A decision has been made

The polls are now closed and we have a winner (due to a tie breaking verbal decision from my housemate). Thank you to everyone who voted. Without further adue, behold: the Steampunk Wonder Woman Tankini design to be created!

The winning design, woohoo!

The fabric will consist of 4 way stretch metallic spandex that I already own, cream colored lace also from my stash, 2 way stretch navy spandex specifically for swimsuits from Spandex World, 2 way stretch burgundy spandex specifically for swimsuits from Spandex World, and Powermesh in nude for the lining, also from Spandex World. Can you tell that Spandex World is the best resource for swimsuit fabric on the internet, despite having an extremely girly and not well organized website? Spandex House is also (supposedly) a good resource, but I found it impossible to see all of the swimwear fabric in one place, thus making it not very useful to me, all payments have to be called in, they won't disclose the shipping cost because they don't know it until they weigh the stuff, and they were out of red spandex; though, Spandex House does have good deals on swimwear elastic and they carry it in a wide variety of colors, which is moot to me because it's hidden. 

To acquire the hardware and notions, I'm using my delightful Amazon Prime account, which sees a fair bit of action. Going to the fabric store is not on my agenda for this week because I'm a busy lady and have a very full schedule. 

For the buckles, I decided to go for metal even though it's going to be heavy, I'll just have to give proper support on either side of the buckle so it doesn't sag down. 

To up the awesome factor I got grommets (with a die, punch, and anvil) to make the holes the buckles go through strong enough to take it, despite being only spandex. Mmmm, I love grommets, they are so interesting looking. Might even put some in along the edge of the cups and have the cream lace visible underneath or in the pleating of the skirt for some extra interest, but we'll see how that goes. 

Thread is all 100% polyester, which is very important so that it doesn't get digested by salt and chlorine. Synthetic has its place and that's usually when when chemicals are involved. 

Needles are very important when making swimwear (or so I've read on many forums and blogs while doing research) so I've bought a stretch machine needle and a twin ballpoint needle, so I can make the cool double stitch along the edges. 

For the elastic, I went with 3/8-inch natural braid cotton swimwear elastic by Stretchrite and I got a lot of it because I plan to make a few swimsuits. Fingers crossed on one of them coming out well.

Still not sure what to use to highlight the gather points of the navy fabric at the hips, but that will come into play near the end, so I will hold off to see how it looks.

Now, to wait for the many packages to arrive at my door on a stream of large horseless carriage. *Stares intently at pocketwatch and taps foot.*