It's a jungle out there - in the water

Jungle January in Australia finds us merging into our native environments of the beach, the freshwater lake and the local suburban pool… or with 5 days over 40C (110F), into anywhere with functioning air-conditioning…

Knowing that all of the above environments were likely in January, I needed some camouflage, stat. Something rated to SPF50+, in marine colourations, able to merge with the background water wherever it may be found and also to survive the hike in and lifeguard duty while there.

Enter Cake's Cabarita in spongy wetsuit material. It's in the snow peacock 'pant-tone' colourway, but do I spy some little kittys peeking out from that big cat print?

Traditionally a 'rash vest' is an essential part of ones wetsuit attire, designed to be form fitting and with seams on the outside to protect from the abrasions of the accompanying wetsuit. More recently it has replaced the Tshirt as appropriate over bathers attire for playing in & out of the water, especially for kids.

I snaffled this remnant of jungle print spongy knit at Rathdowne Remnants with the hope of making a T & swimming shorts combo - lets just stick with the top in this air-conditioned photo shoot today ;)

The Cabarita top is a Cake RiFF, simply a front, two back pieces and neck finish, cut out according to your body measurements and stitched together. I reinforced my shoulder seams with tape and hemmed the sleeves with a folded over hem & twin stitching. The wide neck band I chose reflects both the traditional high neck of a rash vest, and the collar of the Cabarita.

Perhaps swapping from dark green thread for my topstitching would have been the sensible idea, but there was water to be immersed in!

Happy Jungle January everyone!