Kwik Sew 2286

Matching Panties for A Modern Floral Shelley and The Bra-A-Week Challenge

~ Michelle ~ 16 Comments

This week I have a couple of pair of panties I made to co-ordinate with my Modern Floral Shelley.

I love cotton, and this Indigo cotton spandex is from Bra-Makers Supply. The lace is from the Merckwaerdigh kit I used for the bra, and the elastics are from Frog Feathers on Etsy.

2 panties

On the first pair I made I used a bit of the lace I used from the bra and then some Ivory lace elastics – Ivory also being a color also in the Lycra. I’d wondered if maybe there was too much lace, but then decided there can never be too much lace. I love them. They’re so comfortable.

Too much lace

The second pair, which is my favorite style to make, uses the same lace from the kit for the whole front panel. On this pair I used Navy lace elastics.

Fav style of panties

Both pairs of panties are from my TNT panty pattern – Kwik Sew 2286, which I have fun with by changing the lines or style, but using the pattern as a base or starting point.

I also picked up a couple of pair of panties in some coordinating colors, not so much because I wanted or needed the panties, but to clone them for patterns. I really like the top pair – how the back part of the panty wraps right around the front in a little V across the hip, and the lace elastic in the design. Very pretty. The bottom pair is simply a high cut style, but still fun.

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Now our Bra-A-Week Challenge. We’re on week 26 of the Challenge! It is so very inspiring to see everyone’s submissions.

This week we have a beautiful bikini from Diana.

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That is so lovely. Diana wrote about this on her blog poetsie.blogspot.nl. If you don’t read Dutch, it helps to open it in Google Translate. You can read it that way in your own language. Check it out here for English.

This is so colorful and fun. It’s really lovely, Diana.

Our next submission comes from Maddy.

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Maddy made the Marlborough bra. This is her second time making the Marlborough; she made a few modification to the pattern and got an almost perfect fit. That perfect fit (or almost perfect) feels so good!

Maddy also mad a matching pair of Ohhh Lulu Grace panties.

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This was Maddy’s first time making the Grace panties, and she really loves the style and fit! That is so good to know because the Grace panties are on my to-buy list. Thanks for recommending them, Maddy!

You can read all about Maddy’s Marlborough and Grace panties, with more pictures and details about the alterations on her blog:  https://missmaddysews.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/something-wicked-this-way-comes/
Our next submission comes from Monserratt. Monserratt is a Pin-Up Girl like me, and made her bra from the Classic pattern.

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I love these colors! So gorgeous! You really need to see take a look at Monserratt’s blog: https://monserrattlopez.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/we-are-stardust-bra/ – she has a lot of information on there as to what she’s done in the way of alterations, but also a lot of photos. You can see her lovely makes, and her great photos!
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Love that blue and gold! So very pretty.
Our next submission comes from David.
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 David’s bra features black lace across the front overlaid with the straps. This is something like a short corset, bandeau, sport bra and strappy.
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 But there are two different laces used here. You can see the second lace on the back.
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 Isn’t that stunning? Just gorgeous. David is a freelance lingerie designer, his label is: Bonnet Bleu
Our last submission is from Erin!
Erin made this is a bikini for her sister’s birthday.
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 Erin’s sister picked out this fabric and wanted a cute itsy-bitsy bikini, but with a little more structure (underwires & foam). It’s a vertical seam cup, low cut with short wires. (Erin thinks she’s the equivalent of a 34C although she drafted this pattern off her measurements).
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 The details are a cute tie in the front and on the sides of the bottoms and nice double stitching on the outer fabric for the cups, gold rings and G-hooks. Erin said it was lots of fun to make – and hopes it fits her sister perfectly!!
What a nice birthday gift! You can read more on Erin’s blog: http://emeralderin.blogspot.ca.
I’m loving summer hosting the challenge – it is so exciting and fun to see all the makes coming in!
Happy creating!

A Couple Pair of Matching Panties

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

This week I have a couple of pair of panties to match the Ivory and Pink Sewy Rebecca bra I made. I mentioned a few posts ago how I was going to use some Cotton Spandex Double-knit from Bra-Makers Supply. The color wasn’t an exact match though. It’s close, but not exact.

Here’s the bra and panties together.

Full Set on Catherine

Here you can you see the cotton looks quite a bit deeper in color than the Duoplex. However, I’m still very happy with this set.

The panties are from my TNT pattern – Kwik Sew 2286. I prefer the KS 2286 because it so closely resembles my very favorite RTW panties from La Vie En Rose. They had the lace at the legs and waistband as well, and I loved that.

I used KS 2286 without any alterations this time, and then used the two remaining scraps of lace I had left over from making my bra, and added those to the panties. There was so little lace left too. I’m always sad when a much-loved lace is gone.

On this pair, I sewed the pink and ivory lace to the stretch lace I used on the waistband and then sewed it to the panty as one piece. I cut away the cotton from behind the lace as well, to make a ‘window’ of the lace.

Full Set

Here are the two together. I do think the lace pulls them together pretty well.

For the second pair of panties I made, I had even less lace than this first pair. It was time to get creative with what I could do with it.

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Here I was just laying the lace out in different patterns to see what would look nice and what I preferred.

And here is my second pair of panties to match my Pink and Ivory Rebecca.

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I like these as much as the first pair. Again, I cut away the cotton from behind the lace to make a window. You can see the window in the picture below.

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There, two pretty and much-loved cotton panties to match my new bra.

Happy creating!

Finally… Some Sewing

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

After two sewing fails in the past two weeks, I felt like my sewjo had got up and left. So, this week I made myself cut out some panties to go with my bra. You’ve all seen the bra before. Here’s my latest matching bra and panty set.

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This is the Sewy-fied Shelley bra, and my TNT Kwik Sew 2286 panty pattern, which I’ve changed up a bit by adding the lace panel to the front.

I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll say it again – I’m spoiled now. I only want to wear matching sets of bras and panties. I had always color-coordinated everything before, but with RTW bras costing $150+, there was no way matching panties were going to happen.

Now that I have my bra fit worked out, matching sets are a must! I love sewing my own lingerie.

This time, cutting out the matching panty went without a hitch, but it wasn’t just smooth sailing from there.  I realized I didn’t have enough elastic to finish my panties the way I like, and the way the pattern says. I was wondering if it would be another no-sew week at that point.

My first thought was to tea-dye some stretch lace. I have lots of white I bought on sale. Nope, that didn’t work.

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The tea gave me a lovely deep beige, but it wasn’t the same as either of the other beiges I was using. I was already using two differently hued beiges. I really didn’t want to introduce a third beige. So, two bumps on the sewing road, but I realized I must be feeling better because I had my old I’m-not-giving-up attitude.

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I decided to finish the back waist band with the dark purple trim that came with the Merckwaerdigh kit. One problem solved. Although, I’m not loving the beige thread on the purple, I wasn’t up to picking it all out and starting over again.

The outlined sewing order for Kwik Sew pattern is: the gusset is sewn to the back and then the front using what is commonly called the ‘Burrito’ method, then the lace is applied to the leg openings, the sides are sewn up, and lastly the same lace is applied to the waistband. Altering the pattern, I have to change my order of sewing. The first thing I do now is attach the elastics to the waist bands. I sewed the purple trim to the back, and some nice plush black elastic behind the lace panel at the front.

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Here you can see the elastic already sewn onto the waist while I’m just in process of pinning the lace to the legs. I didn’t do this on the first pair I altered and learned the hard way.

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Another small change I made was to use my sewing machine’s Overcast stitch rather than a simple Zigzag stitch. That gave me a straight seam on the right side of the fabric rather than the not-perfectly-straight seam from a Zigzag stitch.

After pressing it on the right side to flatten the seam, I added one more change…

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I gave the seam a bit of reinforcement by Zigzagging over the just-sewn seam. Another quick press and it looks so nice and neat.

One last little change I made was thanks to a reader. Carmen mentioned how she sews down the seams on the gusset with a Zigzag stitch – a tip she picked up from Sigrid. I thought it was a great idea. Thank you, Carmen!

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In the photo above you can see a close up of the Zigzag stitching. It does two things: it reinforces that seam, and it flattens that seam much more than pressing it can.

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So here’s my first pair of panties to make a matching set with my bra. The next pair will have to wait until my stretch lace gets here.

The materials I’ve used here are a mix from Bra-Makers Supply, Merckwaerdigh, and Frog Feathers. The Duoplex, Power Net, Findings, and Cotton Spandex Doubleknit are from BMS. The lace, Lycra and trim are from Merckwaerdigh. The stretch elastic is from Frog Feathers.

Happy creating!

Panties To Match

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

Here are my panties to match my Sewy Rebecca bra.

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Did you know Sewy actually has panties to match their bra pattern?

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Here they are. This is from the Sewy website. And here’s the line drawing of the pattern from their website.

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Aren’t they lovely?

And on a side note, I’ve found being an English-speaking person, who does not read or speak German, the best way to navigate the Sewy website is on Google Translate. You can read everything translated into English, but you can’t place an order when using Google Translate. Ask me how I know. You can see the Sewy website translated here.

Back to my sewing. The panties I made are from my TNT Kwik Sew 2286, but I altered the front. This time, since I was adding the lace panel and wanted to keep the scallop at the top of the lace, I remembered to add the lace elastic to the waistband before sewing the lace panel on. I love them.

And here is the matching set.

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My intent is to make two pair of panties for each bra I make. So after my Rebecca was done and I got out my cotton spandex, I realized I only had enough cotton for one pair of panties. I already have the lace cut out for the second pair of panties, but it looks like I have to wait for them.

I told my hubby I needed to order more cotton material, and, well, we had a discussion and he suggested that since I’ve bought all this other material with plans to sew other things, I needed to sew something other than bras and panties to match. Sigh. He just doesn’t understand how addictive bra making is. And for a garment I have to wear every day – it’s just such a delight to put my own on rather than anything RTW.

We came to a compromise – I ordered more material and I’ll sew something else before I sew another bra or panty. But… there was the Watson Sew-along, and there’s Erin’s Bra-a-Week Challenge going on right now, and there are patterns to perfect now that I have my size and fit all figured out. I’m having a very hard time choosing another project when I want to sew bras and panties.

So, I told myself, while my supplies are on the way, get something else sewn and then I’ll have both time and resources to sew another pretty matching set.

So, a Flirt Skirt it is.

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This is in a stretch denim. Look at that flare at the back. Such fun. It really is flirty. My skirt’s not quite done. I still have the waistband to finish, but that won’t take long at all. The ‘top’ is simply material I draped over my dress form. I’d bought some of material to make a cowl neck top, so that will be next… after my second pair of panties.

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Happy creating!

A Beige Shelley Set

~ Michelle

I’m pretty sure I’ve used that title before, and will likely use it again. I really like my basics and I like the Shelley pattern by Bra-Makers Supply. Here’s my most recent Shelley:

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I need to make some proper-fitting foam inserts for photos. I don’t like all the wrinkles! However, as a bra, this is my best yet. I love it. It’s kind of funny because I saw this lace on the Bra-Makers Supply (BMS) web site, and ordered it right away. When I got it, I was putting it with my other laces, and lo and behold, there was another order I’d placed before for the same lace. Yup. I know I like it when I do that. It wasn’t the first time, and I doubt it’ll be the last. I did that with a Merckwaerdigh lace as well.  It’s good to know I really like it.

For this Shelley, I did what I did for the last couple of bras I made. Rather than making alterations to the cup to make the larger cup fit into the smaller cradle (Omega shape), I went in-between the sizes. The cup corresponds to a 42 wire, the cradle I need is a 38. I used the 40 cradle. The wire still fits. In fact, BMS say with their patterns you can go up or down a wire size if you need. That makes it perfect for me. The fewer alterations, the better because one alteration leads to another and another.

I thinned the area under the cup even though I used the larger elastic. You can see that here:

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Beverly, The Fairy Bra Mother, did a very informative blog on how to do this and I’ve been doing it since. You can read her wonderful instructions here.

I also lowered the bridge, adjusted for a flat spot I have and added a vertical dart to the pattern to take out a little excess under the arm.

It’s so wonderful to have learned to do this, and from now on I can have perfectly fitting bras. That is tremendous!

Another sparkly idea that came from Beverly was to add some Swarovski crystals to the bra. Pure brilliance. So, I added a little bling to the bra too. This bra has bows and crystals.

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I attached these sparkling little delights on the bridge just above a ‘floating’ piece of lace. I say it’s floating because I only sewed the sides of it into the seams of the cup and cradle. I used the Swarovski Hotfix Crystal Tool to attach the crystals and love the result. The only change I’d make here is one that will make it a bit easier for me – attach the crystals before inserting the under wires. However, as much as the tool seemed to want to wobble a bit, the end result looks nice and straight.

The back is quite basic.

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There is a small pucker where the hooks and eyes meet the band, but it’s not the very large wrinkle showing in the photo. That was just me not catching that the band wasn’t on Catherine (my dress form) perfectly straight. I was fighting a cold and forgot to check to see if the band fit properly into the hooks and eyes. I think there’s a 1/16″ little tuck there because I  didn’t want any edges sticking out.

Now, for matching panties.

You’d never have known it by following my blog, but I do love matching bra and panty sets. For a long time I was on a quest to find cotton because I love my cotton panties. Once I found my source at BMS, I was working on getting my bra fit down. All the materials for my bras and panties come from BMS except the elastic lace I used on the waist bands – that came from Frog Feathers on Etsy.

Here’s the first pair of panties I did:

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I love these. Nice soft cotton and matching pretty lace. Who could ask for more? I used my favorite Kwik Sew 2286 pattern and altered it. I did go up a size because the cotton just didn’t have the same stretch as some other knits I’d used in the past. The alteration I made was a simple one. Rather than cutting the front on the fold, I traced the whole front out and then cut off the one side of the front. I added a seam allowance to both sides creating two new pattern parts.

I did run into a bit of a snag not having thought it all through enough. When I was adding the lace to the waist band, I realized I didn’t want to cut off the scalloped part at the top of the lace. So I just ended the elastic lace where the other lace started. Next time I will add the elastic lace to the band before sewing these two parts together.

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Having that little blip happen helped me with my second set of panties though. Here’s my second pair:

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Yup. I love these too. It’s the same base pattern, but on this one I traced the front out and laid my lace over it. I wanted the scalloped edge at the top. So with the lace on top of the pattern, I drew a line where the lace ended. Then I traced that part again and added a seam allowance. For this set, I added the back waist elastic first. That wasn’t going to work for the font though. For the front I added a bit of left over upper band elastic. It’s hidden behind the top of the scallops.

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Here it is from the inside. I didn’t want to leave the front without any elastic, even though the lace is a stretch lace.

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Here they are, my two new matching panties.

Happy creating!

That Just Didn’t Seem Right

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

I bought another panty pattern, and this time I thought I was being so smart by buying one with three options in there. Kwik Sew 2100. It has a Bikini, Hipster and Brief option. Great!

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So I looked up my size, and then looked at the pattern. That can’t be right. At least that’s what I thought. I remember when I was just going to make panties again after not doing any for years, and my sewing pen pal, Naomi, warned me they’d look huge when I was cutting them out, but this?

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? You tell me. Do these look the same size?

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That smallest line showing to the right side of my traced Kwik Sew 2286 pattern isn’t even the size I need. I need a bigger size? As well, I’m looking at the Hipster pattern, and my KS 2286 doesn’t even come up to the Bikini line. The KS 2286 doesn’t list itself as a Hipster – simply a panty – but it compares really well to some RTW Hipsters I have – that’s why I like it so much.

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The above picture shows a little more clearly just where the sides of these two patterns are ending.

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This shows the cutting lines above the traced pattern piece. It’s not even the same height as the bikini option.

And one last photo:

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Here is the KS 2286 traced pattern over the traced KS 2100 traced and cut out. That’s quite a difference. Both patterns say they are designed for stretch knits. I think I’ll look at my 2286 pattern again.

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And wanting to play with the KS 2286 a little more,  I altered the pattern to a more asymmetrical front along these lines:

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Aren’t they adorable? So I changed my KS 2286 to look more like these.

I wish you all the happiest of holidays, and a joyous New Year!

Some Matchy Matchy

~ Michelle

I do like matchy matchy. Maybe it’s an indicator of my age, but I do like things to match. So, now I have my first (two) great fitting bras, it was time to make something to match.

I couldn’t find any ivory cotton, but did stock up on black, red, beige and pink. So, going forward I’ll have a nice choice of basics from which to choose. My most recent Shelley bra was mostly black, but had some red and ivory in it as well. So I chose red and black for my panties.

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Here’s my first pair. It’s a modified Kwik Sew 2286, which is basically a hipster. I copied the lace inset from Kwik Sew 2908, but I prefer how the 2286 sews together – no seams showing on the inside. The crotch seams are hidden between two layers of material and then when the lace is sewn on – you don’t see an exposed seam. The 2908 has the front and crotch as one piece, and then the back is sewn to that. It looks similar on the outside, but on the inside you can see the seam very clearly. In the past, I’ve made 2908 and modified it to do the seams the same as the 2286.

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And the set pinned on Catherine. They look long, more like a high cut here, but I’ve made them before and they are a hipster. My only disappointment is I’m not in love with this as a set. The lace is the same on the panty as the bra, but it doesn’t pull together quite as much as I’d wanted. I don’t think there is enough red in the bra to pull it off. However, it’ll still be a second choice option for me.

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Here’s the second pair I made. I like this one a lot better. I think it pulls together with the bra without any problem.

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Here it is pinned onto Catherine. That looks like a set. That’s much better. I really am happy with this set. This will be my first choice to wear.

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Here are both panties with my bra. It’s very fun to have my first set. The materials are from both Bra Makers Supply, and Merckwaerdigh‘s Etsy store. The panties are mostly cotton from BMS with that little accent of lace/Lycra from Merckwaerdigh’s.

Next I’m going to have to play with my pattern to make an asymmetrical pair – and I think I’ll go with the black & Lycra for that one.

Happy creating!

‘My’ New Serger

~ Michelle

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to bring home my friend’s serger. And then to be told she wasn’t in any hurry to get it back; that I could just keep it at my house; that she’d never used it even. Thrilled would be a good place to start.

I found a great tutorial with really clear instructions on how to oil your serger, and where to oil it. It was much clearer than the manual’s instructions. You can read it here.

The machine really sounded terrible when I serged that first test swatch. Imagine the sound of metal grinding against metal. That was pretty much how it sounded. Once I oiled it, it did sound better. However, my second test swatch still sounded rough to me.

My plans to finish the scarf for my Mum went out the window, as well as a camisole I wanted to make for my Mum. At least as far as using the serger for those projects went. So the machine was packed up and put in the trunk of my car to make a trip to the repair man.

The trip to the repair man was good news on one hand – there’s nothing wrong with the machine. It is usable. He said it could use a tune up, but the blade is still sharp and it was working as it was. The not great news is he said this model is a noisy model and it vibrates a fair amount. He said it also sometimes skips stitches. Hmm, as I said, not great news. So, it’s back home with me, but also still sitting in the box awaiting its fate. I’m not feeling quite as thrilled.

So to finish one of my projects I decided to use my overlock stitch on my sewing machine to sew up the camisole. It turned out so nice.

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This is a lovely shaped camisole pattern. It’s Kwik Sew 2286. And it actually has shaping to it – it curves in at the waist.

The material I used is a burnout knit. I was wishing I had more of it. I only bought a 1/4 of a meter when I first bought it a couple of years ago, as at that time I was only planning on using it to cover foam bra cups with it.

Black burnout knit on beige cups

Here’s an older photo of a foam cup bra I made when I first started making bras, and I used the burnout knit to cover the cups. This was the burnout knit over beige foam cups from Bra Makers Supply. Such a pretty material! You can read about the bra on my blog here.

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And here’s how the material is over my hand. This will be a fun and flirty camisole, but not likely one to be worn showing. It’s a little too transparent for that I think.

As for the scarf clone? Well, I’m still contemplating doing the hem by hand AND contemplating oiling up the serger again and giving the rolled hem a try. I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to finish that one yet. I’m encouraging myself right now even, that I as I type this; I have the serger here, and it does work… I just might be leaning towards the serger rolled hem.

Happy creating!

A Small Parade of Panties

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been asked why I don’t make panties. The funny thing about that is ever so many years ago when I was first pregnant, I hated the maternity panties that were available, so I made all my own panties, as well as some of my own maternity clothes. Then I don’t know what happened to making panties. I just stopped.

The question stayed with me. I have to admit, one reason I hadn’t made panties yet is because I love my cotton panties. But I also love lace on them and I can’t always find that. As well, I’d looked around for cotton to make panties and just wasn’t sure about so many sources, so I hadn’t ordered any. A quick call to Bra Makers Supply and I found out their Cotton Spandex Double knit is just what I’m wanting. It’s a blend of 94% cotton, 6% Lycra. I’m thinking it will be perfect. You can find it here. It also comes in the same colors as their Power net and Duoplex – I do like things to be matchy matchy.

I have a few panty patterns in my collection, so decided I’d try a couple of them to see which ones I preferred.

Here are the patterns I tried.

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The first one I tried is a throwback – high cut panties. I haven’t worn anything like this for years, but loved them way back in the day.

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I used some knit that was a gift from Naomi. Thank you, Naomi! These are a basic black knit with stretch lace elastic trim. The pattern is Kwik Sew 2075, view D. It was funny, when I was making these I would just start to do something, and then think, oh it’s been a while I better read the instructions. I’d read them, think yup, and keep going. It was amazing how much came back to me so quickly.

This high cut style is very comfortable on, but as I say, it’s been years since I’ve worn anything high cut. I think I now prefer something more of a hipster. So the next pattern I made was more along that style.

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I really like these. These are very comfortable and almost the same as a favorite La Vie En Rose pair I’d saved. I loved the La Vie En Rose ones so much I cloned the pattern. However, this is almost exactly the same. Only very slight differences, so I went with the pattern. This is Kwik Sew 2286. The pattern is mainly for tops, with one pair of panties thrown in. There is no option for a different view or style for the panties, but I really like these, so don’t know that I’ll look elsewhere. These just might become my TNT basic pattern. But then, there are so many pretty options out there from which to choose.

And the last pair I made is a friend’s TNT pattern. It’s similar to the pattern above, but this one is Kwik Sew 2908.

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These are the same black material I used on the first pair I made, but these have a sweet pink trim on them to match the black Fantasie clone I made with black and pink lace. I did change this pattern slightly. For the ‘gusset’ (I don’t like crotch, just as I’ve read some don’t like panties. And I do know it’s not really a gusset), the pattern has the gusset attached at the front with a single seam at the back. I changed this so the gusset has two seams – front and back – and that way I could enclose the seams completely. I’ll show that in another posting.

And I still have a few other patterns I’ve collected I want to try. I’m thinking of making one of Merckwaerdigh’s patterns next. I have E-SH20 and E-SHL 30 of hers. I also have one of Stretch & Sew’s patterns. Not pictured here is Ezi-Sew Ladies’ Knickers pattern and two more Kwik Sew patterns, 2100 and 2868. Seriously, I have a pattern addiction! But it’s way more fun than the OPI nail polish addiction I had. (smile)

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One last panty resource I have is The Make & Fit Panties book from Bra Makers Supply. So now I’ve practiced a bit again, and I’ve found my source for cotton, I see more matching sets ahead.

Happy creating!