Lingerie sewing month

I’ve finally found a way to make photos of the bra’s that show them a bit better, without showing them on me. In this post I share the last two I made. Sewing lingerie is really very popular on the blogs right now, with Amy’s recent bra sew along and Melissa’s lingerie week. Both Amy and Melissa have created patterns (Rosy lady’s shorts and a lacy thong) and share them as pdf file on their blog. How generous! I will try the lady’s short soon, a thong I find uncomfortable so I’ll pass on that one, but if you like them, you know where to find a pattern.
My lingerie sewing will last a bit longer than this week, I’m about to cut another set.
This bra is Merckwaerdigh BHS 10. I used a lace with a little bit of stretch, the side/back panel is has lycra underneath, the cups are unlined. What you see is a foam cup under the cups.
 
And here the bra from the lace that is in the give away. This is a first experiment for me with a more transparant finishing in the side panel. I’ve used a tule with stretch to make it stronger, both in the under/side cups as in the side/back panel. Also I used boning at the side. It has a bit less stretch than my usual way of working and I increased the length of the side panel a tiny bit.
 
 
With each bra I made 2 matching panties. It’s not that I find it tedious to sew them, in general I find them more boring to sew. The trick is to make it a bit different from time to time. For this one I took a basic pattern and drafted new lines for the lace and incorporated the side seam in the lace part. This made it fun to do again.

I’ve shown this before, but with the extra interest in bra making this might be of interest to some: my bridge part is very narrow. I overlap the wire chanelling at the front, which makes a more narrow bridge possible. The second row of topstitching stops at the point where the channels meet, there I turn and start topstitching the other cup. The wires have room to go to the top.

The inside, the seams are all hidden. For the cups I “sandwiched”  the upper cup in the under cup and the lining under cup. A technique I first saw in the instructions for the Rebecca bra. This pattern is the Rebecca bra btw, with some alterations for my personal fit.
 

And these I have to share: vanilla macarons, made by my daughter for my birthday tomorrow. The first time she tried to make them, think they’re lovely. Both my children were finishing and arranging them on a cake tray. I came in the kitchen a little too early and saw them working at it, sooo sweet (they’re 19 and 17 now).