Ivory Clover Boy Briefs

October 7, 2023August 21, 2023 ~ Michelle

This is a short but sweet post.

The House Morrighan Clover Boy Brief panty pattern is one of my favorite patterns. It just might be my favorite, narrowly beating out KwikSew 2286. Most of my makes are a full hipster with lace trim, but I decided to make one of my Clovers with a little more lace this time. I had a hard time finding Ivory cotton Lycra that wasn’t almost white. Clearly I did find some though.

Here you can see this is close. It’s not an exact match, but I’ve long given up finding cotton Lycra that matches exactly. I’m going for coordinating now. That’s pretty close in color. The other ‘Ivory’ I bought was a lot more white.

Here’s that second pair I teased about earlier – the one with more lace. These are darling! I added some narrow plush band elastic inside the waist because this is really stretchy stretch lace. I love this set!

I have a few more pairs planned, but I’m still waiting on elastics. Hopefully they’ll get here soon.

Happy creating!

Another Lovely Freja in Platinum

September 30, 2023August 18, 2023 ~ Michelle

I have a lace addiction. There doesn’t seem to be any support groups to help with this – just a wonderful bra-making community that all shares this same addiction.

Well, I saw this lace and had to have it.I love it.

I thought it would wonderful with lilac, but I just made that gorgeous Vibrant bra with lilac. So I wanted something else. I dug in my stash and found some platinum duoplex and it works perfectly with this lace! I love it! I’m much happier with it than I even thought I’d be.

That little pop of purple in the lace. The black embroidered flowers. It’s so pretty. This bra doesn’t have the flash and pop of color the Vibrant bra did from the side or back, but they can’t all be vibrant. I’m really going to have to get busy sewing some panties to match all these bras I’ve made.It’s just a lovely platinum back.

After years of RTW bras in either beige or black, I love having all these colors.

One last photo collage of this pretty platinum Freja bra. Hmm. Even my display needs matching panties!

B,Wear had this lace as one of their August Kit of the Month options.

Happy creating!

Beautiful Vibrant Bra

September 23, 2023August 17, 2023 ~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I saw this kit on B,Wear’s site and it’s simply called Vibrant bra kit. And it is vibrant! It’s gorgeous!I saw it and loved it immediately. I knew I wanted to have a beautiful bra using this vibrant kit.

Again, I’m making the Pin-Up Girls Freja pattern. It’s my current love.Oh! (you’ve heard this before) I love this! I was thinking as I was finishing this bra that it doesn’t seem to matter how many bras I’ve made, I still fall in love over and over with the lace, and the pattern, or how it looks when it’s finished.

Here’s the side view:That peek of fuchsia elastic is just gorgeous! I love that.

It’s even lovely and vibrant from the back.I’m not done making a new bra wardrobe using the Freja pattern. I have two more kits sitting on my cutting table ready to be made up into more pretty bras.

I need to make some matching panties to go with all these lovely new bras. I’m a bit behind on those. You’ll see those soon.I recently purchased the Josey bra pattern for my niece. I don’t know if you’re aware, but according to an email I received from La Bella Coppia, the Josey pattern will no longer be available after the end of this year. Her website will be closing sometime in September.

The Josey is still one of my favorite patterns. If you don’t have it, there’s still time to get it for yourself.

Happy creating!

Gunilla Freja Bra

September 16, 2023August 15, 2023 ~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

My most recent Freja is from a lovely kit I bought from B,Wear. I saw a gorgeous bra Bodil had made on IG, and sent her a message asking if there was a kit.Not long after that, this lovely Gunilla kit was available. I looked to see if this kit was still on her website, but unfortunately it’s not. It wouldn’t hurt to request it again though.

I loved the rich colors of this, and had to make it up in my current favorite pattern. Here’s my Gunilla Freja bra. Oh, I love this lace. I do hope I can get some more of it too. It would look wonderful with ivory or blue, but I have to say the red really makes it pop!

Here’s the side view. Do you see that peek of ivory at the back? For a long time I wouldn’t make a bra if the kit didn’t have all matching parts. The band and straps had to be the same color. But I’m more open to coordinating fabrics like this set now. It gives me more options too.

Recently, at the Sewing Bee, Lily of LilypaDesigns said she really likes B,Wear’s stabilized satin fabric. I think this must be that fabric.

In the past I’ve used the stretch satin Bodil carries, but this only had the mechanical stretch – no real stretch. It also feels firmer than duoplex, so would be a great option for those needing more support.

Lastly, the back of the bra. I’m thrilled with a new pattern that fits me so well. I already have 3 more kits on the cutting table to make next. I do have plans to test a few more patterns, but I really love this bra pattern.

Happy creating!

Silk Freja

September 9, 2023September 9, 2023 ~ Michelle ~ 3 Comments

After making those sumptuous silk tap pants, I looked at the scraps of silk that were left over. With some careful placement, I had just enough to make a bra.This lovely silk came from Lilypa‘s shop.

Here’s my silk and ivory bra. I used the Pin-Up Girls Freja again – you’ll be seeing a few more of them before I try another pattern.This bra is so soft and well, silky. It feels wonderful on!Here’s a close up of the bridge showing that careful placement I mentioned. I didn’t have enough material to put the bridge on the fold, which is what most patterns have us do. So for this, I added a 1/4″ seam allowance, and cut two pieces. Then I simply sewed the two sides together.

Here are the side views. The silk shows wrinkles more on my display than duoplex or lingerie satin does. Still, it’s lovely and fun.

Lastly, I used ivory findings and power net. There are different shades of green in the silk, and I had nothing that was going to go with that. Ivory was the most neutral choice.Have you ever made a silk bra? Or any silk lingerie? Oh, the feel of it! Luxury.

Here’s the bra and slip together. Lovely if I do say so myself. I don’t know how often I’ll be wearing these together. When I do, I’ll love it.

Happy creating!

Faux Silk Tap Pants

September 2, 2023August 13, 2023 ~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I really loved the Tap Pants I made, but wanted to make a couple of changes. I wanted them really flowy, and wanted to take the waist in a bit more.

So I had some faux silk fabric I’d bought on sale and thought it would be perfect for testing some changes to the pattern. It was.These are very flowy and I don’t think I’ll need to make any other changes to the pattern. And, I can finally throw out that terribly worn slip. The one big difference between the culotte slip I had and this is the old RTW one didn’t have a front or back seam.

However, after looking at what was available in RTW, I wasn’t finding anything I was happy with. Most of what is out there now are compressive style shorts. I wanted something much more comfortable than that.

These fit the bill perfectly.

Happy creating!

Creative Bug Tap Pants

August 26, 2023August 13, 2023 ~ Michelle

I had learned about Creative Bug a few years ago, but really didn’t take advantage of the classes on there. Madalynne has a few classes on there. Gretchen Hirsch also has one – the Tap Pants class.Aren’t these just darling?

I had a very old culotte slip I wanted to replace. I thought this class would be the perfect jumping off place to replace that sad well-worn slip.

For my slip, I decided that I would use some special fabric I had. Lilypa had brought in some gorgeous stretch silk. I felt confident that I would get a well fitting slip because the class take you through drafting your pattern from your measurements. Isn’t that lovely? When I first saw it, I just had to have some. And I thought this project would be perfect for this material. I love them! One thing I didn’t realize when I bought the material is the map isn’t all ‘right side up’. The continents are both right side up, and upside down. So if you see this and fall in love, be aware of this.

If you’re making a smaller garment, you may be able to get everything right side up. Otherwise, this is just the design. I made a mistake that was quite upsetting. I couldn’t believe I did it really. One of the class suggestions was to use pinking shears to keep the edges from fraying. Well, I love my rotary pinking blade and use it often to trim seams on panties. I just love the look.

So I happily grabbed my pinking rotary cutter and trimmed all my seams with it. Then. Somehow. I didn’t feel I had more fabric under one of my seams. I cut through the back of the slip! There’s nothing to be done about it now.

I’ve found a supplier for tricot with rave reviews. I plan to make a few more of these but can’t make them all out of silk.

Happy creating!

Freja in Ivory

August 19, 2023August 4, 2023 ~ Michelle

I was so happy with getting such a good fit with the Freja pattern, I made another one right away. Making this pattern is really inspiring me to clone and alter my favorite RTW Fantasie Vivenne. It’s one of my projects for during the Bee.

Here are the two of bras together, the pattern and the RTW bra.They are quite similar.

Here’s mine again from the side.

And here’s the back view.This lovely lace comes from B,Wear.

It’s a lovely left and right sided lace.Working with these lovely flowers made me remember something I’d been told. Always place your flowers so they are climbing up or growing up. If they’re growing downwards, your cups will look sad. And you don’t want sad looking cups.So I was careful when placing my lace to make sure I had happy looking cups and my flowers were all growing upwards.

Happy creating!

Pink Clovers

August 12, 2023August 4, 2023 ~ Michelle

To go along with my new pink Freja bra, I also made a pair of pink Clover Boybriefs.

I really do still love this pattern. This is one I make again and again. This one, then my TNT Kwik Sew 2286, and then the B,Wear’s Sigrid.I heard House Morrighan is working on getting a new website set up. But I don’t think it’s up yet. If you’re loving this pattern and want it for yourself she said you can email her on IG to get the pattern.I’m not sure if it’s the Barbie effect, but I’m really loving the pink right now. Normally I’m more a fan of fuchsia, but I’m really enjoying this set.

Although these look like a full brief, they are more a hipster on me than on my display. Here’s the bra and panty together.I’m happy to have another full set to enjoy.

This second set of panties was sewn while watching the beginning of the Bra Sewing Bee. I have a little space set up with my computer, a cutting board, and my sewing machine.I took this photo while enjoying Nikki’s class on Fitting As We Age. I’m loving the Bee so far this year. I have a few more sewing/adjusting patterns projects planned for during the Bee too.

Happy creating!

Pretty Pink Panel Panties

August 5, 2023August 2, 2023 ~ Michelle

When I decided to make a new bra, I had no idea I was jumping on the Barbie trend, but that seems to be exactly what I did. I made a pink matching set.

My new Pink Freja bra needed some lovely pink panties to match. For the first pair I chose the Rad Patterns Panel Panties. I’ve always thought these were so adorable.

For mine, I used a kit from BMS that I had.These were such cute kits.

My panel isn’t as forward as the original pattern as I used my favorite TNT pattern as my template. Kwik Sew 2286 and simply made a panel on the front for it. I might have to tweak it if I want those side seams more forward. I had used the pattern in the past.And I thought they were adorable. But when I looked for the pattern, I found the more recent version.

Here’s the side view.You can see the seam is sitting just forward. With the seam sitting forward just a bit like that, it makes the lace trim match up better for joining it.