoned.

Here's what a suit looked like with the rhinestones all attached.

This is the second suit which was blue, not purple.

When the rhinestones have cooled (they can burn you too just after being applied, so be careful!) grab your fabric glue and add a row of swirls.  After each row of glue has been added, pour glitter on it. When I say pour, I mean dump, cover, saturate, smother, drown, etc.  After being involved in this sport at several levels, I can honestly say there is no such thing as too much glitter.

Make sure your swirls match.  Some of mine were clumpy, had a twirl, etc.  Use the wet paper towel to wipe away anything that doesn't match and try again.  It matters. Don't half ass it.

Our glitter/glue combination took about 8 hours to dry.  So here's all three suits while they were in their glitter drying stage!

So pretty!

But... it wasn't enough.  We had rhinestones left over and we wanted to tie in all three colors on each suit.  So we took the small colored rhinestones and put all three along the color of each suit.

Ahhh... much better.

Once it's been 8 hours (or more, depends on the glue's recommendations), shake off the excess glitter.  We put it on newspaper and poured it back into it's proper container so we can reuse the glitter (this stuff isn't cheap).  Do any touch-ups with glue/glitter as needed to ensure they match as much as possible.

Now... for the fun part.  WINE AND GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Om nom nom nom nom!

Time to drink that much earned wine!

If you've made suits or something similar and have better suggestions, please let me know!  We're learning and are always looking to make this easier on us. =)

And here's what they look like all done and on the girls at Collegiate Nationals! Aren't they just an ADORABLE trio?

The beautiful trio at 2013 Collegiate Nationals held at Stanford University, CA. Great job ladies!!