FO: Purple & Gold Undies

Posted in Lingerie, Sewing by Sanne

Just a quick post to let you all know that I’m still around and still sewing. I’ve been a bit busy with school and job-related things, but because this Saturday is the last day of my lingerie sewing course I wanted to make something to show the teacher that I have actually learned something in the past year ;) And I definitely have! A year ago I would not have known where to begin with sewing a bra, and although I still have the occasional mishap (this one does not fit perfectly either) I’ve come a long way.

Anyway, on to the pieces! I’ve drafted both the panties and the bra, and they’re made with purple/gold mesh and gold lycra from Kantje Boord in Amsterdam. I got 0,5m of both fabrics, so these are not the last pieces you’ll see in this. I’ve already cut out one more bra and one more pair of panties, and have about 1/3 left. The undies fit very well, but I did have some trouble sewing with these two fabrics together because of the very different amounts of stretch/flimsiness. The mesh has about 30% stretch, but it’s very firm, while the lycra has about 50% stretch and is very flexible. The end results are fine, but next time I will make it a bit easier on myself by using fabrics that are a bit closer together.

There’s not that much to say about the bra. It has a vertical seam along the cup and the two halves are divided in purple and gold. The back has a purple triangle sewn into it – which was a pain in the ass to get right, but looks pretty cool!

8Apr2013

FO: Scandalous bodice

Posted in Lingerie, Sewing by Sanne

Close up of the garter clips. I like the touch of red.

It took me another 4 hours on Saturday to finish this one, and it’s far from perfect, but I’m so glad it’s done! I made this “torselet” (I can’t find a good English word for it… any suggestions?) as part of my lingerie sewing course. It’s made exactly to my measurements and fits quite nicely, but I’m not sure if I’ll really wear it a lot.

The sewing gave me quite a bit of grief at points. For example, there’s only boning in some of the boning channels, because even though I thought I stitched perfectly accurately along the sides, the boning would JUST NOT FIT.

Anyway, I’m happy that I have finally sewn something again. And now I have an ironing board in my new house, working on all those other things will be a lot easier!

The underwires sit beautifully. I will probably finish the thing off with a nice red bow to echo the garter clips.

The back isn’t super interesting, but oh well. The solid black part is the only part of the whole bodice that stretches. It’s kind of a pain to get it closed up, but it looks quite good.

13Feb2013

FO: Lacey Thong

Posted in Lingerie, Sewing by Sanne

I’m staying in Amsterdam this week to make dinner etc. for my little sister, and that made a trip to Kantje Boord a little quicker than it would be from Utrecht. Unfortunately that also means that I don’t have my camera on me, and although my phone has a decent camera what looks pink in the photos is in fact a neon-coral kind of colour. I bought lace, lycra and all other supplies to make a bra and at least two or three panties. Impatient as I am, I really wanted to start something, but I don’t have my pattern drawing book or my chart with measurements with me.

As usual, the internet came to my rescue. Last week, Melissa from Fehr Trade posted a free PDF pattern for a “lacey thong”. Normally I loathe PDF patterns because of all the sticking together, but luckily thongs aren’t very big. I’m usually between Burda sizes 36-38 in my hips, so I cut out an M. In the end I took it in by about 3 cm in total because it was rather loose. On a next version, I’ll probably also take out about 1,5 cm from the crotch length, because it doesn’t sit as nicely as I’d hoped.

Putting together this tiny pair of panties caused much swearing and sighing. Absolutely NONE of that is the pattern’s fault. I’m so used to using patterns without a seam allowance, that I instantly stopped thinking when I saw that the seam allowance was included. However, because my picot elastic is 1 cm wide instead of 0,6 cm (1/4″) I should have added some more seam allowance so I could have aligned the elastic with the raw edge. Now I had to mark te seam line and align the elastic to that, which proved to be much more fiddly than necessary.

One thing I chanced in the sewing of the undies, is leaving the crotch lining free in the back. This is absolutely no problem, because the picot elastic will hold it in place. I didn’t sew it between the back and the crotch pieces because otherwise it’d get too bulky for that tiny width. If I make another one, I’ll put the back piece and the crotch piece together for the outside to eliminate any seams in that area (which obviously just a euphimism for “between my butt cheeks”)

Final Verdict: Great little pattern, I’m probably going to make quite a few more! The only wise piece of advice I have about it, is check your elastic against the seam allowance!

8Jan2013

FO: Stripey Bra & Undies

Posted in Lingerie, Sewing by Sanne

My first finished thing of the year! I’ve been learning to make lingerie since last September, and slowly but steadily am I getting the hang of it. This is the first set I made that wasn’t part of any assignment or instruction. It was fairly easy to draft and sew, but getting the stripes to match on the front of the panties was a pain in the ass.

The fit isn’t perfect unfortunately- after a day of wearing I still really want to take the bra off – but it’s mostly wearable. The cups fit beautifully though, and I love the possibilities they give for combining different fabrics. The stripey fabric is a rather flimsy viscose knit from an old summer dress that has seen better days. It doesn’t give that much support, but at my small size that’s not a big issue.

The inspiration for this set came from a challenge on a Dutch forum about making lingerie. Forum members could vote for the theme, and because there was a tie between “stripes” and “love” both themes were chosen. It’s probably not hard to guess which theme I went for, but the pink adds a bit of “love”, doesn’t it?