Tag: lingerie

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A black lingerie set

And now, for the fourth and final lingerie set (at least for now!), I’ve got a new-to-me bra pattern to show off!

I’ve been wanting to sew the Hari Ito “Epervier Bralette” pattern for a while and even printed it out pre-Long Covid but never quite got around to sewing it. Considering my current lingerie sewing momentum, I thought it’d be a perfect time to give it a try. So I first printed it out in a bigger size – since the NCH Wren bra fits brilliantly at 36 C/D I decided to go with a size 36C for the Epervier too (my pre-LC size was always 34B but I’m still ~10kg heavier). I’m not even going to rehash all the various ways of bra size measuring never ever work for me, so I always just ignore the size charts entirely and choose my RTW bra size which works 90% of the time.

Before buying from New Craft House’s lingerie haberdashery section, I did the smart thing and raided/reorganised my lingerie sewing drawer, making a checklist of all the notions each set needed, and ticked off what I already had and put those into a ziploc bag for each set. Then I only bought what I needed. 😎

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A pale floral lingerie set

Are we sensing a theme yet with my posts lately?? 😂

Carrying on with my recent lingerie sewing spree, after my success with the New Craft House Wren Bra in fuchsia and then olive mesh, I thought I’d make a set using fabrics and mesh from my embarrassingly large lingerie sewing stash.

When I was determining what I needed to buy for the fuchsia and olive sets, I realised that I had a lot of white, pink, and grey notions. Furthermore, they all tied together nicely with a pale pink and monochrome rose printed satin I had. I think this might’ve even been free in a bag of scraps that Kellie at Sewing Chest sent to me years ago? It’s a thin lingerie weight with only a small amount of width wise stretch and no lengthwise stretch, in pale pink with printed monochrome roses and a lovely satin sheen.

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An olive lingerie set

This is almost a duplicate of the fuchsia mesh lingerie set I posted yesterday, but this time using the remains of an olive green kit I’d bought from New Craft House when I made their Wren bra a few years ago. Because I’d bought a bra kit and a panty kit, I ended up with a lot of mesh leftover, but not much in the way of elastics.

NCH don’t offer the kits anymore, but they do have a lot of the various olive notions, so I did the smart thing of sorting through my lingerie sewing drawer before ordering. As it turned out, I already had a hook closure, rings and sliders, and a ton of the mesh, so I just needed to buy more FOE, strap elastic, and under bust elastic.

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A fuchsia lingerie set

Once a year or so, I go all-in on lingerie sewing for a bit. More often than not, it tends to be when it’s cold out and I’m sick of sewing sweaters and warm layers. Many times it happens in January, but it seems my sewing proclivities are earlier than usual this year, because I’ve just sewn an absolute lingerie explosion. This is just the first of four posts!

It doesn’t hurt that none of my nice, pre-Long Covid lingerie really fits anymore, and I’m sick of wallowing in Axis Tanks and bog standard comfy underwear day in and day out… So I thought I’d celebrate losing half of the weight I’d gained during Long Covid by sewing up a few nice sets for myself.

The fuchsia bra

I’d made the New Craft House Wren Bra twice a few years ago, both times using the kits of mesh & elastic that NCH sold.

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A test Denver lips bra

I bought the new FibreMood “Sports” special issue and there’s quite a bit in it that I want to make, but I thought I’d start off with something simple that I don’t have to buy special fabric for. “Denver” isn’t really a sports bra – there’s zero support there – not even a lining! – just one layer of lycra. It’s called “cropped top” in the magazine and I’d agree with that.

I need an extremely basic sports bra for low impact stretching, walking, and e-biking, so my favourite supportive Jalie Coco pattern seemed like overkill here. I figured Denver would be something quick that’s better than just wearing a cotton Axis tank, and I could use up a bit more of my Lycra scraps drawer in the process.

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A white ribbed Dead Inside tank (& bonus Axis tank)

As I mentioned in my last post, I really needed a lot more sleeveless tops, as I only had one or two that still fit. I really loved the shape of the FibreMood Elza ever since I saw it in their magazine last spring, but I hadn’t quite gotten around to sewing it. I’d traced in size L then, though, so I had to re-trace it again in XL now – not a huge deal since it’s only four pattern pieces.

I had 1m of Ivory Ribbed Jersey in my stash that I apparently bought from Textile Express for £5 this time last year (it’s £3/m now?!). It’s soft and drapey with decent recovery and I like the uneven rib. But it was just sold as “multiple fibres” (polyester & viscose I’d guess?), it picks up lint like a magnet, and is definitely translucent. So it was a good fabric to test this pattern, especially as I’m not sure I’d like the narrow front tank style.

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Holiday lingerie sewing

We recently spent a week down in our favourite corner of Cornwall, but instead of staying with friends, we ended up renting a house for the week. J worked at a local coworking centre for a few days (The Workshed in Liskeard – highly recommend! Friendly, great space, super affordable, and extremely safe air quality!), but as I’m still on sick leave with Long Covid, I’d be alone in the house for three days.

For some this might seem boring but to be honest I was really looking forward to the quiet, and it gave me an opportunity to bring my JL Mini (which John Lewis no longer makes! Boo!) travel sewing machine along and do some sewing while I was there.

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A fuchsia mesh lingerie set

I’ve made a lot of lingerie over the years, but my bra preferences have changed over the course of the pandemic (like a lot of women) to favour soft bras over underwired styles, and I’m still trying out different patterns to find ones I like. So I was very interested to learn that New Craft House had not only bought up the un-used fabric and haberdashery from a lingerie brand that sadly went out of business, but bought their patterns, too! When the collection was finally ready to buy (two bra patterns, three panty patterns, and four kits), I literally set a timer and hit buy within the first minute (if you’re ready this right after I’ve posted, the kits are only temporarily sold out while they catch up on the avalanche of orders).

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Functional sewing – an invisible Axis and some porthole curtains

These two sewing makes don’t really “go together” except in the sense that they were both on my Summer Sewing list and they don’t seem terribly exciting to most people! The porthole curtains were on the list because the ones I’d made for the bedroom in 2014 were really looking ropey and mouldy, and the Axis Tank was in my plans because I really wanted a more comfortable, invisible option to wear underneath a few semi-sheer summer tops in my wardrobe now that I no longer wear “foam dome” bras.

You’d think that, like the Pietras, I’d have nothing more to say about the fantastic Sophie Hines Axis Tank pattern after the 5? 6? times I’ve already made it, but I surprised even myself here. I had some very thin biege silk-mix jersey in my stash for over a decade(!) that I thought would be perfect for creating a tank/softbra that matches my skin tone. One of the reasons I hadn’t used it much so far is because the fabric is so thin that it really needs a lining so couldn’t be used for a teeshirt, for example. But that wasn’t an issue here, as I could just double it up as its own lining!