Ninja turtles in the bedroom?

A TMNT loving friend of mine was recently engaged to another TMNT fan. 

Only one thing to do now! 

Sew up a ninja themed Sierra obviously! 

At first I was dead set on this fabric from JoAnn's.

But It was out of budget, and a little bit more colorful than what I was wanting.

So I went less literal. 

(Pic) 

The bra is a Sierra, and the panties are all self drafted. 

But I'll talk about those later~

Now onto the nitty-gritty! 

I used Cotton jersey and a poly stretch lace. Both from my local Walmart. 

Stunning right?!

Well my first step was to cut scallop on the bottom edge of my fabric. Then the fun part! 

Sierra was originally made for itty-bitty girls, no question there. 

So I had to add length to it. 

I measured her for the wrap around piece on the Sierra. I also measured her side, just below the armpit. So went I added length to the Sierra I wasn't going to make it baggy in the back. 

Wouldn't that be a shame!

Then I laid my fresh-cut jersey on the lace and tried to get the scallops lined up in a way that made sense. 

So sensible~ 

Oh and side note, I cut out all of my pattern prices with pinking shears. It feels more professional. 

So onto the back portion, I took a measurement of my friends back, from side to side, and applied it to the pattern piece. Subtracting an inch to since it's a stretch fabric. 

Then I cut my lace piece for the back and wouldn't you know!

It lines up perfectly with the side piece! 

So once I sewed it up my lace edge was unbroken and professional looking! 

I finished the top edge and constructed the straps with fold over elastic.
And all in all I would say it looks pretty nice all put together.  

Friend or FOE

I have read that some people dislike sewing wit foe, and even that they think foe looks cheap and adds a "home made" aesthetic to garments. 

And honestly it can. 

Fold over elastic can be a royal pain in the butt if you don't work with it correctly. 

But once you get the hang of it your items stop lettuce edging and you stop getting those weird skipped stitches and folded bits. 

I think a lot of people will use FOE once or twice and decide that it's not for them. 

But I had to use it three or four times before I got professional results. 

Here is my fourth time using FOE 

Can you say curly!

But I have found a way to sew up FOE that is all but bulletproof. 

First off, you sew it on in two passes. 

The first time you are stitching it to your fabric with the foe laying wrong side up and the right side of your fabric facing you. 

I recommend woolly nylon bobbin thread if you have it. So that the stitches on the FOE will be soft on your skin. 

Then once the FOE is stitched down and secured, your fold it over! 

I find that if you use lots of pins you can stich it without having to worry about folding it as you go. 

This lets your feed digs move the fabric and elastic with minimal amounts of resistance. 

Which means no lettuce edges!!! 

Now I have found that one can sew right over the pins without any major catastrophes. 

I know I know...sewing over pins is evil and bad and wrong.... 

But it makes sewing in fold over elastic so much easier! 

I mean from the video you can see that it's still not exactly a breeze. I had to stop and lift my foot and smooth it out a bit. 

And I was going relatively slow...

But it was still easier then it could have been! 

And before I forget, there's one other great thing about FOE, 

You can use it as the strap and connect it smoothly. 

All you have to do is measure your strap length, and have that amount of elastic hanging off the end of the top of your bra. And then you have a professional looking strap!

What could be better! 

Redemption!

You very well may remember that failed dye bath of mine. 

While I didn't get the results I wanted, I did get some mighty fine denim blue lace. 

I'm quite proud of this color, and I have never been a wasteful Wendy. 

So I decided to change my origanal plan for a silk and lace nightgown and instead make a lace and jersy Mallory Lane.

I'm quite proud of the way it turned out! 

Construction was a breeze. The only thing that gave me trouble was the wiggly FOE I was working with. But more detailed on that are on their way next...

Along with the Mallory lane I also constructed a lacy thong and some lace breifs. 

I used Fehr Trade's pattern and my own self drafted pantie pattern. 

I did edit the thong pattern a smidge to my friends measurements. I'm hoping now that I didn't make the crotch covering bit too long...

High waisted thong? Is that a thing? 

I'm sure it's a thing. 

At the very least it's a thing now, because I have one sitting on my coffee table! 

Your Panties Should be Personal

I have been wanting to try my hand at print making for some time! 

So I decided that the perfect first project would be a pair of panties. 

Since they're small and if I screwed up hardly anyone would have to look closely. 

I started with this pair that I drafted for my friend Becca. 

And then I set to work carving away! 

I decided I would make stamps of some of her favriote things. 

Which also happen to be my favriote things! Doughnuts, pizza long boards and the word "booty"

Pro tip, when carving words, you my mat carve them backwards so the print will read frontwards. 

And if you carve it correctly the first time you don't have to carve it twice... 

I used paint from my local pat catan's, "wicker white"  is the name of it. 

It's nice, it stretches nice and it dries soft. It really becomes one with the fabric. 

Now I won't share my process with you, because I am no profesional. 

But my results are decent enough. 

I have some sloppy bits but, I really like the way it turned out. 

Oh and the story behind the "booty" stamp. 

Becca introduced me to this beautiful gem of a song, and it's been a running joke ever since!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UewwWaNfYIU&feature=share

And this joke will live on in the form of panties forever. 

Unless of course I did the heat setting wrong...

My Dye Bath Blunder

I desperately wanted a pastel grayish blue nightgown and pantie set. 

I had my rit, I had my various fabrics and my pot. I thought I was ready. 

I had nylon and spandex lace 

FOE from my usual place. 

And some silky polyester. 

I put it in my pot and boiled it with a minimal amount of supervision. 

My stretch lace responded swimmingly to the dye, it turned the color of denim jeans right way. 

And I must say it held the color beautifully 

The satin and the FOE however reacted in a strange way....

They turned lavender or lilac. 

I'm sure I'll get use out of the foe, but I'm not quite sure about the satin. I just have two fourth yard bits. 

My original plan wound have used all three together just fine. But now they clash...so I suppose I'll have to find a new plan. 

Until then, stay savvy friends. 

Self Drafting Isn't That Scary!

There are a lot of pantie patterns out there, 

this is due in part to the fact that panties are so easy to draft. 

Drafting is a scary concept to wrap your head around. 

There is a lot that can go wrong. 

But If you want to get into monetizing your sewing, 

self drafting is a necessary skill.

And after a bit of practice it really isn't so hard. 

It all starts with measurements. 

And then there is a bit of math. But it's nothing too hard 

First you take your hip measurement and divide it in half. You can do this evenly, or you can be fancy and place the side seams toward the back by adding more length to the front. 

I decided that I would be fancy. 

The second thing you need to do is account for the stretch in your fabric. I do this by taking my own Measurements and dividing them by the measurements of a pair of my own panties. You will get a decimal which when multiplied by the body measurements  will give you the mesurent of the garment. 

Above is the formula for our butt measurement. 

The next step is to start drafting. 

I like to use old magazine pages that have been taped together as pattern drafting paper. 

But anything will do. 

If you draft your pattern to be cut on fold you will need to divide your width in half. Don't forget to do this please! It's very important... 

It's a little intimidating, but for your first drafting adventure I suggest that you make a simple three peice breif. And I also suggest using a pair of your own panties to figure out the shape of each peice. 

It should look something like this. 

I hope this tutorial made sense. Like I said drafting is easy if you start simple, and there is nothing simpler than a good breif.

It can be plain and lovely

Or lacy and dyed 

Or color blocked, or even lace blocked! 

The possibilities are all but endless! Add frills straps or cutouts, whatever floats your boat! 

My Go-to Resources For Underthings

If you follow me here at the classy savage  you know that I am a poor broke student, trying to hone my skills and shrink my foot print on the world. 

So I search high and low for resources that I can justify spending what could go toward tuition on fabrics and whatnot.
It's hard for me to find stores and resources that cater to broke
So I figured I would sing the praises of the stores that I love. 

As well as confessing just how much I pick up from wall-mart...

Fabric 

Well there's a great article that talks about the requirements for lingerie fabric. 

I find a good supply at my local Walmart 

Go figure

And if I can't find it at Walmart I make the journey to Joann's 

Findings 

I'll level with ya'll, I wish I could lie to you and say that I only use super pretty rose gold rings and sliders.
But honestly I pretty much just steal the rings and sliders off of old bras that bite the dust. 

But some day, I will go to black bird fabrics, and I will justify buying a whole handful of silver sliders and rings. 

But until that day, I shall remain a scavenger. 

Elastic 

Ok, so I saved the best for last. 

My favorite place for fold over elastic is bowtiqueemilee. They are fantastic. They have every color you could imagine, sold by the five yards for only $1.50!! If that's not a bargain then I don't know one. 

And this store has fancy elastic! But I haven't gotten around to ordering anything. I just scroll through and drool~ 

Most of the time braided elastic does the trick for me, I pick it up at Walmart, but I'm probably going to buy a roll of it since I use so much. 

Well those are all of my go to shops and what have you.

I'm not sure if this post is a humble brag about how much control I have on my spending, or a confession that will isolate me from the rest of the sewing community...

I'll let you decide...

I'm sure that all of you have a supply wish list as well. What items have you been drooling over?