A Review of Sewing Panties Construction & Fit

Welcome to Michelle’s Creations for the Canada Cups – Cross Your Heart Relay blog tour, 2016.

banner-improvedI hope you’re enjoying all of our makes and reviews so far. This time around, I’m reviewing Beverly Johnson’s new Panty class and so is Deb, my booty buddy, from Sprouting JubeJube. Make sure after you read my post, you hop on over to read Deb’s thoughts on the class. If you started with Deb’s review, welcome here!  I do know Deb has been really busy with all her makes and has them all here in a separate write-up than her class review.

header_11223

Don’t you love Craftsy? It really is the best. They offer online classes that never expire, and in so many different categories (sewing, cooking, gardening, painting…); the instructors they get are the best and they answer your questions; Craftsy offers kits and supplies as well. They really are great!

You’ll see in my sidebar menu, I’m an affiliate with Craftsy. I decided to do this because I can do this without any compromise. I really do think they’re great. You won’t see me stand behind everything. But Craftsy, I do.

Back to Sewing Panties Construction & Fit. I started watching. I watched the class half way through the first night. Then got up the next morning and watched the rest of it. I felt ready and confident to draft my own panties which was something I’d wondered if I could really do before the class.

Beverly assures us that drafting our own panties isn’t hard. It’s just a few simple measurements. Then she proceeds to show us just how to do it. This photo is from Craftsy showing Beverly making her master panty pattern.

She was absolutely right! It’s not hard.

full_2846_373118_DraftingaMasterPattern_1

The drafting of the panty is very reminiscent of Suzy Furrer’s Sloper classes. Once we’ve drafted our pattern, Beverly moves on to show us the three basic styles of panties – Brief, Hipster, and Bikini – and how to make each one from our own master pattern.

From those three styles, Beverly shows some more variations like making your own French cut panties. There is also a style with the seams in the front. I had just been looking at the Make Bra DL21 pattern. I’d read great reviews on them and how the seams didn’t show at all. I’m going to try my hand at drafting my own!

My big question is how will my class-drafted pattern compare to my favorite pattern?

Before I made a pair up, I wanted to compare my class-drafted pattern to my favorites: Kwik Sew 2286.

Here are both back pattern pieces – the black outline is the class-drafted pattern; the white pattern piece is my 2286 pattern:

back 2

The pencil wasn’t showing up very well in the photo, so I redrew the lines in black on my computer. The class-drafted Hipster hits the center back exactly the same as my 2286s. The hip sits a bit higher on the class-drafted pair. As well, the class-drafted back is a bit wider in the hip and gives a little more cheek coverage. I had no idea my 2286s were cheeky!

I was thinking about the size difference, and remembered Beverly does suggest in the class to start with a 20% reduction when drafting the pattern. Clearly, my 2286s have more than 20% reduction, which shows even more on the front piece.

Front

Again, the front is bigger on my class-drafted pair. And the Hipster line sits a little lower. The leg opening on the front of my class-drafted pair (again, outlined in black) is definitely lower, and that would be something I’d want to change.

Gusset

The class-drafted gusset is shorter and although you can’t tell in the photo, it’s a touch narrower as well. I’d even narrowed the gusset pattern piece on my 2286s.

For my panties, I’m going to use my favorite 2286s like I often use my sloper – to help me get the fit I want. I will change the leg opening on the front, lengthen the gusset a tiny bit, and since I haven’t found my 2286s to be too small at all, I will narrow the class-drafted pattern.

It’s time for new panties! New, drafted-to-my-measurements, incorporating-all-the-aspects-of-my-favorite-pattern, and matching-my-new-bra new panties. These are not just any panties!

panties on table

Oh, I like these. I incorporated the lace application on the legs the same as my 2286s, and did a lace front panel to match my bra.

I wanted to show you a few more details. One of the things I’ve learned making my own panties is the side seam is a weak spot when you’re using lace on the front like this. So, for these panties, I used a 1/2″ strip of knit interfacing to reinforce the seam.

reinforement

As well, having a lace front isn’t quite the same without some elastic. It will often be too loose. So a little bit of lingerie elastic behind the lace is hardly visible, but makes a big difference when you’re wearing them.

Elastic behind the lace

I like everything to look as nice inside as out. I pin my lace out of the way and use my Pinking blade to trim away the excess fabric.

Pinking the edges

There’s only one more thing to add. This is one of the bows I made for my bra.

One more thing to add

Here’s my matching set.

Full set on table 2

 I love them both!

Set on Catherine 3

I loved making self-drafted panties, but that wasn’t all I made. As well as making these panties, I reviewed a pattern.

 

 Here are the panties I made:

il_570xN.1022408585_jahx

Yes, it’s the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection.

Along with covering Beverly’s newest class, Deb from Sprouting JubeJube and I are both reviewing panty patterns, but not the same pattern. I’m reviewing the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection. Although I know what pattern Deb is making, I’m not going to tell. You’ll have to go to Deb’s blog to see her pattern review and all her makes. She really did make some lovely panties, and we found out we love the same materials. Really. We have the same Cotton Lycra stash. That’s all I’m saying.

Let me show you the Boy Shorts I made.

Front of panty

 They look just like Boy Shorts, but they also looked bigger than what I usually wear.

comparison

And they are bigger. To be totally honest here, they looked HUGE to me!  It’s mostly the different shape. Boy shorts have material over the leg and what I usually wear doesn’t. Oh my! Here they are being compared to my favorite Kwik Sew 2286s. I know what size not to use so my next pair will fit.

The best part of these panties is the back. I made view 4. They really have a super cute back and I will use this feature in the future.

Back lace detail

Isn’t that a lovely detail?

I want to thank Bra-Makers Supply for providing me with the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection, and Craftsy for providing me with the class Sewing Panties Construction & Fit.

14339952_10210984887124239_819227118_o

Tour Schedule Itinerary

Follow the magical tour to see what we all have under our clothes

Canada Cups Logo Draft

Saturday, September 17

bloggers

A big thank you to our wonderful bloggers. They’ve all done such a great job!

Happy creating!

A Really Small Slip and Pantaloons

Many years ago, my Mum bought me a Cabbage Patch Preemie. I was her preemie baby, so she thought it was fitting. However, my poor girl was neglected in my closet. It was time for me to do something for her.

It was time to give her a make-over. The first thing she needed was to have something done with her hair.

preemie with straight hair

As adorable as she is… well, she’s in a family with all curly heads.

It’s amazingly easy to curl doll hair. A little foil  (folded over the end of the hair); a straw (I didn’t have pipe cleaners); I used pin curl clips to hold everything in place; and boiling water. It only took four ‘curlers’ to curl her hair. You can read how to do it here.

curlsCurls!

I didn’t take a photo of her with hair in ‘curlers’ – I wasn’t sure I’d love the results. I still may re-do her ‘do. I’ve since bought pipe cleaners.

I also had some fun making her an outfit, because, as you could see, she had nothing on.

So out came some of my cotton Lycra, and a pattern from Madame Alexander 14″ Girl Victorian Doll Patterns:

ma doll patternsAlthough this outfit is good, I think the next one I’ll try will be an actual Preemie outfit.

I ordered a Cabbage Patch Kids Preemie pattern book a while back now, and when I ordered it, a second book was included – CPK Designer Clothes. Some of the patterns had been cut out in that second book, so it was included for free. I thought that was really nice. Here’s the pattern book I ordered:

cabbage patch patterns

Here’s the pattern book I received for free with my order:

book I have

I’m sure I’ll be able to find some patterns in there and adapt them for my Preemie.

Here’s my Preemie in her new slip and pantaloons. She’s looking so much better, and much more like a member of our family.

Whole outfit

I’m glad she’s not looking neglected anymore. She’s even come out of my closet and has a place on my bookshelf.

Here’s the slip. The pattern for the slip can be shortened to make a camisole, which was really cute too.

Sliip

Here are the pantaloons.

pantaloons

Now for some bigger sewing projects.

Happy creating!

Sleep Masks

I love to wear a sleep mask at night. I don’t want to see the light from the phone, or the alarm clock, or the smoke detector.

We were on holidays when I first realized how great a sleep mask was. The smoke detector was right over the bed and shining its evil green light in my eyes all night long. I went shopping the next day.

The one I’ve been wearing, well, it was old and falling apart. It was long past time for a new one. I looked around the web and found this pattern.

full_901_84191_AdultSleepEyeMask_3

This pattern (and the image) are both from PetitBebeCreatioNZ on Craftsy. The photo has a link in it, so you can just click on that and it will take you right to the pattern.

It’s a great pattern with wonderful instructions.

new vs old

What’s left of my old purchased one is shown at the top of the photo. It was literally falling apart – that’s just the inner piece. There was also the back and front that fell off it. Below it is the sleep mask I made using the free pattern. These are pretty much the same size.

However, it’s summer here and the sun is up early and down late. I don’t want any light at all. It was time to supersize my sleep mask. I found another free pattern on So Sew Easy. I found the instructions so thorough from the first pattern that I used them again and didn’t even glance at the other instructions, just the pattern.

Here you can see the new oversized one compared to the old fallen apart one. It’s definitely bigger.

Old vs Newest

Yes! Now we’re talking block out all the light.

For comparison’s sake, here are both of my new ones.

Newest vs new

That is seriously oversized! But I’m happy with it.

Another definite bonus of making my own sleep mask is I can measure how much elastic I need to fit me. The store-bought mask had Velcro to fasten it – and that Velcro caught in my hair all the time until I replaced it. This is good right from the start.

Happy creating!

Baubles & Backgrounds

Do you see my new blog format? I’ve been doing a little work on it in the past week. I’ll share more on that later in the post.

This week I was playing with beads again. It was time for a new Medical ID bracelet for me, and for a friend.

oldMy friend had purchased this bracelet, but as you can see, after wearing it for well over a year, she needed a new one. The coating on the Swarovski pearls had worn off. Now, she wears her bracelet all the time – in the shower, swimming – she doesn’t take it off.

I’ve used Swarovski crystals and pearls in the past and they haven’t done this, but I haven’t put them through all that hard wearing either. I take my bracelet off daily.

The new bracelet I made her is in the above photo as well, but here’s a better photo:

new over oldThe new bracelet is over the old one. It looks much better. Classic design and lines. It’s lovely. I just might need one too.

While I had all my jewelry-making supplies out, I decided to make myself a bracelet. I love turquoise in the summer but didn’t have a Medical ID bracelet in turquoise. I do now.

bracelet

The center three stone beads aren’t turquoise, but are the same stones I’d used in some earrings – dyed Imperial Jasper. The bracelet also has some lovely Sterling silver spacer and feature beads. I’ve been happily wearing it all week. My earrings, below, show you my matchy matchy. I made these last year.

blue earrings

Other than playing with beads, I mentioned I’ve been playing with my blog format. Do you like it? I love it too. It looks so clean and crisp.

Sadly it took more time than I would have liked. I’m not the most technical person, but I’m learning! Just to give you an example I took a full day to redirect the traffic from my old blog site to my new one. After spending time researching, trying something, it not working, more research and more tries… well, I found out I couldn’t do it myself. WordPress had to do that. It was so easy after I pushed a button and paid them a very small and very worthwhile fee! Done.

After redirecting, I spent some time taking photos for my background. I’d found a lovely lace background that I would have had to pay a terrible price to use – way more than real lace cost! Hmm, time to get some lace out.

Here are a few of my attempts before I found just what I wanted:

sparkle ivory over gold

This is a lovely lace, but I wanted more in my background than just lace. The lace background was my original inspiration, but now I wanted more of me in it.

horizontal black white and gold over goldThis is my kind of lace. This is so beautiful, but I found the black a bit distracting as a background when I was trying to read the text. As much as I loved it, I thought a little less just might be better for a background.

photocopyThis one was a lot closer to what I wanted and what I felt represented me. But It wasn’t quite perfect for me yet. For my final background, you can see I kept my pearls and added my thimble. Perfect!

Happy creating!

Our Valentine’s Dinner

I know it’s a little late to be talking about Valentine’s Day or anything to do with the romantic holiday, but just last weekend we had an incredible dinner to celebrate that holiday of love, and I wanted to share about it.

To start off, my husband and I are part of a dinner group. Our group has been meeting for close to 10 years now. We have four couples including us, and we each take a turn hosting. Usually, the host will pick our dinner’s theme, and the remaining couples will all cook according to the chosen theme.

This month that wasn’t the case. This month, the couple hosting our dinner decided they wanted to show their appreciation to everyone else in the group, and they made the whole dinner. What a treat it was!

We weren’t told anything ahead of time. All we were told was to dress up. Who doesn’t like to get dressed up once in a while?

When we arrived, the house was lit with candles in the hall, the living room, and on the table. Just look at our table setting. It was spectacular!

IMG_0383

Isn’t that lovely? Each plate had a rose napkin. That was also a lovely touch.

IMG_0384

Now for a look at our menu. As well as telling us the delectable treat we had ahead of us, the title of each course (there were 8) gave us a fun starting place for discussion.

menu

Our theme was A Taste of Passion. For our first course, titled The Wink, we had Deviled Quail Eggs with Caviar. Our discussion centered around how each couple met. Was it love at first sight? Was it mutual? We learned a few things about each other, that even after many, many years of friendship, we hadn’t known before.

quail egg

Oh, that was yummy! Our next course, The First Date, was Oysters Mignonette. We all enjoyed them and hearing about each other’s first dates.

L Oysters

What comes after the first date? The Adventure! For all of us, we’ve had 25+ years of adventure, so we had lots of stories to tell while we enjoyed Roasted Bone Marrow with Fig Marmalade. Bone marrow was a first for me, and I have to say, I loved it!

bone marrow

Oh, it was delectable! This course was a first for most of us. We followed this with The Romance. Stories continued as we enjoyed Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce and Sage. At this point, our hosts made me my own course as I can’t have gluten or dairy. I enjoyed Garlic and Onion Perogies with a mock brown butter sauce.

L ravioli

Here’s the ravioli. My phone camera rebelled and took a very blurry photo of my dinner.

Our next course was The Question, Lemon Sorbet with Pom Arils. This one was hard to get a photo of too, but not because of my camera this time. Everyone dug in so quickly we were all almost done before someone got a photo.

L sorbet

After The Question came The Commitment. We feasted on Braised Short Ribs with Russet Mash and Vegetables. Oh my!

L ribs

I have to point out something here. Do you see that little heart sitting atop the vegetables? It’s a jellied wine heart. What a beautiful adornment! Remember the challenge I mentioned with the sorbet? Well, that wasn’t the challenge we had at this point. The challenge we had now was we were all getting a little fuller, but I didn’t see anything left over.

One more little tidbit with this course, my wonderful hosts made the mash with Tofuti Sour Supreme and margarine so I could have it. No one noticed the alternatives at all. It was all delicious!

Our last course, The Hidden Pleasures, brought the discussion back around our table. Each person shared something they loved about their spouse, maybe something we didn’t all know already. All the while we enjoyed Chocolate Lava Cake with Raspberry Coulis and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Again, for this course, I couldn’t have what everyone else had. So I had some coconut ice cream and my carob ‘chocolates’.

L dessert

Carob Chocolates

     Our last course The Happily Ever After was Coffee/Tea, Port and Liqueurs.

Now if you’re not already amazed, as we were. We found out our hosts made each dish themselves. Nothing (except my substitutions) was bought prepared. They did everything. They made the ravioli from scratch, and the lava cakes, the ice cream, …

One of the guests said it was the most incredible meal he’d ever had, and he’d remember it for the rest of his life! It was truly amazing, and we felt very loved.

Happy (belated Valentine’s Day) and creating!

DIY Wool Dryer Balls

While I was recovering from the flu, I got to that point where I didn’t want to rest anymore, but didn’t have the energy to do much of anything either. I decided it was a perfect time to start a project I’d read about and wanted to try.

Wool Dryer Balls. I have no idea where I even saw this idea at first, but once I did hear about it, I had to read up on it and, or course, find a project to make.

Here’s the site I found for my project: Do It Yourself Natural. The link will take you to the article on wool dryer balls, and explain how to make them. Here are their very pretty wool dryer balls. I’m thinking I need more color!

Felted-Wool-Balls1-560x377

The wool I used was some I’d bought from a friend who is raising sheep. The balls are a Cotswold/Merino blend. I’m also very happy to say, the balls didn’t take that much wool. I still have the better part of the ball of wool I used left over for whatever my next project will be with it.

Winding the wool was the easy part. There’s more to them than just winding them up though. What makes these little balls work in the dryer and not fall apart is they’re felted. So the next step was washing these little balls while they’re tied in a knee high. Hmm. I don’t own any knee highs so my little balls of wool sat for a few weeks.

Then this past weekend, my hubby and I were out just spending some time together and I said I wanted to hit my favorite second hand store – the same one where I scored all that leather. So off we went. I was looking for wool blazers and leather clothing for bag-making, but didn’t score any this time. While we were looking around I did find some footlets. They weren’t exactly what I was looking for, but I thought they’d work.

pre

They did work just fine too. However, tying them was a bit tricky. Next it was time for them to go for a spin in the washer and dryer. Once you’ve washed the dryer balls you’ll know they’re felting when your nylons become all fuzzy with wool like these ones.

IMG_0338

Here’s how they came out after they’ve been set free from the footlet. They’re still fuzzy, and you can still see the individual yarns, but I’d have a hard time separating one of them. They’ve become very attached to one another.

IMG_0339

So, how do they work? I tried them with my polyester tablecloth with no fabric soften sheet, and I have to say not bad. We live in a very dry environment, and usually if I don’t use a dryer sheet, well, everything clings together. There was only a little bit of static, no cling, and the tablecloth felt nice and soft coming out of the dryer. I used them with a dryer sheet and a load of laundry as well, and I did notice the clothes coming out were softer. I’m thinking these are a win.

Happy creating!