EYEKINI

Naturally, Levi and I wanted to make a most outrageous bikini. And so, we embarked upon the great eyekini mission. A one of a kind hand knit bikini with eyeballs on the top and a mouth “downstairs” as Levi would say.

 

Levi and I started making plans for the eyekini, our crazy face swimsuit. Levi began by drawing patterns of an eyeball and a toothy mouth, which I then knit in acrylic yarn. These original designs were created as prototypes. We used these patterns to see what looked good and what did not. With the information we gained from these pattern experiments Levi then re-drew both the mouth and the eye, which I knit with great success. The next step is to create the eyeball and mouth patterns out of spandex. This takes calculation. The original eyekini designs are knit in acrylic yarn whereas the eyekini will be made with spandex. I have to cut the strips of spandex to the same size as he yarn I used for the eyekini mock-up, otherwise the pattern will come out bigger or smaller then we want.  I am planning to make a gold eyekini with rhinestones for Lady Ga-Ga (Tacoma Dome August 21^st!) It’s the plan for fame. 

Draft one of the eyeball pattern:

 

Draft two of the eyeball pattern:

                                              
       Draft one of mouth pattern:

                          Draft two of mouth pattern:

                        all patterns by Levi Greenacres

            WORK'N ON THE EYEKINI>>>

Mr. Greenacres 












and










Em Popp  










I knit these test patches in regular yarn to get a feeling for how they will look when knit in spandex.The eye on the right was our first attempt. The eye on the left is the current model.

Here is mouth number two. It has a slight flaw you can see on the top right but all that will be fixed in time. Also I'm thinking we should consider adding a black outline to the lips so that it matches the eyes.  Keep in mind that this monster madness will be on a bikini. oh yes. 

I'm constructing the first official eyekini for my bodacious chum Andy. Because she lives in Portland and I can't just have her try on the 'eyekini in process' I had to create a pattern to work from.  I took Andy's measurements and then altered a swimsuit pattern to what I hoped was her size. I whipped up these fantastic stretch mock-up undies for her to try on for size. I then used a sharpie to draw in where the drawers are too big. Next I'll have to cut them down and see if they fit better on her. After that I will use the shape of the underwear as a template from which I can base the size and shape of the knit work.