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June 1, 2013 Comments

bras and undies

Hi again! So this week we just got back from a trip to my favoritest city, San Francisco. It was a much-deserved get-away after all the moving and house fixing we did this spring. And all that good food and fog must have gone to my head because I came back really looking forward to an Austin summer.

Before we left, I finally finished up the last of my hand-dyed lingerie sets, so I thought you might like to see what became of my dyeing adventures.

hand-dyed cotton bra

Remember the neon lemon elastic? My original intent was to dye this cotton knit somewhat of an ecru color but instead I experimented with a mink brown.

cotton lingerie sets

On these next set of pieces I was experimenting with a cotton/modal knit and a Tencel knit. Both modal and Tencel are dreamy lingerie fabrics. They’re just a bit silkier than cotton, which tends to cling–Velcro, anyone? I’m waiting for a new shipment of Tencel jersey to test some more dyeing, because I think it might just be my absolute favorite.

As you can see, most of these are fairly simple styles. A few months ago a friend and I got to talking about 70s lingerie and how understated it was–feminine and flirty with a little bit of French insouciance. So I took that as a challenge to come up with simple bikini and bra styles that were easy to make and wear. Nothing screams 70s more than a little hipster bikini and triangle bra, dontcha think? Surprisingly, I spent way more time working on the bikini patterns than the bras. It took me five samples before I came up with my idea of a perfect bikini style. Maybe I imagine Annie Hall wearing these under her Saturday clothes, a little slouchy tee and wrinkled jeans. I’m a Woody Allen nerd, what can I say…

I hope you had a great week and happy June!

P.s. Is anyone else getting sidetracked by all the swimwear sewing going on around blogland? I think it might be time to finally pull out that oh-so-soft lycra I’ve been storing for the last year and get cracking on a swimsuit.

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Lingerie Friday: Thread Tales

March 22, 2013 Comments

Has it really been two weeks? We’re still in the throes of moving… boxes and boxes everywhere in both places. In the midst we’ve both managed to preserve tiny corners of creative spaces for our own sanity, so I packed up everything but my sewing machine and a few lingerie projects. I’ve been tweaking another new pattern lately which gave me an excuse to play with my latest fabric love, sheer stretch mesh. The mesh I’ve been using is so delicate and soft, and of course I had to spend an evening dyeing it, too! First minty green and then a pale gold-yellow…

stretch mesh pale yellow

But it is a little picky about needles and stitch lengths. And even thread. So today I wanted to share a couple of my new favorite threads for lingerie and especially for these more delicate fabrics. Both are delicate but don’t snap under tension. I love how tailors are unequivocal about their buttonhole threads, and it was inevitable that I’d be that way about lingerie thread, too!

Gutermann A192 (or Mara 150) Fine Thread

Funny enough, it was the Cutter & Tailor forum where I first read about this as a good thread for fine shirtmaking. It is also recommended for silks and lingerie. It’s impossible to capture in photos the difference between these and their all-purpose brother above, but this is a remarkably fine but strong thread. It just sinks into fabrics and makes the topstitching on bra cup seams less bulky.

I’ve only found A192 in tailoring supply shops but it’s well worth the hunt! Mine came from from Oshman Brothers in NYC and according to their gracious owner, Gutermann is phasing out their A192 threads to a new thread called Mara 150, so you might find this thread under either name. I got one of each, since Oshman’s stock is still mostly the older type, but both are very fine, strong threads. I placed such a tiny order from them, but Mr. Oshman sent me a long email explaining the transition and the technology difference behind the new threads (core-spun polyester with microfiber core, etc.) If you want to understand thread, you have a willing teacher!

Wooly Nylon or Wooly Polyester

wooly nylon thread

These are much easier to find in your local store, but I was missing out on a good secret! In knits and especially in underwear, wooly threads make the softest, airiest seams against the skin.

woolly nylon seam

Until about a year ago I was in the dark about wooly nylon. And the first time I shopped for some I accidentally confused it with blindstitch thread. Oops, big difference! I ended up with a bunch of cones of plasticky thread I doubt I’ll ever use.

Wooly threads are kind of springy and spongy, and as you can see look like little cloud-strings. The most common type is wooly nylon but there is also wooly polyester.

wooly nylon serging

I don’t have tons of room for serger threads, so I have a bit of a color strategy. There are a few neutrals that seem to blend with everything. Ivory, dark grey, red, nude and a light grey have been great basics for most of my lingerie. The ivory blends into most pale warm colors. The light grey blends into most pale cool colors. The dark grey is good for blacks and very dark colors.

When serging, it’s easiest to use wooly thread in the loopers and regular serger thread in the needle. And the best way to get those spongy threads through the loopers is by tying the them onto the tails of your previous looper threads, then pulling them through. I learned that one the hard way…

Do you have any favorite threads?

Happy weekend! Now back to those boxes…

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Lingerie Friday: Bra-making Gallery!

March 1, 2013 Comments

For today’s Lingerie Friday, I want to step back a little bit. It’s been a month since the Bra-making Sew Along, but I’m still getting some wonderful emails and enquiries about it all. I know many of you discovered the sew along later in the month or afterward. Some were just beginning to fit their bras toward the end. Or perhaps were too late to join the Flickr group.

If you made a bra following the sew-along, would you like to share with us? Submit your photos to the new Sew Along Gallery!

Leave a link in the comments either here or the gallery to your photos on your blog, Flickr, Pinterest, etc. and I’ll add them. Or you can email me, too!

Speaking of which, I love getting emails and hearing about your bra-making experiences and questions. Sew-alongs are wonderful for the wealth of tutorials and sometimes sense of online community, but they can have their drawbacks, too. We all learn and participate in different ways and in different paces. Getting individual feedback is priceless, and I am happy to help and hear from you!

In other news, I’m up to my ears in projects. More bra-pattern drafting, a new bra-making tutorial, and a cape. Lord knows why I made a cashmere cape in a winter that never dropped below 70 degrees, but we all need a little fantasy sewing now and then, right?

Most of all, I’ve been up to rose-pruning. Roses and lingerie-making–my kind of weekend. Every February, I go into a zone with pruning. It’s a poetic and centering activity, an annual ritual that includes climbing up arbors and tying back some (literally) bloody thorns. Yes, I have gauntlet gloves, but they don’t make much of a difference when you’re battling an 18th century brambler. After we bought our own home eight years ago, I fell in mad love with gardening and particularly roses, and seriously considered training as a master gardener. I published a gardening blog for about five years until starting this one. Sometimes I miss it, taking macro wildflower pictures and obsessing over seed-planting tutorials. It’s what pushed me to take some basic courses on photography and learn more about light and cameras. I still have so much to learn….

Happy weekend, all!

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Lingerie Friday: Bodysuits

February 16, 2013 Comments

Annnd she’s back with Lingerie Fridays, my little weekly dose of lingerie design, inspiration and sewing. As if the dosage hasn’t been full-strength around here! And clearly it’s going all around: y’all have seen Maddie’s adorable new free pattern, the Amerson Undies, right? I can see some very cheeky bloomers popping up around the sewing webs. (Yes, a terrible pun…)

This week I’ve been thinking lots about bodysuits. More and more lingerie designers are catching on to their revival and the modern interpretations are in very lightweight yet surprisingly sleeking materials. But I’m a bit curious how I’d fit one into my wardrobe. Mostly they conjure up my occasional fantasy that I’m a svelte and angular dancer in a Merce Cunningham production.

zimmermann-corsetierre-suit

My interest in this style piqued last summer when I first spotted this Zimmermann “Corsetierre” swimsuit at Anthropologie. It’s a swimsuit, but clearly taking its queue from underthings.

{Mimi Holliday Bisou Bisou, Mimi Holliday Pizazz, Huit Icone bodysuits}

What inspires me are the details–the waist definition, lace panels, keyhole backs and the effortless-looking fit designed to wrap the body. Sometimes I want a extra little shaping and smoothing. Am I just infected by the romanticism of their design? Your honest two cents: Do you own one? Would you wear them? With what?

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