A little bit fun...

I know I promised you location shots, but I have been on a swimwear / underwear sewing crusade lately, which I prefer not to photograph "on location".  Here is a shot of my backyard though.  I think this is the first time in my adult life that I have lived in a house with a Hills Hoist.  For the past years I have been living with that other Australian icon, the "under the house".

The knickers here were made from Amy's fabulous Rosy Ladyshorts lingerie pattern.   The pattern was originally designed for stretch lace, but I did not have any on hand.  I did have this very bright mesh that I ordered online years ago, which brighter than I expected when it arrived.

Actually, the whole project was masterpiece in nobbling together bits and pieces from my stash.  The stretch lace elastic was some that I picked up from Cozy Ma's in Cairns when I passed through a few weeks ago, with no specific project in mind.  Of course, with knickers this bright, I needed to make a matching bra.  The findings for the bra were from a findings kit I bought from Merkwaerdigh.  I think the heart motifs on the straps were a perfect match for the fabric!  I think I have mentioned previously that I had to discard most of the elastics in these kits, as they are not a good enough quality for my climate.  However, I did have some hot pink elastic, that I ordered as knicker elastic, which turned out to be plush backed elastic, a little too strong for knickers, when it arrived.  And finally, the turquoise ribbon was a tiny scrap left over from the ribbon trim on my daughter's character skirt for her ballet exams.

But back to the Ladyshorts pattern.  This is not a style that I normally wear, but they have turned out to be very comfortable.  The instructions were very good, but I can see in the photograph that I used my cover-stitch machine to attach the elastic. 

The bra pattern is one I drafted...although "drafted" is a loose term.  I have had "mesh bra pattern" on my to-do list for a while, inspired my these Calvin Klein versions.  On the day that I was making these, I did not want to get lost in the world of drafting (that is a place I can get lost for days and days, whilst projects sit about unfinished).  So I just got out my favourite bra pattern and used the pieces to get the size of the dart and the curved shape of the wire edge of the cup.  Then I free-hand drew the the shape of the cup.  I cut it out, held it up to my body, decided it needed changing a bit, drew a second version and that was it. 

Overall, I am ridiculously pleased with how this project turned out...mostly because it was a great match up of bits and pieces and because the bright colours are so uncharacteristic of my underwear drawer.  And yes, I will be using the Ladyshorts pattern again.