Snoozer McGavin {Ohhh Lulu Kate Camisole + Closet Case Files Carolyn Pajamas}

These aren’t anything you haven’t seen before, so I won’t bang on  about them. I picked up the cactus print satin at Spotlight earlier this week just because it’s cute. That’s literally all it takes. Never mind that satin is the devil and I don’t really wear it. That doesn’t matter at all.

Fabric: Spotlight

Top: Ohhh Lulu Kate Camisole

Bottoms: Closet Case Files Carolyn PJs

But since making my first Kate Camisole in satin over the weekend, I really felt like I’d leveled up a bit, so decided another Kate was in order. With matching PJ shorts. Oooh and  I still have some scraps of that cool spotty grey poly. Oh yes, let’s do this. Of course, not all satans (sorry, satins) are created equal and I melted a hole in this one after pressing the first dart. Ahem. Let that be a lesson to us all, TEST FIRST.

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

I eliminated the faux fly front on the Carolyn shorts because the stitching was puckering the fabric and I really couldn’t be bothered trying that again. Because satin. No piping either obviously. You can see I still have a bit of puckering where the bands are attached at the bottom of the shorts.

I went a bit rogue with the Kate cami and didn’t cut it on the bias because the cacti would have been running sideways. It’s not as drapey, I guess – but no problems. I also cut the neckline straight across instead of the V, lowered the arm holes (they are a bit high on my last version) and did the standard back. I also used pre made satin bias tape because I have a tonne of it and I was not keen on making it out of this fabric.

Bonus points if you noticed I bought cactus print duck as well for Sid’s bed. They really are kicking some goals with prints at the moment.

And hey, I know it’s still August and this morning we woke up to a chilly 7 degrees (that’s 44F for my US friends and yeah, that’s cold for us), but our days have been so mild this winter that it barely even feels like we’ve had a winter. It’s still beach weather, really (for the tourists anyway) with most days getting to 27 degrees (that’s 80F, thank you Google). So it does feel like I’ll be able to wear these babies sooner rather than later. I never really understood why you’d sew your own PJs because no one ever really sees them and they are generally much cheaper to buy, but I know better now. And I’m sorry. Handmade errrrything is better.

Thrifted Fabric Weekend {Ohhh Lulu Kate Camisole}

Hello again. I know, two posts in two days. Who even am I?

I know I’m generally anti PDF pattern, but I make an exception for Ohhh Lulu because she’s rad and also lingerie pattern pieces tend to be quite small so there’s not a whole lot of cutting and sticking paper together.

That said, the Kate Camisole (pattern here!) is cut on the bias so the front and back pieces are entire (not place on fold pieces) – does that make sense? So they are a bit bigger and there was some cutting and sticking required. But I survived.

There’s not much to this one, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes! Oh no sir! Would have helped if I’d read the instructions properly, but honestly, I’m like a bull at a gate. MUST. SLOW. DOWN. The bias tape is meant to be bias facing, not binding. I used it as binding for the front. Oops. Too lazy to fix it though and it ain’t so bad. Sarah has a super helpful tutorial for this, which can be found here. I recommend watching it before you sew, not after like I did.

There are a number of variations on this pattern and I chose the lace back, she’s pretty cool right? The lace has a bit of stretch so I made it more stable with elastic (which is an option in the pattern instructions). It’s not scallop lace, but it has all these rad shapes in the fabric so I just cut around one of them and it’s the perfect size, really. I didn’t use sliders on the straps because I found they were a bit short on me. Next time I’ll lengthen them a bit.

Oh the fabric. It’s another op shop score. Same shop as the hanky panel fabric from yesterday, actually. It’s most definitely polyester but handled a hot iron really well, so I didn’t even have to swear or cry. I have a feeling it’s vintage, but I don’t know for sure. I only had about two metres of it, so it was perfect for this project – which uses a bit more fabric than you’d expect because of the bias cut thing. I’ll definitely be making this one again.

 

A Million Bucks {Ohhh Lulu Cindy + Ava}.

That’s how this set makes me feel. A million bucks. My favourite set I’ve made so far, even though the velvet was a bit of a nightmare, not only to sew with, but also to photograph (as you will see). But worth it.

Both patterns are by Ohhh Lulu, the knickers only purchased yesterday after my search for a lower leg. Ohhh Lulu nailed it, obviously. Links to everything I used here:

Cindy Bra – Ohhh Lulu

Ava Knickers – Ohhh Lulu

Main fabric – purchased an an Op Shop and hoarded by me for about two years.

Powernet – Remnant Warehouse (just as an aside, the pretty gold bits started flaking off after I washed this net. Very bloody sad).

Elastic, bra clips, casing, wires, boning etc – Booby Traps

Straps and tiny satin buttons were rescued from an old bra, may she RIP.

So the Ava pattern is simple and brilliant. A great place to start if you’re new to sewing lingerie. Three pieces, that’s it. Front and back go together with gusset cleverly tucked in behind the back (sounds confusing, but it works), side seams get sewn up and then I just used picot elastic for the waistband and legs because I find it much easier than fold over elastic. EASY.

The velvet looks like two different fabrics. What a trickster. Gusset is black jersey.

Picot gets sewn on the right side of the fabric, soft side up, picots facing towards knickers with a regular smallish zig zag, then flipped and attached again with a bigger three step zig zag. You can do it, I swear.

Hello pretty Avas. Finished in about 20 minutes, for real. Also, lingerie is a bugger to photograph flat. Much better on a body, but even I’m not going that far. Sorry.

Now to Cindy. I’m going to tell you a secret:

Bras aren’t that hard to make.

Don’t tell your non-sewing friends, they will seriously be so impressed to know you can sew a bra. Like mouth gaping floored. This Craftsy class taught me to sew bras. It’s amazing. You need it. Do it. I get absolute nothing from telling you that, by the way. It just changed my life and I’m not even kidding.

Alright, that said I put the Cindy bra together mostly by the instructions provided, but occasionally I veered off course and did it the way I learned in the Craftsy class. Because it makes sense. I think this is my sixth handmade bra, so I feel pretty comfortable with the process now. Cindy calls for more fold over elastic, but again I used picot elastic. This is the first time I’ve used the picot on the neckline and underarms of this particular pattern and I was concerned about it ending up a bit too low in the front, but it turned out absolutely fine and will be the way I finish it from now on. I love the three piece cup of this bra and the long line band helps smooth everything out too. What’s not to love about that, really. Since making bras with longer bands, I actually can’t stand wearing my RTW bras with the narrow back strap now. Something about it feels really uncomfortable.

I decided to line this baby with powermesh because the stretch velvet needs the extra support. It felt like overkill, but I’m so glad I did it because it definitely wouldn’t have been wearable without it – the velvet just has too much give and I need the support. You’ll notice I didn’t line the top cup piece because I sort of forgot and then was too lazy to go back and cut more pieces. It’s fine as is really, but would have been better with the extra support. Next time.

This bra has boning in it, which supports the band and stops it from rolling up when you’re wearing it. One of the comments I always get when I say I’ve sewn bras is ‘But with wire?!’ like it’s a really complex thing. But it’s honestly not. The boning and wire aren’t difficult at all. Even if you’re sewing a wireless bra, most will need the underwire casing in them anyway, as it covers the raw edges where the cups meet the band. Putting the actual wire and boning in is only another step.

Boning. Just boring plastic stuff. Sounds way more hardcore than it is.

Done. Look at the guts of this bra, isn’t it pretty? When I first started sewing, I would never worry about the insides of what I was making because pffffft, no one will ever see it. But now I’ve realised how good it makes me feel when the insides are as pretty as the outside.Fun fact: I had my first bra pattern stashed away for over a year because I was so intimidated by that thing I felt too scared to attempt it. Now I feel ridiculous. If you can sew a dress, you can sew a bra. I don’t even touch my over locker when I sew a bra. So if you want to, go for it. You got this, legends. A million bucks.