Sounds like a weird inspiration for a lingerie set? Well this is my thing for prttynpnk’s Jungle January 🙂
I really wanted to do something a bit different, something other than big-catty. I googled jungle animals and was immediately drawn to the splendiferous group of amphibians that are the poison dart frogs; there is a huge variety of incredibly hued, jungle- and rainforest-dwelling frogs, in the most amazing array of beautiful, vibrant colours! The one that really leapt, or hopped? out to me was this little guy. Meet Oophaga silvatica, a native of Colombia. This colour morph is called “Koi”.
I loved its pale blue/red colouring and immediately envisioned some sort of lace overlay to mimic the markings.
I did a certain amount of agonising over “what” to make, I was a little tempted to make a dressy cocktail number, but practicality won. Keeping my new resolution to sew thoughtfully firmly in mind!
The pale aqua blue bamboo knit and red stretch lace are from Fabulous Fabrics, the baby blue shoulder strap elastic from Homecraft Textiles. The bra pattern is my current favourite; MakeBra 2610, an underwired bra with a pieced foam cup lining. I’m very comfortable with this style so I am super happy to have another one in my collection.
I made two pairs of matching knickers using two different patterns; the boy leg hipsters above are a copy taken off a rtw pair and the bikini brief below are from my tried and true McCalls 2772. This is the second time I’ve made the MakeBra pattern, the second time I’ve used the rtw pattern and about the millionth time I’ve used the McCalls… well, it feels like it sometimes anyway! The McCalls bikini brief pattern is hands-down my comfiest and easiest to wear, but I do still like making a different one occasionally, just for some variety.
I sewed the lace on the undies by machine but thought it ended up looking a little too… machine-y? so for the bra I sewed the lace on to the cups by hand, using invisible fell-stitching with the stitches hidden within the foam lining. This does look much nicer, no surprises there.
I couldn’t find any blue or red lingerie elastic to match in nicely, so instead used regular 6mm braided elastic and enclosed it inside a once turned-under hem, topstitched on the outside in zig-zag stitch. It doesn’t look quite as well finished on the inside as lingerie elastic would, but doesn’t look terrible. And it works just fine 🙂
Those very long-tailed, decorative bows on all 3 pieces: I’ve seen several rtw lingerie sets decorated with much longer tailed bows than usual and liked how it looks, so I decided to cut my tails quite long too. Hmmm, not quite sure now! They do look quite romantic and pretty, but I’m starting to wonder how practical they’ll be in situ. So these are currently on trial and may or may not get cut shorter.
Thoughts; ok I love this colour combination in theory, in practice it does feel a tiny bit on the flashy side for lingerie. For me, I mean. My usual style tends to run to the colourless and slightly boring, and this set is anything but! so I’m stepping outside of my comfort zone here. But I kind of still love it anyway. It’s not the obvious thing anyone would think when imagining “frog-inspired” but I’m totally going to think of frogs every time I look at it.
*ribbit*
Details:
Bra; MakeBra 2610, in aqua bamboo knit and red stretch lace, my review of this pattern here
Undies; (L) McCalls 2772, and (R) pattern taken from a rtw pair
This is a stunning set and a beautiful color combination.
What a pretty set Carolyn!! The colors are gorgeous together. And your workmanship is impeccable. Nature proves once again to be the best inspiration!
Love the inspiration and this looks like a lingerie set that you would buy in a high end store – gorgeous!
Fantastic set. Jungle January usually does nothing for me, but I love what you have come up with.
Ahhh! I love this colour matchup! Best inspiration ever!
I immediately got the reference and loved it! What a wonderful combo! I don't think I have enough exclamation marks!
thanks Rory! 🙂
Nature creates the best colour combinations – love the new set. It's nice to see a different take on Jungle January.
This is very pretty and I love the color combination. Great work as usual! 🙂
great looking set, great inspiration from the jungle.
Love nature for all its wonderful colours and your frog certainly hasn't let you down – love your new set and so different to the normal Jungle January pieces.
Nature is so much fun! I love these colour together and your lingerie set looks lovely.
What a fabulous colour combination. I hadn't heard of that frog but he is very attractive – almost as nice as your lingerie!
That set is so pretty!!! It's making me want to make my own underwear!
Frankie
http://www.knitwits-owls.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
What great inspiration! Love your thinking outside the box.
very nice, that bra pattern is a nice shape, I can see why you like it.
Wow, your inspiration source is awesome! I liked the colors and this cute lingerie set ofc 🙂
Gorgeous!
What a lovely set. You inspire me
thank you so much, dk's wife 🙂
Wow, that little frog is so striking and unusual – I kind of can't imagine a habitat where these two gorgeous colours blend in, but I love them together and I think this bra and undies set is just gorgeous. Honestly, I don't *want* to make bras, but every time you blog another of your amazing bra and undie sets it pushes me closer to changing my mind 🙂
I love it! Natures inspiration cant be beat! Very frisky make!
This is a beautiful set and a very original approach to Jungle January!
Wow!! My first thought was how much this looks like the frog. I just love this set. Thinking outside the square – very clever!
THAT is amazing. I love it! And I particularly love that you've found a non-feline jungle theme. It's such a fantastic combination of colours.
So, you started me on a "jungle animal" googling journey which has led me to the following:
http://www.conservationinstitute.org/10-strangest-animals-in-the-rainforest/
Seriously…Glass Frog??? WOW!
amazing! there are lots of deep sea creatures that are translucent but I'd never before heard of a land animal with the same thing! 🙂
Red lace always looks amazing I think. This is a beautiful set. What an amazing looking frog!
love the unusual inspiration 🙂 and what a lovely set turned out from it.. freat color combo!
I would never have put a pale blue together with bright red, but you've convinced me since it's what any self-respecting poison dart frog would wear. Love your style of thoughtfulness – much better than yet another cat print!
gorgeous, love the color combo.
Simply beautiful. Jo x
Love love love those colors!! Well done.
Ok just when I decided to hang up my bra making hat, you produce this! Foam lined bras are my favourite hands down so I have to learn how to do this! Oh, and buy that pattern! Love it!
Ooh lala! Fancy pants. I love your style. I love that it's all yours. I love your instagram site so that I can see how cohesive you've become. Inspiring!
thank you so much Juliann! 🙂
lovely color ! KISS
Wow! This is really thinking outside the box. I am in the middle of my Jungle January sewing but it's not nearly as imaginative as this. Gorgeous lingerie set.
Wow! Nature wins again with fabulous color combinations! That is a stunning set! What a fabulous use of inspiration, you carried it out so well!
Not colors I would have ever thought to put together but boy did that turn out lovely or what! Great job!
I thought it was a ceramic frog! The long bows are pretty, the colors together…like the frog…are beautiful. What a fun post!!!!
thanks so much Judi! 🙂
This is absolutely gorgeous! LOVE the colour combo – will definitely need to go check out FFs. I'm so keen to start making more lingerie after doing a course last year but there's soooooooooo many things already on the to-sew list!!
WOW Carolyn–you are amazing! Artist, clothing engineer, creative and clever!!
Lovely set! That new bra pattern is a keeper. Did you find that the MakeBra sizing was the same as your RTW size? I've been eyeballing MakeBra but their sizing chart is a little worrying because it's so far off my RTW size.
thanks scooter! yes, I've found my makeBra pattern to be spot on for my rtw size. They use European sizing on the site which we are not familiar with here in Australia but I used this international size conversion chart to work out the one for me.
Also, you can get the makeBra patterns in either just one size, which is a bit cheaper, or in a multi sized pattern, which is a little more expensive but a safer bet if you're not sure about the exact size you want 🙂
Thanks for clarifying! I was totally wierded out by their sizing method, so that's good to hear. Just, their designs are so great, and have made up beautifully for real live humans too. *want*
Also, can I just say I love the outside-the-box thinking on the beautiful poison dart frogs!? 🙂
Wow, what great inspiration beautiful lingerie.
A very clever take on Jungle January! They're beautiful.
Carolyn, I still have not made a single bra that fits me correctly! I've gone through 3 patterns so far and no luck yet. I've had better luck with underpants, but yeah, I'm a bit sad about it. Did you use a special kind of foam for the cups?
Adri; I used a thin polyester foam lining from makeBra. I bought two of their basic kits which contain enough supplies to make several bras each, including lining; and you can also buy just the foam lining by itself too here
YAY! Thank you! I think that's what I'm missing. I need all the support I can get! I also enrolled in Beverly Johnson's bra course to see if I can really get into the technical aspects of why the fabric is behaving as it is, and perhaps better ways of shaping the cups to adapt to my size.
You nailed matching the colors! I absolutely love it!
Such pretty undies!
Love the color combo! Nature is so inspiring. And what a cool frog!
I wouldn't have though of pairing these colours together, but it turns out nature knows best! New undies look great.
Wow, soooo cute! The color combo is amazing.
How creative!! The colors look very pretty together
Gosh, these are just fabulous.
INGENIOUS – i totally love this unusual colour combination and how perfectly it matches its unusual inspiration – so, SO pretty!! 🙂
GREAT WORK! Unusual but very nice coloring.
Take a look at Melissas free panty pattern – http://www.fehrtrade.com/article/676/free-lacey-thong-panty-pattern. That would hit the spot with this lacey-combo and is some alternation to the McCalls 2772.
This is possibly a late question, but have you found power net stocked anywhere in Perth? I've only got a Spotlight nearby, and they certainly don't have it. It's a bit old fashioned in this age of digital shopping, but I'd really like to feel it with my own fingers before I buy it.
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