Gah, I love fruit-themed novelty prints, especially when they are in a fruit that I actually like to eat (as I’ve mentioned before: pineapples, yes, cherries, not really. ha). Lemons have always been one of those things that I always gravitate toward – both in my palate (if it includes lemon – whether it’s a dish or a drink – I will definitely order it) and on my fabric. I haven’t had much luck finding lemon fabric in the past, but 2017 must be trying to make up for starting out so shitty because now I have TWO lemon yardages in my stash!
Well, now only one… but I’ll sew that one up soon, too. I promise.
Anyway, here’s the first one – a beautiful lemon-print cotton knit! It’s another piece of fabric that I picked up while I was in Finch Knitting + Sewing Studio back in February. I found it creeping behind another pile of knits, and there was barely any yardage left on the bolt (maybe 1 yard, tops). This was one of those few instances where I threw the fabric in my pile without thinking twice about what I’d actually make with it. The lemon print is very similar to this Kate Spade lemon purse (that I also own, because, duh. Lemons), except that the fabric includes splashes of turquoise, whereas the purse only has bits of green. I didn’t think it was possible to improve on the Kate Spade print, but I acknowledge now that I stand corrected.
Anyway, I spent some time (aka about 10 minutes of thinking and 2 minutes of googling) deciding what to make with my fabric, and I decided on…. a cardigan! 🙂 This knit is a thicker cotton interlock knit – it’s not really the weight that I like my tshirts to be, and the print is too summery to make into a sweatshirt. I thought the cardigan would be a lovely way to wear this print throughout the summer, especially since those things are mandatory here as people really love abusing the a/c. I cut my cardigan pieces, fused my interfacing, and got ready to assemble everything.
If you’re sitting here thinking, “Bitch, that’s not a cardigan,” YES I KNOW. I ended up having a grand epiphany somewhere around the time that I was pressing under the seam allowances of the pockets. I was feeling sad that I didn’t have more than scraps of the lemon print left over (generally, I am pleased when I buy exactly enough fabric, but this particular case was a time for mourning and self-reflection), and suddenly wondered if I could squeeze a pair of panties out of the leftovers. I pulled the pieces out of my scrap bin – and, nope, the scraps were too small. But you know what? Bras don’t use big pieces of fabric…
Obviously, I stopped everything I was doing and immediately started making a bra instead.
I used the Watson Bra & Bikini pattern from Cloth Habit, as it’s designed to be made with stretch knits. Due to my fabric restraints, I could only squeeze out the short-framed version – which I like better, anyway, as I think the longline would be too much. I made my regular size, which is a 30D.
For the notions, I raided the hell out of my stash. For some reason, I have all these coordinating yellow notions – powermesh, strapping, picot elastic – even though I look terrible in yellow. The hook and eye and rings and sliders were harvested from an old bra, and I made the turquoise bow with a scrap of ribbon. I used cream-colored thread to topstitch because I didn’t want it to compete with all the lemons.
The entire bra is lined with lightweight yellow powermesh. Lining is not totally necessary with this pattern (I have made unlined versions before), but I wasn’t sure what the recovery was like on this knit, since it’s 100% cotton. So I added the powermesh as another layer of support. As you can see, I serged the inside seams with turquoise serger thread – it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m not really crazy at the effect. Rather than being a cute tie-in with the outside turquoise, it kind of just looks like I didn’t have matching thread. Oh well, whatever, inside of the bra.
My last short frame Watson bra isn’t exactly the most supportive thing I own – it’s fine for it’s purposes (TBH, I don’t need a lot of support and have lately just not been wearing a bra at all LOL FREEEEEEDOM), but I didn’t want the same thing to happen with this bra. The main problem with the coral bra is that the bridge is too stretchy – so it doesn’t hold the cups in place. For this bra, I used sheer cup lining (from my stash, but Tailor Made Shop sells it!) on the bridge – and then covered it with the powermesh – to keep that area completely stable. Powermesh isn’t stable enough on it’s own – not even with two layers of stretch going in opposite directions (which was the case with the coral bra), but the sheer cup lining definitely worked an this bra is much more supportive!
FYI, I sewed the entire bra on my sewing machine – other than the serged parts, which was just to finish the edges (so they look nice, they’re not exactly going to unravel). I used a straight stitch for construction, and a zigzag for attaching the elastic. I have done this with all my other knit bras, and even my swimsuits, and haven’t had any issues with the stitches breaking. Definitely use a ballpoint needle, though!
And, if you were curious… I did find a way to squeeze out some matching underwear hahaha!
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My scraps were way too tiny to cut even the front piece out (even before I cut out the bra pieces), so I chopped up my pattern and added some ~style lines~ to incorporate a little bit of the print in an otherwise plain pair. FYI, this is the matching panty pattern that comes with the Watson set. The yellow fabric is actually merino wool – yeah, I know, merino seems like it might be weird for underwear, but I totally googled that shit and Smartwool definitely sells merino underwear soooo if it’s good enough for Smartwool, I reckon it’s also good enough for me + my butt!
The crotch lining is organic cotton from my stash, and the elastics are also from my stash. I experimented with using turquoise elastic on this pair – it’s pretty cute!
Then I went crazy and made a bunch of other pairs of panties:
Used a bamboo jersey for this one.
Cotton interlock, leftover from this dress.
More merino (I will be honest – I went on a huge merino kick at this point and now I have a full set of long underwear for next winter haha). I believe this merino is originally from The Fabric Store – it’s the lighter weight.
Rayon knit – a leftover from this top (that stretch lace at the top is also from Finch!)
I seriously do not care to make underwear, but it’s kind of a necessary evil – anything I buy in shops just doesn’t fit right, gives me perma-wedgie pretty much all day and it’s very uncomfortable. After assessing my underwear drawer, I realized that I need the elastic around the legs to keep my underwear in place – that’s the only kind that doesn’t ride up on me. It’s been increasingly difficult to find RTW undies that have this, which means I gotta make them. I made several pairs because I wanted to see how the fabrics wear over the course of the day, and if they bag and stretch out. So far, the cotton interlock, rayon knit, and merino wool are the best – but they are all pretty dang comfortable.
And now I have 2 pairs of undies that match my new bra 😀
That’s all for now! Next (aka when I take the photos), I’ll show you the cardigan I also made with this fabric!
LLADYBIRD 