Elbe Textiles Botany top x 2

When I discovered this top on Kylie and the Machine's Instagram I was in love, both with the top and with the new pattern company Elbe Textiles.

BUT it took awhile to get my act together to sew it.  I was moving and travelling for awhile. That made this simple project seem like a huge deal.

I looked over the instructions and didn't follow them at all. I used a scrap of leftover silk noil and size XS. I sewed front and back together - I had to cut the back in two pieces - and then added my bindings.  This reminded me at that point of the Emmeline top by the Little Tailoress. I think she has since rebranded and come out with other patterns but the concept was the same - a very simple top - though in the case of the Emmeline it had terrible instructions and bad drafting on versions a and b.

Seems like I might revisit that top now as the Botany showed me how you could get a good finish on these kimono sleeves - by leaving the side seams open, finishing the sleeve with binding, and then sewing the side seam, you get a clean finish on all edges.  I was totally unable to figure this out myself but despite the messy finish, I loved my version of the Emmeline, view C, which I lengthened with the hem of the Polly top. (here)

Here's my first Botany!  I love it, it goes over a tank top for some style or alone for some air.  It's the perfect fabric.  Do note that I'm 5'4" and can never repeat often enough - I have NO torso.  My ribs practically hit my hips.  So if you don't want this to be very cropped you might want to lengthen it.

I climbed to the top of a mountain for these pictures!  It was very cold and windy...

So I decided to do a second one in stretch silk but I didn't have enough fabric to double the see-through front, giving me the excuse to use this ugly piece of lace I picked up and want to be rid of.  Of course having two layers both front and back meant this took a bit more attention, and this time I did leave the side seams to apply the bias tape flat, though I did the neckline last instead of also doing it flat.  I added on the ruffle to see what I thought of it.  I promised this top to one of my nurses right away as I thought I'd hate the lace.  I do really like the ruffle though, and I think I might make more of these once I see what fabrics my stash can provide.

I have a new tripod! I'm rather more inspired when I'm outdoors, apparently.

Evie La Luve Esme Panties

Well well, I have been looking for awhile for a knicker pattern that could be done in a satisfactory fashion without an overlocker.

The Watson bikini, the So Zo knicker, and the Kitschy coo Barrie bottom (here is an overview of all of them that I sewed recently) ...are all lovely and fit just fine.  However they all shred or fall apart because of using a normal sewing machine, and they all give me horrendous panty lines.  So there was still room for improvement.

I saw this pattern on etsy first, but then got even more keen when I saw Elle Joan's had a kit with all the right lace in it.  I've been really enjoying service from her shop lately since she is local in NZ and the shipping is so fast!  Tailor made shop was my go to prior to this, and most of the time I was happy with what I got from her - the kits are certainly beautiful, but I did find once that the various elements didn't match very well, and when I ordered Madalynne lace kits, the lace was non-stretch.  It didn't stop me from ordering from her again.

I thought this pattern would give no panty lines, since the back is lace AND that simplifies a lot of the sewing. I was less sure how the FOE at the waist would go.  It doesn't feel very substantial.

My one kit had enough of everything for 2 pairs of knickers in a size S.  The second one needed FOE from elsewhere, hence teal.  On that second pair, in order to tighten the waist, I pulled the sides around to the XS mark instead of just the S mark, which is an improvement.  I think I could use the size XS instead of S.  My hips are 37". 

These took honestly like 12 minutes to make.  I was initially wary of just folding over the leg openings and zig zagging down, but it seems to hold up ok.  On the second pair I took out extra steps like finishing the front of the crotch piece, and doing an extra layer of stitching on those leg holes before you fold over.  I didn't plan quite far enough ahead to do a sandwich for the crotch piece to enclose it - you have to do that very early on before attaching all the pieces - so it is still unfinished but the lace is good at camouflaging my layers of zig zags.

These are comfortable on.  They are low lying over the hipbones in the front, so the elastic behaves ok.  I will see how they handle being washed before I comment on their longevity - so far no pair of panties with picot elastic has lasted very long (at least looking good) because the elastic all shredded in the wash. 

Upcycled Papercut Anima pants and Simplicity 8228 Madalynne bra

In order to not stand around in just a bra, I figured I'd show these two makes together.

I spend too much time trying to think up things to do with tshirts.  You know the ones I mean - those heavyweight, oversized, shapeless, screen-printed tshirts that we all get too many of for free.  A few of them work to sleep in but they last a long time!  So this pair of Papercut Anima pants was brought about as a trial run to use up some shirts.  Since the pants are sleepwear they are totally allowed to look silly plus I get to wear a bunch of tshirts which I do actually like - I spent six months working with MSF last year - and I've done a bunch of trips with the American Alpine Institute, so both of these shirts have some emotional value to me and I'm happy to make them continuously useful.

The anima pants pattern is my standard one, size XS - I didn't shorten the legs this time, but I have lowered the front waistband by removing a wedge that I tapered out to nothing at the side seam, plus obviously I got rid of the fly and pockets.

In order to use four tshirts for this pattern, I cut each tshirt apart at the sides and across the top, and then I sewed the bottoms together, like this:

Even with this magenta tee, which was a size S ladies cut, I had enough to make an entire pant leg with some room remaining.


I went kind of crazy with the waistband and it was bad, so I had to totally remove something like 5 rows of stitching (I measured my elastic wrong and it was about 5 inches too long...) and then I went for the minimalist waistband with no stitching in it.  The elastic stays in place so I'm content for now.  This version of the anima pants, seeing as it has no pockets, no fly and no string in the waistband - is a pretty minimal version and is easy to make.  It took a few hours including tshirt prep. 

So the bra top!  I bought this as soon as it came out.  After all, lacy bra thingies are so in right now!  I wanted one!  The lace is from merckwaerdigh's etsy store, the cream coloured powermesh is from tailormadeshop.  I used really bad fabric glue to stick the layers together and then the idea of making this bra top faltered.  It was a few months before I came back to it.  There was only one review which mentioned sizing, and the reviewer used her normal bra size rather than following the size chart, so I did that too and cut a 32C.  I marked each pattern piece with the side that should be along the scallops and I found cutting out easy.  Sewing was easy and quick too - just a couple of hours.  I found the instructions to be adequate and not confusing at any point.  However because of my crappy glue, I had to then zigzag all free edges (luckily this is invisible in the lace) because the mesh was flopping around otherwise.

The band is tight enough to be supportive, which itself, in non-stretch lace, is a problem because although I can get this top on, it's nearly impossible to get off.  The back is much lower than the front.  I was debating just removing 2 cm off the spot where the back narrows to see if that helps, although I suppose it's not too important.  Also,  the cups fit mostly ok, but I think I'll take a wedge off the center front piece for my next try.  The lace is also really itchy.

I have a nice kit from tailormadeshop to make another one of these, which I'll do with those two small changes, but I recommend using stretch lace, and not using powermesh on the band, especially if you have wide shoulders or a muscular back like I do.