watson Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Handmade by Carolyn

Jungle-y underdaks

29/01/2017 10:31 am \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

Can you even see my latest creations…? Not really? Well, that’s because it’s all so perfectly and beautifully camouflaged in the deepest, darkest, greenest depths of ~~my garden~~ I mean… the jungle, of course!!

So it’s January, and I’d begun to notice a few jungle-y things popping up on my IG feed… oh, it’s that time again…? well alrighty then!!! hurrah! Jungle January! the brainchild of Anne of Pretty Grievances I LOVE sewing challenges!

I’m continuing on with my tradition of making a new set of bra plus undies for my thing. The last two years I’ve taken the humble frog as my inspiration, firstly here and secondly here… this time I wanted something different, and by that I meant a creature other than a frog. I had a few different ideas… but nothing jumped out at me… finally I just thought; I’m going to google “jungle” and select the top rating picture as my inspiration, no further argument. I did, it, held my breathe, what creature was I going to have to “interpret”…? and this is what came up…

source, kingofwallpapers.com/jungle

THE JUNGLE ITSELF. OF COURSE!!! #facepalm

Truly magnificent, yes? Nature at its most glorious.

First impression; well, just GREEN. How extravagantly, intensely, and totally green it was. Fabricwise, I was immediately reminded of a length of stretch stuff that Mum had tossed out and that I had immediately squirrelled away, it has a random painterly print on it; predominantly green with some blobs of other colours subtly melting all together; I think it was originally from Fabulous Fabrics. I dug it out, positioned my pattern pieces on it strategically so as to include as much of the greenery bits as possible, emphasise the “jungle-y” parts of it as much as I was able.

There are even a few, almost snake-scale-y bits, ranging from mossy, yellow-y green…

right though to an almost aqua green

…and can you almost imagine here the golden sunlight breaking through the high-up leafy canopy, and maybe a bright scarlet flash of parrot’s wings, or a single jungle bloom…?

Patterns; my old favourite MakeBra bra pattern, and the two pairs of matching briefs are both cloth habit Watson. I used the makeBra instructional video on how to make a foam-lined bra to make mine; it’s a brilliant video, completely foolproof. Some of my materials like the foam and some of the elastics are from the MakeBra basic kits that I bought last year, though the underbust bra elastic is from Homecraft Textiles because the stuff in the MakeBra kit is not such good quality this time, unfortunately. The lingerie elastic on the undies is from Spotlight. I bought up a huge amount of this during a sale one time and am still using it up!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: cloth habit, jungle january, lingerie, makeBra, makeBra 2610, watson

pretty duds, plain duds

20/09/2016 11:38 am \ 40 Comments \ Carolyn

Sooo….. I’ve been making underwear, and recently have produced two new sets; one is sorta Oo-la-la while the other is more of the Serviceable variety.

Madame Serviceable? you’re up first!

“Pretty” is all very well but we all need some plains in our lives too, right? I still think this set is kinda classy 🙂 Of course I’ve been wearing it a lot! because it’s absolutely awesome under all my winter white sweaters and Tshirts, which I wear such heckkuva lot it’s not even funny. Rest assured though, I took these photos when it was all fresh and brand new, hot off the machine and not yet been worn.

Patterns; MakeBra 2610, which is apparently now renamed DL03; so I’m going to start using that tag instead… and all four pairs of knickers in this post are the Watson briefs.
Materials; light caramel stretchy stuff from Fabulous Fabrics, all other materials are from my MakeBra basic kits. The foldover elastic on the waist of the knickers is a different type from that I used for the legs, because in between the two basic kits I’ve bought through them, they seem to have changed their supplier or something. I didn’t have enough of either elastic to do everything on both pairs of briefs, but I had enough for this arrangement. They’re close enough to identical that I can live with it 😉 The waist elastic is a teeny little bit “shinier” than the leg elastic. The little ribbon bows are rescued from off of an old lingerie set, also me-made. Yep, when I toss out an old lingerie set, I usually salvage the little decorative bows off it, because A) it’s not like they get dirty or worn out or ruined or anything through wear, and B) they’re kinda fiddly to make so it’s worth the few seconds it takes to pick them off to keep for a new set. Waste not want not!

Madame Oo-la-la…

I bought this neon yellow bra kit from Measure Twice Cut Once… and was rather thrilled that I managed to get not just the bra but two pair of knickers from it too;yay!!! ~~Stingey~~ economical cutter; yet another of my middle names…

hehe; I finished the set late at night and then just slung it all over Bessie in a hurry. The next morning it gave me such a laugh to see her “wearing” these pretty frilly nothings all deshabille and “twas a wild-night, eh?” like this!! 😀

The bra design is my own; I just wanted something flimsy and a bit of whimsical frippery. In summer I don’t always want or need to wear the foam-lined “Tshirt” bras that I favour in winter, and can just happily live in the more lacey, pretty and fun designs. Just one more reason to love summer!!! Anyway, I just draped the lace directly on Bessie and ad-libbed it, and I couldn’t be happier with the result! I think it turned out really pretty and almost more like a sweet little camisole than a bra. Don’t worry, it’s definitely going to be worn as a bra, though! even though it’s lined with beige power net it’s still quite see-through.

It’s not a super supportive thing, but realistically I have no need for a super supportive bra anyway. I still think it’s pretty stable though; I stitched the clear elastic that came with the kit along each side of the cups; so they won’t stretch out, and stitched a little strip of bias-cut white linen in with the side seams. I trimmed the linen strip right down before encasing it within the side seam, so it doesn’t show…. and this stabilised the side seams and makes them nice and strong, and they won’t stretch out either.

Inner workings: 1) hand flat-felled seams within the cups and clear elastic stabilising; and 2) linen bias-strip to stabilise the side seams(above) is then sewn to be enclosed inside the layers (below)

There was enough of some neon yellow bra elastic to do one pair of knickers around the waist, the other has a strip of the leftover neon yellow lace at the top. After that, I had to resort to things from my stash; obviously I didn’t have any matching lingerie elastic for the legs and had to resort to white. I don’t hate the white, but don’t love it either… I kinda wish I had made some attempt to get hold of matching lingerie elastic but I’m an impatient person and really wanted to just get them made and done!

Posted in: sewing, Uncategorized \ Tagged: lingerie, makeBra, own design, watson

film noir (lingerie)

21/06/2016 10:49 am \ 18 Comments \ Carolyn

Lately the smalls drawer is just looking the epitome of prettiness! I’m totally enamoured with this new set… ivory bobbin lace on a deep blue-y charcoal background, with delicate little black ribbon bows. A little old Hollywood, scraps from the cutting room floor…

source

Patterns; bra is my favourite MakeBra 2610, and I’ve made two pairs of different knickers to match.

Below: cloth habit Watson briefs.

And further below is pictured the the MakeBra free hipster pattern, free to download here from their site. How do the knickers patterns compare? Well, I admit those hipsters do initially look like awfully big granny-knickers lain flat like that, but they’re actually rather cute on! believe it or not! Boy leg style, and medium rise, sitting right at mid-hip. I like them, a lot; even though my wearing preference lies with the more high cut bikini style of brief, like my old fave McCalls 2772, and the Watson. I love the Watson briefs, and they’ve become my knicker of choice, with the proviso of always modifying by eliminating that awful horizontal seam in front of the crotch. Sorry, but I just really do not like that seam! and don’t see the advantage of it. I prefer to cut the front in one piece, splicing the front and crotch pattern pieces together, and sewing the crotch lining in the same method as outlined in my McCalls 2772 pattern, my other go-to knickers pattern.

Actually, I did the exact same thing with the MakeBra hipster briefs, which also has that same horizontal front crotch seam. grrr. Both panty liners are of plain ivory cotton jersey.

Fabrics and other bits and bobs; charcoal stretch bought from Fabulous Fabrics, eons ago. I used this for my Pattern Magic spiral leggings, and still have quite a bit of leftovers. The ivory cotton bobbin lace trim is something that I’ve had for, like, ever. Underwires are recycled from older, also self-made bras that have worn out. I used several different types of elastics, all smaller leftover bits from the stash. Knicker leg elastic on both is a rather nice lacy elastic from Fabulous Fabrics, waist elastic is the plain picot lingerie elastic from Spotlight, bra elastics from variously the black and the ivory MakeBra basic kits. Actually, the entire set was put together entirely from my stash, I didn’t have to buy a single new thing. Awesome, no? #youknowyoumakealotoflingeriewhen

I feel so efficient and so damn scrap-busteringly virtuous. And I happen to have made something needed and useful and rather lovely too, imo. Triple win!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: lingerie, makeBra 2610, watson

Petrol blue/apricot lingerie set

04/06/2016 12:45 pm \ 19 Comments \ Carolyn

Fulfilling a need. Plus, I’ve been making some winter boots and it has been such a freaking marathon, cue Munchen scream here, although I am over the difficult bit and on the home straight now, weeeee! anyway I just wanted to whip up something quick and pretty and girly and fun and frivolous. Lingerie! of course! Something to lighten the mental load.

And happily coinciding with measure twice cut once “everyone deserves pretty lingerie” Actually, I did a recce and clean out of the old smalls drawer recently, and things are looking a bit grim in there. I definitely need more than just this one set. Need. MORE!

Patterns; bra is makeBra 2610, now discontinued I think (sob) but very very similar in style to the bra pattern DL03. I say “similar” but I would even hazard a very non-informed guesstimate as “near-identical”. The undies are both the Watson briefs; although I see makeBra has a free hipster knickers pattern on their site now… I’ve printed it for myself but not actually made it up yet. Next time!

Fabric and materials: I bought the pretty floral cotton-mix jersey and the lace-y knicker elastic from Fabulous Fabrics during their recent 20% off sale, and the deep teal/navy blue shoulder strap elastic and ribbon are from Homecraft Textiles. I’ve always loved the colour combination of deep blues and teals when mixed with pinks of any variety; such a pleasing colour combination. This set is pretty plain really, all the excitement is in the print. In a rather busy print like this, I prefer for it to do the talking and power down on any lace or decoration or any frippery bits and bobs to distract from it. That print is plenty!!

Gloating about my topstitching here… and can I just say, NO PINS!! that’s all thanks to the brilliant makeBra instructional youtube video, which demystifies bra making and was a life-changing moment for me. Seriously!

All the other innards and bits; the foam, hook and eye closure, rings and sliders, underwire casing and underwires are from my rapidly dwindling basic lingerie kits that I bought from makeBra. Those kits are pretty brilliant, I totally need to order another one…. ASAP.

Woot! Smalls drawer; levelled up!!!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: lingerie, makeBra 2610, watson

Cassie’s bikini

23/01/2016 3:48 pm \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello!

so here is Cassie modelling her new bikini, previewed on instagram the other day. We both popped on our bathers this morning and headed off to the beach for a quick photo op, and of course a swim! aaaah, it was totally divine, like heaven. The water was crystal cool and clear and it was all just so delightful. Every time we head off to the beach I think “hmmm, should come down here more often…” but then we get busy and a few weeks go by just like that. I guess it wouldn’t feel like such a treat when we do get there, so maybe we’ve got just the right balance!

The colour may look a little familiar… remember when I told how Cassie had given me some lovely brick fabric from Fabulous Fabrics for my birthday, with which I was make my bathers this year? well this is the exact same stuff! Cassie liked it so much she bought some for herself too, to make her own bathers! We must’ve made a kinda funny sight this morning, in a Sound of Music kind of a way.

But anyway, sewing stuff re the bikini…

Cassie designed and made the top herself, basing the wrap-around band design on that of Madalynne’s free sierra bra pattern; except she drafted her own halter neck bodice pieces and gathered them gently underneath the bust into a double layered, turned out band. The band ties at the back in a self-tie, likewise the halter tie. All pieces are self-fabric lined.

I was commissioned to make the bottoms. I used the ClothHabit Watson briefs as a basic starting point, splicing the front piece and gusset together and cutting them together as one piece. I always do this mod every time I make this pattern. To get that tied-together-sides style; the side edges were extended by 2cm each side, and the elastic starts and ends at those extensions. The extensions were then just turned under to make casements, through which I threaded a little self-tie up and down each side. Meaning the bikini is held together at the side edges by this tie.

That’s it, really!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: bathers, Cassie, own design, sierra, watson

set de la tree frog

15/01/2016 1:24 pm \ 27 Comments \ Carolyn

My new lingerie set is inspired by the red-eyed tree frog. Yes, really! and this is my “thing” for Jungle January, the fun yearly challenge set by Anne of Pretty Greivances.

Deja vu!! because last year I also made underdaks, also froggy-inspired.

photograph credit, Carey James Balboa; source

So, hello there, Agalychnis callidryas. This little cutie is native to the rain forests that extend from Mexico down through Central America to Columbia… and thank YOU, Wikipedia. Also according to Wikipedia, its name callidryas is derived from the Greek for beautiful wood nymph. So while I am wearing it I shall imagine myself as a … bwahaha, I’m joking of course, I cannot even type that with a straight face. Lol.

It’s an exquisite little creature, is it not? the colours are quite magnificent. So bright and vivid and with those eyes; big, round and true scarlet, with a vertically aligned pupil. I positioned my two-hole buttons accordingly, and used black thread on purpose to mimic that.

Well I reckon it’s the attention to the whimsical detail that becomes the most fun thing about making your own clothes!

Actually this was all a bit fortuitous… I kinda forgot about Jungle January, then Sue posted her dress and I was like doh! Jungle January! aaaaaagh! but as it turned out, I’d only just cut all the lingerie pieces of green jersey, like the night before. I’d managed to squeak these pieces out from the leftovers of a Tshirt… anyway, I looked at the colour and immediately thought “frog!”

So, with the perfect colour fabric (Fabulous Fabrics), plus it was already cut out and ready to go, I already had the blue fold-over elastic, navy blue underband elastic and the red buttons in Le Stash… so I just needed to dash out to Homecraft Textiles for some orange fold-over elastic; bob’s your uncle.

squeezing all details into one picture…

Patterns; both knickers are the Watson briefs and the bra is my favourite pattern, MakeBra 2610. This is hands down the most wearable of the bra patterns in my collection.

Oh, I mentioned the lingerie set was leftovers from a Tshirt? well, now seems a good enough time as any to blog about that too. Lime green jersey from Fabulous Fabrics, pattern is the Nettie byCloset Case patterns, my go-to Tshirt pattern. It’s actually way too hot for me to really wear it right now, it’s 37C phew! so this is like a 20 second photo shoot happening here. I bought this fabric at the same time as the black-and-white striped fabric for this recent skirt, because I reckoned they’d be kind cool together, Tim Burton-ish, in a good way.

Actually, this project is pretty funny to me; see, the Tshirt was really my primary objective, because I wanted more colour options in my Tshirt department… the lingerie was cut out just as a “oh, what the hey” afterthought because the fabric was already out. In all likelihood the pieces would have got shoved away like the three other unmade lingerie sets I’ve already cut out under the same circumstances…. oops! must make those too… *blush*

Then Jungle January breathed inspiration into those scrappy bits, and I got all excited and super focused and enthused about making the lingerie and it became a much bigger deal in my head… I almost forgot about that Tshirt!

Later edit; I eventually got tired of the Tshirt’s lime-green colour and dyed it brown, now it’s a delightfully sludgy shade of olive!

Posted in: sewing \ Tagged: Closet Case files, cloth habit, jungle january, lingerie, makeBra 2610, Nettie, top, watson

palest grey/green set

12/12/2015 9:04 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

A new lingerie set…
Patterns; bra is the Watson, by cloth habit; the longline version, and the ultra-cute knickers; which appear superficially like ginormous granny-knickers on the flat but seriously, they’re adorable on! are Tanga, a free pattern downloadable from Burda.
Fabrics; I’ve wanted an all-lace set and bought this lovely green lace aaaaaages ago, gathered all the bits and bobs and cut out the pieces; and then we were going away, I shoved the whole shebang in a bag and forgot about it. Doh! Imagine my delight when recently I found it again… woot! I got cracking and finished it off.
Palest of the pale, grey/green lace, white shoulder strap elastic, rings and sliders; Homecraft Textiles. Picot elastic, beige jersey lining; Fabulous Fabrics. Satin ribbon; scraps found in stash, as old as the hills.

Thoughts; so this is my second Watson bra, the first longline … I LOVE the look of it, well duh, LAAAACE!!! so that’s a plus. A surprise downside is the much wider hook and eye closure is SO MUCH HARDER for me to do up and undo. I didn’t expect that! but probably should have… the thing is; I’ve only ever used a two hook closure up until now, meaning that it’s second nature to me and my hands automatically operate the 2-hooks easily and breezily. A 3-hook is like a whole new brain pattern which my hands have never learned and I’m fumbling away, almost like I’ve never worn a bra before in my life… well, you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. I’m tempted to think that for a soft, longline style like this I might even prefer my funny, basic little pull-on camisole bralette, simple and easy, save myself the trouble and expense of the hook and eye closure and the style still works perfectly fine for my likes and meagre needs.
I’m still going to wear this new set to bits obviously! just an observation.

previous Watson bra

Also, the back elastics; with the Watson you’re supposed to commence sewing them horizontally along the back from the centre back and they continue on, curving up and over the shoulders to become the shoulder straps, as pictured above. Now I don’t know if anyone else has come up with this problem too; but when I’m wearing it, the elastic does not sit flat against your body, but instead “folds” around the corner and so forms a little lumpy bump as it does so. These bumps can just be seen in the above picture, at the sharpest point of the curve where it starts being a strap. It’s a small thing but a little annoying nonetheless. SO, for this version I cut and sewed the back elastic and shoulder strap elastic on as two separate pieces. Not quite as smart looking, but the bump problem is solved so I’m not stressing over it.

The last time I made Tanga undies I discovered what a bad bad bad idea it was to situate a longitudinal seam in the crotch area … worst design concept, evah! anyway, I wrote about how I fixed that first pair by cutting out a new, seamless crotch using the liner piece. SO MUCH BETTER, and I did the same for this pair too. I cut two lengths of 5mm elastic to be 10% shorter than the side edges and zig-zagged it along the edges, between the lace and beige jersey liner. I know from experience that this is about 1000000 times more comfortable than to do it like the pattern tells you.

I used beige jersey to line the bra cups and knickers liner as well as to partially line inside the front of the knickers. This was cut using my rotary cutter to achieve sharp and clean-cut edges, and is simply zig-zagged down inside the lace. This stuff is a very good match to my skin colour so it was such a great find! Note to self; remember to keep checking Fabulous Fabrics to see if they get any more in stock…
Having a lining also helps to hide the seams, because I treated it like an underlining; the lace/linings seams are inside the garments and not between the layers. I LOVE having the neatest insides possible but sometimes you just have to sacrifice the insides for the outsides, haha.
I know, weird, right? Who even does that?!!

felled seams inside (L) undies and (R) bra cups

I faux-felled all the seams on the inside, by stitching them down lightly and trimming the raw edges close to the stitching. This is not as neat overall than if they were sandwiched between the layers but looks much better from the right side, with no seam allowances visible through the holes of the lace.
To stabilise the cup edges, I stitched short lengths of satin ribbon along the jersey edge inside.

btw; that is the stock picture of the Tanga knickers above right. It makes me slightly anxious every time I look at it… however don’t let the non-pattern matching distract you, this is a cute pattern which is free and available to all; and that’s the important thing here!

Now for some housekeeping… dk’s wife, could you please email me regarding the hedgehog pattern? thanks. 🙂
Also, I’ve received lots of emails from kind readers letting me know that commenting is working only rarely on my blog… I’m so sorry! 🙁 Like everyone, I love comments! so please know, I am working on a site update to fix the problem. It may take a short while though since I’m a complete computer dummy, but I am on it!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: cloth habit, lingerie, Tanga, watson

mocha set

04/10/2015 3:19 am \ 21 Comments \ Carolyn

… for me!
Fabric; slithery, slinky-malinki poly knit from Fabulous Fabrics in a divinely luxuriously glossy mocha shade; all elastic and other findings from Homecraft Textiles. I wanted to make a Sierra bra for myself too; and while I love lace-y underthingies, this time I went for smooth, sleek and sophisticated, with a grownup vibe more befitting to an ancient old crone such as myself.
Haha, no really, I do have a nice selection of frillies already and just wanted a change of pace 🙂
Features; none. Letting the fabric glow on its own with absolutely nil embellishment.
LOVE this unadorned look, I mean I adore pretty bits and bobs too but sometimes the simplest and plainest of styles in a sophisticated colour and liquid-y fabric like this feels just as gorgeous!

Technical blahdy-blah: I cut two backs, clean finished the seams within the layers, and also lined the front/cups with self fabric to about centre front. I just left the lining CF straight edge floating unfinished on the inside; it’s not going to fray or anything and doesn’t show up at all. The remainder of the fronts/straps are single layered. The lower edge is finished with elastic, folded under and zig-zagged on the right side, just the same finish as the top edges and all edges of the knickers (as pictured below). I cut the elastic 7% shorter than the edge it was to be attached to, measuring the paper pattern pieces.
That black hook and eye tape at the back is bothering me, but well, colour options here are pretty limited. I’ve found Homecraft Textiles to have the absolute best array of lingerie elastics to be found in Perth. Well worth hitting up.
2x pairs of undies, both super plain Watson briefs. Boring and barely worth a photo… close-up for elastic-attachment detail purposes only.

Full set: so normally I love my things to be photographed looking artfully arranged to best show them off but couldn’t resist going the full Merchant and Mills here.

artistic dishevelment and not a randomly chucked down pile of clothes at all

What is that aesthetic anyway? just kind of throw it down in a messed up crumpled heap on the floor, y’know? just like when your teenagers kick their grotty clothes aside as they step into the shower or something, and leave them there. For days, if you don’t ~~nag~~ gently point it out.
*deep breath*
Embrace the crumple.
Feel the crumple.
BE. The crumple.

Hehe, not to diss Merchant and Mills! I actually have the workbook myself… a recent birthday pressie, and heavy hints had nothing to do with it at all! *cough cough* and I love a lot of the stuff in it! Just that the screwed-up-and abandoned-on-the-floor thing cracks me up. The new cool… OK!
Actually, my clothing is more usually kept like below…
Aaaah, that’s better! *sigh of contended happiness* ooo, did someone say neat freak? Order and method, my friends. Order and method:)

Happiness factor; plain, but supremely happy with that plainness, and I love the wraparound bra style; it’s nice to have something a bit different. Construction, smooth sailing all the way. For visual purposes I’m deducting one point for the black hook and eyes at the back. 9/10 🙂

Details:
Bra; the Sierra by Madalynne, free to download here
Knickers; the Watson briefs by Cloth Habit.