panties

A Review of Sewing Panties Construction & Fit

~ Michelle ~ 125 Comments

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.

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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.

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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:

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Here’s my matching set.

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 I love them both!

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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:

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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.

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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.

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Tour Schedule Itinerary

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Saturday, September 17

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

Happy creating!

Basic Black And Not So Basic Black

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

I’m happy to say, as of this blog, I have no RTW panties in my drawer. Yay! That means all my panties are now very comfortable, pretty, and me-made. I like that.

So, what did I make? It was time to make some more black panties.

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Here’s some of my stash. The Cotton Spandex is all cut out and ready to be sewn. The gorgeous wide leopard lace was a find eBay. Oh, it’s nice. So I’m building my black panty wardrobe here.

I’m using my favorite TNT pattern, Kwik Sew 2286. They don’t call it a hipster, but that’s how it fits me. It’s hard to find, but if you can find it, grab it up. It’s a great pattern.

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What really sold me on this pattern was it’s almost exactly like my favorite, now-discontinued, RTW panties. Both have elastic lace trim at the waist and leg opening. It’s almost the exact same shape too. The pattern sits a little higher, and I found I preferred that.

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Here are the first couple of pair done. I really love that leopard lace! And although it’s not a perfect match for my Pin-Up Girls classic bra with the leopard mesh trim, it’s close and I’m happy with it as a set.

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The next pair was made to match too.

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This one is black with red lace at the waist and leg opening. I couldn’t resist putting a little of the Lycra on the panty to mimic the Lycra on the power bars and bridge of the bra.

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This is another fun set for me.

I am making four pair of basic black with black lace trim. I ran out of lace after making the first panty, so off I went to the fabric store and I found this wonderful lace on sale for 65% off. I bought 15 meters! I think it was $2.20 to start, so I pretty much cleared the bolt.

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The lace trim wasn’t the only great deal I got that day. I wandered into the discount area, and walked by some lovely bright crinkle cotton. I walked by it, and then back to it. It was only $3/meter. I think I walked away three times, but kept going back. Am I ever happy I did! When I went to get it cut, I found out it was half price! So I took what was left on the bolt, just over two and a half meters. This will make a lovely summer top.

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As for the lace I bought, I think I’ll have enough for a little while now. Before I even found this lace, I knew I was getting low, so had also been looking on Etsy and eBay for laces too. I found this lovely scalloped lace that I plan to use on two of the basic black panties.

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This will make my favorite panties almost exactly like my former favorite – they had scalloped lace trim at both the waist and leg opening.

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I bought a few meters of that too. The next time I’m looking for black lace trim, I should be set!

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!