Turkish Delight

Better pics of original underwear set.

Back on Monday from Cannes - check back then!

RoaRRR!!! & off to Cannes

This is the matching brazier I made. With help from my mother, we adapted the New Look pattern and just made the top half. The back is stretchy swimsuit fabric (multi colored polka dots no less) because we didn't happen to have any wide elastic in the house. Make use, my mother always says.

Well, folks, I'm off to Cannes in the morning. I'll try to post while at the film fest, but don't think I'll have access to the Internet and anyway, I'm hoping I may be on a yacht with load of celebrities drinking champagne. (Yeah, in my fantasies!) I will let you know how it goes and keep your crafty questions in mind.

I've scheduled to post some further pics twice while I'm away, but will be back Monday with loads of photos so check back then! xox

Wild Nights Start with Leopard...

So back to the underwear. I made this set using a New Look pattern #6443. The only one I could find with French knickers. Actually it was almost the only one I could find period. I had made a lovely mess of my first attempt which I posted about here (scroll to bottom of page), so I thought I had to try set 2 to see if I had learned anything.

I am happy to report I didn't burn any holes through fabric. I didn't cut out three left sides for the knickers or two for the bodice. I tried to match all of the leopard print stripes. This was a heavier fabric with more polyester in it rather than working with pure silk which made it much easier. The instructions in this pattern were much clearer (except the back still gaped open so elastic was again a necessary last minute addition).

Extremely Crafty recommendation - You'll be happy with the pattern.

So what do you think of this knicker set?

Knickers to this!

I've been on a kick to make my own underwear since everything I want to buy is at least $50 or 50 pounds sterling. I bought McCall's M5651 underwear pattern. It is one of a small selection of underwear patterns on the market at the moment. There's more patterns available for dog clothes! Anyway, this was one of their diy style range and promises to help make it your own style. Almost every suggestion they have is - add rhinestones. Well, I think anyone of us could have told them that.

Rhinestones are not going to fix the fact that the pattern doesn't even tell you how to make a proper crotch. The instructions tell you to cut out a piece of jersey fabric against the template, lay it on the underwear and stitch in place. The result is that all of the hems and the raw edges show.

One of my other issues with this pattern is that one of the knicker patterns is shown with scallops. You are supposed to buy fabric with scallops that perfectly matches the pattern. I used lacy scallop fabric, but had to improvise on the pattern because theirs just didn't work.

The knickers ended up turning out nice as I took extra care to match the lace stripes in the behind view and carefully cut out the lacy scallops, but especially with the advised crotch construction, I can't see how these will last more than a few washes.

Extremely Crafty suggestion - Don't buy this pattern.