FO - I Heart Me!

I hate the commercialization that holidays of any kind have turned into.  Valentine's Day was the one of the first holidays to turn into a marketing blitz.  And being single on Valentine's Day makes my "inadequacies" glaringly more apparent.  Instead of a pity party, I've decided to take Valentine's Day on, head on.  Combine that thinking with the fact that I've been binge-sewing lingerie lately, and I came up with  the idea of celebrating ME in all my oneness by making myself a cute new lingerie set.  Or two.  Actually, I made three.

My goals this year include making 12 bras (see my 2018 Goals post here), and that has got my lingerie designing thinking cap on!  The ideas are just swirling around in my brain.  Where can I put lace, where do I use lining, what elastic do I have, how can I incorporate that special piece of whatever.  I have a ton of beautiful kits from Merckwaerdigh that have taken up residence in one of my stash bins (I can buy faster than I can sew!!), and want to use them.  For the first set, I wanted something that would something fun and cute.  A quick search through my stash turned up this kit:

I used the Bolyston Bra pattern from Orange Lingerie for the bra, which I've used before.  Now that I've fine-tuned the fit, it sews up quickly.  The part that takes the longest when I'm making a new bra is now the designing phase, where I try to figure out where I"m going to put which fabric, lace and elastic!  I used some of the elastic from the kit, and some from my stash, and I used foam for the cups from Bramaker's Supply.

Here's the finished bra:

I also made a pair of panties from the "leftover" fabric in the kit.  I used the Gabriella Knickers pattern by Evie la Luve.  It doesn't seem to be available anymore, but the pattern cover looks like this:

Mine look like this:

For bra #2 in my Valentine's celebration making frenzy, I made another Bolyston bra from yet another kit from Merckwaerdigh.  I wanted this one to be more feminine than cute.  It turned out very pretty, I think.  I used the stretch lace in the kit directly over the foam cups, without any lining.  I finished the tops of the foam cups with fold over elastic.  I used the plain, but very stretchy, cream colour spandex that came in the kit for the frame and bridge, but I used the stretch mesh over top of the spandex (instead of as a lining). I decided to cut the stretch mesh with the direction of stretch going in the opposite direction from the spandex to add a bit more support.  I added some pieces of the stretch lace at the side of the frames for added interest.  The bands are cut from power mesh to provide more support. 

I made a pair of Esme panties from Evie la Luve with the stretch lace back to match this bra, but the photograph of them seems to have disappeared.  I'll have to edit this post to put in a pic when I've had a chance to gather all the photography gear again.

And one more Bolyston bra set, this one from another kit from...you guessed it...Merckwaerdigh.  This one is definitely Valentine's themed in RED.

 The stretch lace in the kit has some brown accents, which are echoed in the elastics, also from the kit.  I went with the self-fabric strap on this version, which is as the pattern.  The foam I used for this bra came from Bramaker's Supply.  It is a bit softer than the foam I've used previously (you can see that in the photograph below), but I don't know how it wears.  I bought it mostly because it is red.  I finished the top of the foam cups with fold over elastic as well.

The panties are the Giselle Ruched Panties from Ohhh Lulu.  You guys!!  I love these - I made the size large based on my measurements, and they fit amazingly well (which you'll just have to take my word of, because I'm not ready to display my bootie on the 'net in all it's glory).  The ruching is such a pretty feminine touch, and I love it!  I cut the front piece from the stretch lace that was included in the kit.  The elastics were also leftover from the kit, with the exception of the one I used for the back ruching - that came from stash.

As an aside - I'm struggling with photographs for the blog.  I know I can do better.  I've even started pulling out my fancy DSLR, taking photographs at lunch time to take advantage of natural light, as well as running the photos through a photo editing software, but when you start with crappy lighting, well, you end up with a not so great photograph.  I've done everything in my power (currently, that is, without investing in some new lights for the studio, or a course in digital editing) to get a better photograph.  As a result, this colour red isn't really true to life.  But, you get the idea.  I've been having fun sewing a lot of new lingerie for myself. 

I'm saving the red set for it's debut on the 14th.  So if I see you then, you'll know what I've got on underneath!! ;)