A Little Designing

I was planning my entry for the May Bra-Makers Supply Challenge and thought I’d share my process with you.

I do have to say, I love polka dots, but stripes haven’t always thrilled me. Remember the apron pattern I was looking at recently? Stripes don’t always play nicely with my hips. However, I set a goal to do all the Challenges this year. So, I sat down and thought of a few ideas.

Panty Idea

For the panty, I knew the perfect pattern right away. The Rad Patterns’ Panel Undies. These are so cute. I have this pattern, but I also made my own self-drafted panty with similar styling. For my submission, I used my pattern.

So I took my inspiration from the Rad Panel Undies and had some fun drawing and coloring a couple of options for what I could sew for the challenge.

I have some adorable black with white polka dot cotton Lycra, and white with black polka dot too. I have some black/gray stripped cotton Lycra I could pair with both of these CLs.

This is one option I’m thinking about, but I did have those polka dot materials planned for a color block halla Agnes top for summer. Hmm, I might have to see if I’ll have enough left over before I go with this idea.

I put these designs aside and thought of another idea.

Tankini Idea

I had planned to make a Tankini from my swimsuit pattern, and I had already purchased some great swim material from Libelle Sewing last year.Aren’t these great? I hadn’t decided if I wanted the black on the bottom, on the top, or color blocked, but I knew they’d be adorable together.

Then I was thinking about the challenge, and wondering how I could incorporate these polka dots into my Challenge entry.

I took a look at Libelle Sewing again to see if they had any striped material, and they had this Ombre swim print.Here they are side by side.

Well, I didn’t love the stripes and polka dots together, so I tried coloring a few ideas.

Here’s was my first try.

That was okay, but I wanted the stripes and dots on the same part of the pattern. I kept coloring. I like this one a lot better.

I had one more variation to try.As I was drawing this, I realized exactly what it was I didn’t love about the first two combinations – I wanted more continuity between the top and bottom pieces. So Rad Patterns’ Panel Undies inspiration struck again. I could do an ombre panel on the tankini bottoms as well.