I love me some lingerie! I always have been drawn to the pretty laces, slippy fabrics and alluring nature of these somewhat “unmentionable” garments. I’ve even had dreams of owning my own little pretty lingerie boutique where I could buy and sell my favorite choice pieces to clients who share my admiration.

I got the opportunity to take a lingerie sewing class at Portland Fashion Institute a couple of years ago where I learned about the best seaming techniques, the specialty fabrics, and construction of various lingerie items such as bias cut slips and knickers, stretch lace undies and even an underwire bra. I need to dig into my UFO (unfinished objects) stash and pull out some of these gems and finish what I started (I’m notorious for UFO’s by the way).

I have also watched the Lingere Sewing on line class on Craftsy taught by Alison Smith. I just love to hear her soft British accent while soaking up some of her vast knowledge of sewing lingerie and other garment construction techniques. I do plan to make up a silk robe and little slip with lace trim that is part of this class. Maybe that’s next on my cutting table!

My good friend asked me recently if I might be able to “copy” a pair of her favorite undies, and I agreed, but first, I just had to try out this new sewing pattern from Simplicity that was released recently and she was to be my guinea pig.

She, of course, happily agreed to be my guinea pig and we got started taking her measurements and finding fabric and colors she would like. She decided that she could get more wear out of the racer back pattern, but didn’t care for the larger-than-necessary briefs that came with the pattern, so I found a much more modern and “younger”, if you will, panty pattern on Etsy from Ohhh Lulu Sews patterns to match the bra:

Cute, right? I thought these would suit her much better, so I purchased and downloaded the PDF of this pattern and got out my paper scissors and cut out the hipster version of these pretties.

Rewind to a couple of months ago, I purchased a few yards this lovely double scalloped edge 8″ wide stretch lace from Tailor Made Shoppe also on Etsy as my friend likes to wear pink and also black:

After too much procrastination on starting this project (5 months), I realized that both her birthday and Valentine’s Day was rapidly approaching and my sewing to-do list was getting too long, so I got to cutting and sewing this set for my lovely friend as a gift to her (and her husband too!).

Matching and mirroring the scalloped edges of the pattern pieces proved to be the most tedious and time consuming part of this project. I copied all of the little pattern pieces as needed to best lay out the pattern on the fabric along the lace edges in the most efficient manner:

Sewing up the bra didn’t take too long, two nights after work was sufficient time to sew and serge the seams. I was falling in love with the bra more and more as I constructed it, dreaming of making it up in different colors, and maybe changing up some of the design of it.

Sewing up the panties was even faster. In just a couple of hours, I had cut out and sewn up a cute little panty!

As I dressed my new Pink Lady body form, I realized that I need to go back and fix the elastic placement at the left back neck top edge of the bra so that the pattern of the lace mirrors that of the right side as you can see in this photo, but that should be an easy fix.

Also, I am not 100% happy with all of the pink part of the panty and not as much lace showing here. I have enough of the fabric to give it another shot, plus sewing these was so fast and easy, so I might go ahead and do that.

But, all in all, for my first little set of bra and knickers for a “client” turned out pretty darn nice I think! I am super excited to give them to her and force her to show me how it looks (I don’t think she will have any problem at all showing off her fantastic figure to all who will admire!). I also can’t hardly wait to sew up more lingerie as I just get such a thrill out of making such pretty things!

Voila!

Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Birthday my dear friend!