I’m not sure sure what happened, but I caught the lingerie-sewing urge hard a few weeks ago and finally cut into some gorgeous pale green lace I’ve been hording for years. It’s been so long that I’m not even entirely sure which online-lingerie-fabric-shop-which-has-since-closed-down I bought it from – eLingeria? Danglez? In any case, it was worth holding on to, and worth buying a pale pink bra findings kit off etsy a year or two ago, and then finally purchasing some pale pink “silk touch” lycra from Tia Knight about 6 months ago to finish off my supplies!
Frankly, I’ve been meaning to sew more Orange Lingerie Marlborough bras ever since I’ve made my other two. The original pale yellow one I wear several times a week, every week, and I love it. The wings on the pale blue one have stretched out a bit, and I really need to unpick the back hooks and shift them smaller to make the band more stable so I’ll wear that one more, too. But that I have two highly wearable bras that I love has meant that I doubt I’ll ever sew another underwired bra pattern again (unless Norma releases another, I suppose!).
The construction on this bra is the same as the other two – my only changes were stylistic, namely to not overlay the lace onto the frame, and to not line that piece, either. I fused lightweight interfacing onto the lower cup, centre front, and frame pieces, then basted the lace overlay on top, and used another pale pink piece as lining as I constructed. I also stabilised the scallop edge of the upper cup with clear elastic, because I didn’t have any beige narrow elastic, which I vastly prefer to the horrible clear stuff!
After I finished the bra, I kept the momentum going and made two pairs of panties to match – one using my (still free!) Lacey Thong pattern, which I could make in my sleep these days, but that I love and just plain works for me.
For the other pair I used the “Mischief and Memories Panelled Thong” pattern from the Secrets Of Sewing Lingerie book (which I’ll review fully in time), albeit more of a starting point than anything else. The original pattern is drafted for non-stretch lace and tulle, so I took out several inches from the side seams of mine to account for the stretch of my pink lycra.
It was also meant to have cross-cross seams at the front, over which you sew narrow lace, but since I didn’t have any, I instead had the idea to use the scalloped edge of the lace as the diagonals, which meant introducing a centre front seam on each piece. Then I zigzagged around the edges of the lace and trimmed away the pink lycra underneath, and I love the finished effect!
I couldn’t find any cream organic cotton (which I know is somewhere in my sewing room!) for the crotch lining, so I used some darker beige wicking, cotton-touch supplex instead. It looks a bit weird in these photos, but looks perfectly fine while on, due to the, err, placement of the lining.
Happily, I had just enough lace to make all three pieces (which only about an inch of scalloped edge leftover), and just the right amount of all the elastics, too, though I did supplement the pink ones with some cream picot-edged elastic from my stash. How cool is that pink elastic with the ric-rac edges though? It was too lightweight to use in the bra, but absolutely perfect for the panty leg openings.
This week I saw that Orange Lingerie released two new panty patterns, so I dug my lace scraps out from the bin to see if I could realistically have enough to maker her thong pattern but there is just not enough left! Boo.
Without going into too many details – I’ve since worn all of these pieces and I love love love them! Honestly, they feel as wonderful on as they look, and I’m so pleased that after god-knows-how-many years of sewing lingerie that looks pretty but doesn’t fit quite right that I’ve finally cracked the formula enough to cut into my most treasured laces!
Can I just also give a shout out to Madalynne, who’s been just killing it with the lingerie sewing posts recently? If you have any interest in sewing lingerie, hers is definitely a blog you want to be reading.