Partial Panty Progress

Oh how I love alliteration. ;-D

Anywho, yesterday I spent the afternoon mass producing some panties. Throughout the week I had cut 4 pairs out of various fabrics I had around the sewing room and I had them all pinned up and ready to sew. So I sat down to sew and here's what happened.



That was the one pair I did not have good luck with right from the get go, so I wanted to try it again. I am not a strapless bra fan, so I thought one day I might make that bra with straps, but I bought this pattern for the thong pattern. My first attempt was pretty bad. First off, I cut the pattern for a small on both the front and the back. Mistake #1. Recently I had had major awesome success with the Madalynne patterns if I cut a medium for the back and a small for the front. I have no idea why I cut a small for the back. I think because I was on a panty high from the others going so well and I was on autopilot when I was cutting this pattern out. So the results were that I could not even pull these over my knees. That was not a fun time. I had used a pink stretch mesh for the back and a stretchy black fabric for the front. Not sure what that fabric is, but it was one of the few stretchy fabrics I could find. Therein lies my 2nd problem/mistake; the fabric and mesh together were not stretchy enough for a small. I found this suuuuuper stretchy burnout looking fabric at the thrift store once...



I want to make a few t-shirts with this because it is soooooo soft and stretchy. It is sheer, though, so that might be why I have not used it yet. But I thought for a tester panty, it would work out just fine. I also did a stretch test where I took the same length of that white burnout fabric and both the original black fabric and pink mesh and stretched them as far as they would comfortably go. The white fabric had waaaaaay more stretch, so I decided to stick with the small in front and back and give it a go. I also ended up using this white fabric for a lot of the crotch pieces because its perfect for such a thing. I might make a whole lot of crotches for the future like I sometimes do with pockets when I find a good plain white fabric.

I also found a couple of fabrics that I had bought from Hobby Lobby when they first opened a store near my mom's house. They're not the best quality fabrics because they pill pretty quickly, but they would be just perfect for testers. So I started with this one...



I also cut another 2 pairs of the Simplicity 8711 because I loved it so much the first time around. So I got to work sewing them all up and I was pleasantly surprised with the thong ones. First up was the gray one. I had some gray Fold Over Elastic and used that because I thought it would look best with the gray fabric, and also because the back part doesn't have much fabric to work with being that it is a thong, so a decorative elastic might not have enough room along the butt crack area. It ended up turning out very nicely!!


The top elastic doesn't look pretty when its not on a person because it has to stretch over your hips when you put it on. Plus, instead of folding it over, I left it as just some elastic sitting on the top, more like a sporty look. But look how pretty that FOE looks on the leg edges!!!!

The second up was the next 8711 one. I was so happy with the first thong and wanted to ride that high, so I went with one that I knew fit well and it turned out just lovely!



I went with the decorative black elastic on this one because there is plenty of room to showcase the pattern on the elastic. I did make two passes with the zig zag stitch on all the elastic because the decorative part on the inside edge would sometimes flip up while I was trying them on, so the second pass was near the bottom edge of that decorative elastic just to hold it down. And this fabric had a bit more stretch than the lovely flowery jersey so it ended up fitting a little looser even though it was still a small in the front and a medium in the back.


Flippy...


Elastic with one pass...


... and now with a second pass. More secure.

Then I moved on to thong #2. On this one I decided to use the little overlay part on the front like I had done with the original ill-fitting one. And I had a ton of plain white FOE, so I thought it would be nice for this tester, also.


The one thing I dislike about making these is that they don't photograph extremely well. That elastic looks like its going all over the place, but when you put it on it looks perfect. It just looks floppy in pics, especially on this thin ass fabric. Maybe on a more thick fabric it would photograph better, but they still fit great!



Oooh... lace overlay thingy part.

This one fits pretty well, too! I am very pleased with the Simplicity 8437 now that I have found a suitable fabric or two to work with. I also made another 8711 in this black and white swirly fabric.




I used a picot edge elastic for the leg openings on this one because I had it lying around and I am out of plain black FOE. But I think this looks nice and its different compared to the others. So far I have used a few different elastics and I love them all!


This one fits closer to the first version I made with the flowery jersey fabric. I think I might make another Simplicity 8624 or 8436 with that flowery jersey because it is so freakin soft and I still have some left over. I can't decide if I want to make them with or without the lace backs. I really like the lace backs. The husband likes all of them so far, but he prefers shiny fabrics, so that shall be my next project; finding some stretchy, shiny fabrics. I did find a new fabric website and placed a small order for some more jersey fabric and some lace, too. Surge Fabric Shop is their name and they have very reasonable shipping. I am super excited to see what I can make from their stuff! I guess its a good thing our Walmart stopped carrying my brand of beer. I now use that beer money for sewing or stamping supplies, so it all works out. B-)

Comments

  1. My favorite line: "I might make a whole lot of crotches for the future..." :-D

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