Your first line of sun protection should not be sunscreen. It should be protective clothing. In recent years, we have seen an explosion of expensive high UPF rated sunwear. If you have minimum sewing skills, you can easily make your own rash guard.

Rash guard UV protective shirts are simply regular t-shirts or activewear clothing sewn using nylon/spandex blend preferably with four-way stretch. Cycling jersey patterns are ideal for making rash guards. Jalie and Kwik Sew have an excellent collection of swimwear and sportswear patterns. Otherwise, you can deconstruct any old tight-fitted t-shirt and make your own pattern. Rash guard fit is very forgiving unless you are looking for a competitive triathlon precision fit. In fact, before you throw away any worn-out but well-fitted swimwear or clothing in general, deconstruct and make a pattern out of it. I am not a pattern-maker or professional seamstress. This is how I make most of my patterns and they fit better than any store bought patterns.

Fabric.com carries a decent selection of swimwear fabric. Currently, their solids are $8/yd and prints are on sale for $3.19/yd. Sale expires tomorrow so hurry! I just ordered the polka dot fabric to make matching swimwear for my daughter and me. Will post results when I’m finished, hopefully before the end of the summer!