I am still learning, but Thank God I am way past the fails below
If only my past self could warn me of my missteps
My ultimate wins & fails
I started sewing lingerie on the summer of 2015. By then I've already done lots of garments but none of them wearable, or just plain canvas muslins, but hey, my intention to sew was there at least haha
I remember distinctly of thinking these 4 specific things when I started to sew lingerie:
1. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember if I should pull the elastic extra hard or leave it loose.
2. Just focus on stretchy fabrics, rigid or woven fabrics are off limits when sewing lingerie.
3. Lingerie has no seam allowance, and all seams must be zig zag stitches.
4. I am clearly doing something wrong because eveything is poorly fitted or just tiny.
Now, 6 years later, I know all those statements are limited by my inexperience, by taking knowledge from the wrong sources, basically, by having no idea of what I was doing.
Now I know that I don't like pulling my elastic, pero leaving it loose will not work properly either. Using rigid or woven fabrics is ideal for bras, but not for most bralettes. Of course lingerie has seam allowances! They are just narrower than seam allowances for exterior clothing, and zig zag stitch is great but sometimes all you need to rock the garment is the good'ol straight stitch. And, most importantly, I am not doing it wrong, I am simply not getting the right sewing patterns.
So, I share with you here a few of my many fails when sewing lingerie, comparing each with a similar yet better acomplished version. The only fact is, we learn by making mistakes.
Strappy Extravaganza
This idea still haunts me, I love it <3! But so does this implementation haha - what I'd do differently is, not using FOE specially around the leg openings and maybe do the stitches on each intersection manually, instead of creating that massacre with my sewing machine.
I consider this garter to be a win! The sewing bit is much better than the previous example - Still consider the strap elastic to be a bit too rigid but def better than FOE.
FINISHINGS
Sadly, the finishings on this sample are SO bad that there's no need to compare it with anything. FOE used as underbust support, zigzag stitches all crooked and visible, raw edges visible - well, a hot mess BUT again, I love the idea, a halter bralette with sheer lace and soft cups, I feel like I might try this again with all my gained experiencie since trying this.
PICOT ELASTIC
Learning how to properly sew picot elastic took me quite a while, specially because the method I was taught wasn't exactly the best and, I only realized the method was funky by analizing tons of RTW pieces in stores.
In the pic above we can see two passes of zig zag stitch on top of the elastic, one on top of the other. Additional to not looking very neat, my picot always ended up crooked and I have the theory that overlapping zig zag passings puts tons of unnecessary strain to the elastic.
Here the picot elastic gets me all <3<3<3 the contrasting thread is due to me using this sample to teach a class, I wanted it to really show. The first passing is the white thread against the black elastic, super close to the picot edge so it's not crooked, with a shorter zig zag length, and the second passing at the other edge of the picot elastic, on navy against the black elastic and white against the animal print. This picot is *chef's kiss*
Cup Support
The nice thing about a bralette is using pretty laces, an almost instant gratification sew and that there's no much need for fit adjustments, the not so nice thing about bralettes is that in order to create good support for larger volumes you have to know what you are doing.
In the sample above I only counted on the underbust plush elastic (where the underwire would sit) to create all the support needed for my 34DD volume, and obvs, it was not enough.
It was until I did this second example that I understood more about how to create better support for larger volumes, specially since bralettes have les structure than bras.
This pattern is the Barrett Bralette by Madalynne Intimates, an amazing starting point for anyone who wishes to start sewing lingerie. With this pattern I understood even better the pivotal role that underbands and linings have on the overall support of a bralette.
This was my very first underwired bra. Frankly, a massive fail. The sizing was all wrong (the pattern was very sized reduced) and the fabric choice was poorly done to give any support to my volume. I still keep it to see how far I've come, that now I know better. Although I did learn a valuable lesson here, always have a rigid center gore!
All these "fails" turned into knowledge overtime. I've come a long way from where I started, but that's the exciting thing from sewing lingerie, I still got a LONG way to go.
What fails have you done? And did I miss any common fails?
Comments