I bought this pretty raspberry/cream tie dye cotton? jersey from Stone Mountain fabrics in San Francisco during my trip over there with Yoshimi in late 2019… always with the intention of making a new lingerie set. Five year later and finally, ta da! I actually had it all cut out several years ago, and then it languished, and languished… The fabric is a tad on the thin side, not too thin but just a little. I think it might have some bamboo in, it has a slight hint of that tell-tale slipperiness. Maybe that’s why I left it for a while. Jerseys are so variable, it’s honestly quite amazing.
I used my old favourite, the modified Cloth Habit Watson bra and undies pattern. (see here for my usual modifications) and made my usual bra with two pairs of matching undies.
Because of the slight thinness of the fabric, I lined the bra band completely with a clotted-cream coloured cotton polyester stretch from my stash that I’ve nibbled away at, bit by bit over many years for lingerie purposes. It has such a great sturdiness to it and it’s the perfect shade of cream. The undies lining is from the same stuff, and for the cup lining I used more of the tie-dyed jersey. I invisibly hand stitched the cup and lining together along the seam, for stability.
The elastic is a mix of white and cream colours. I actually bought all new bits for this project back in 2019, something I haven’t done for a while! and it was all neatly bundled up together in a little bag with the cut pieces, ready and waiting for me to sew up. Past me was so considerate. The strap elastic and rings/sliders were from Homecraft Textiles, the band elastic from a MakeBra lingerie kit, the rest from Spotlight.
This is the first time I’ve used some of this cream-coloured band elastic from the MakeBra kit (above) … it doesn’t have an obvious decorative edging like just about all the others I’ve used, but instead has one slightly thickish rounded ridge along one edge. When I first bought this kit the lack of a distinct decorative edge confused me so I wasn’t really sure what to do with it but just decided to give it a go using that subtle ridge as the bit that shows. I’ve decided I like the clean edge and it looks pretty nice actually!
When I first pinned on that white white white hook and eye closure it just looked so glaringly white I had to try something, so soaked it in a cup of black tea for a bit. I think I overdid this a bit! the colour turned out a little too strong. Oh well, we live and learn!
I used a mixture of red and ivory thread for topstitching. No reason, just that I had it and wanted to mix it up a bit. I really like doing subtle little features like this.
I had a small amount of leftovers so ran up a quick pair of sockettes using the Sytt och Prytt Florens ballerina sockette pattern. (see here). I don’t always blog about these when I make them but I actually wear these sockettes a LOT: with shoes that need an invisible sock, also as a kind of “slipper” for around the house to keep my feet clean, and also over my tights on not-too-cold days to protect them inside my boots/shoes. The heel and toe area of tights is always the first thing to go and I’ve found that having a thin sockette protects them from wear and tear just that little bit longer, so it’s worth wearing them. I mean, they’re not gorgeous or couture or anything, but so handy, a good way of using leftover scraps, and very quick and easy to make.
Taking off all those long (long) lengths of bias cut channelling took quite a long time, made even more painful with the memory of how carefully I had stitched them on in the first place to perfectly line up the channels with the lines of checks, as well as switching up threads depending on whether I was stitching on a black row or a cream row, this additionally making it more difficult to see the stitches I was unpicking. I know, I wonder about my own sanity too, sometimes…
Anyway. Iteration Number Two was essentially the same dress sans the elasticated channels. I reused the same shoulder straps to be a halter neckline and allowed the otherwise unaltered dress to hang like so. I actually quite liked it like this and wore it with a little T-shirt underneath a few times.
In the end, Iteration Number Three, the final iteration, was very straightforward to achieve. I settled upon a modified version of a dress from the Japanese pattern book Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, specifically dress R. My final version is more narrowed at the top end, and with the yoke also narrowed in width and the neckline substantially more “filled in”. I also left off the sleeves through having absolutely no more of the check fabric anyway, and finished the armscyes with self-made black bias binding. I removed the original inseam pockets – and a big thank you to past me for overlocking all the raw edges separately from each other! – and repositioned them appropriately for the dress’s slightly new form. The yoke is black cotton denim, cut from the leftovers from my wide-leg jeans from last year, and lined with plain black poplin. I did decorative white topstitching just for fun, and added a completely frivolous and not-useful-at-all coin pocket to the front yoke, also for fun. I also reused the “made in 2024” tag that it had from its inception.
please excuse the totally gratuitous Clara pic…
how beautiful is this fabric?! My daughter Cassie designed this very pretty, inviting and perfectly summery scene and of course her proud mother had to buy some. The name of the print is “public pool”, available in 
I finally decided on a little skirt and naturally chose 
I used the very last of my “made in 2024” tags in the little breast pocket. Honestly, the dress was actually cut out in and partially made in 2024. So, 2024 or 2025? It’s kind of a “saddle” project really, spreading itself from last year to this one. I think I can use the tag with a clear conscience. 🙂
I laid the dress pieces on the cross, and the front overlay on the bias, and used some of the leftover bits to cut extensions to the front overlay so the ties are a bit longer, about 10cm or so. I really like them this longer length.
As per our pattern, I flat felled the side seams, which I always think looks really nice. You can see here that I used red thread to sew the dress up; this is because it was in my stash already and I didn’t want to buy new thread. I thought this would be fine, and it is really. I hand-stitched the hem.
A casual passerby would never see any of the bias binding finishes on the inside of the dress, but these give me a lot of joy too. I bias-bound the pocket edges, and the back neckline and armhole edges are bound according to the pattern. Gingham makes the prettiest bias binding! Because of this I actually cut up the entirety of the leftovers and made it into bias binding that I can use on a future project, so please look out for that!
It was hideously windy on the beach this morning which makes the above pictures a realistic portrayal of my day, however it does make everything look a little wild. Thus, a still picture where the dress is not being blasted to bits. Honestly, the things I do…
