Gertie's Vintage Slip - Reveal

Ooo, La Laa!  I am about to show you my underwear!!  Prepare yourself!  But firstly I'd like to share some of the changes I made to the pattern, which is a vintage style slip/petticoat,  Gertie's Butterick 6031.

Due to some weight gain over the winter I decided not to take in the fitted waist so instead just cut straight upwards from the hip line to the top.  I also added 5" to the hem, as I held the pattern pieces up against me and thought it would be a bit too short for me as it was.
I used a two-way stretch fabric that I bought at the Creative Stitch Show in Glasgow in March.  You can tell this fabric is meant for slips and nightwear just by the slinky feel of it.  I think this would have been hard to buy online.  All the stretch lace, elastic and lingerie fastenings I had to buy online, as I couldn't find anything at the show for this garment.
At the moment Gertie is running a Sew-Along for this garment on her blog, but it hasn't been all that I thought it would be.  It's not a very interactive sew-along.  I asked a question on her first post almost three weeks ago now, and never got a reply.  I asked a question on her fourth post, yesterday, and as yet haven't heard anything, despite her end of post comment saying "Let me know if you have any questions."  ...of course everyone is busy with life I guess.
So I have decided to just wing it and go it alone.

I did follow her FBA diagrams today and found them helpful.  The pattern envelope has a little calculation to do: full-bust - high-bust  = X, and then this X number tells you which cup size pattern piece to use.  I had to make mine bigger than the largest pattern piece, but it wasn't clear how much bigger.  So I first made a 2" FBA pattern piece which was way too Madonna/Vogue/pointy, then I made another one with only a 1.5" FBA and this one seems to suit me better.

There is a lovely feature to this pattern, cut away lace sections.  You pin the stretch lace onto the fabric with the edge of the lace along the edge of the fabric, and then you sew along the other edge of the lace, the edge that is 1.5" away from the fabric edge.  Once it is sewn you cut away that strip of fabric that was under the lace, so that now you see some gorgeous flesh behind the lace!

The lace under my bust.  You can also see
the bust dart with top edge stitching.

Okay, so here we go, hope you're prepared... 

of course I have decided to go headless, as you just don't know what people may do with photos on the interwebs!  All those lovely ladies who have formed the Curvy Collective have suddenly made me feel a lot better about my curves, and (today) I am feeling brave and proud to share this make.

Here is a back view of my slip.  I know many ladies don't show the back view of their makes, for all sorts of reasons, but it really is helpful to see the back of handmade items, "Posterior for Posterity!"

I will be wearing this as a slip/petticoat and so I fitted it whilst wearing my bra, and I will always wear it with a bra.  I did use the recommended narrow width of lace for the straps, it's just hard to see here because my bra straps are wider than the black lace - sorry about that.  

So one last photo, standing normally.  The added 5" hem falls just at the top of my knees, but my Mister took this next photo looking downwards so the slip looks a bit longer than it is.

Hope this helps others to feel less self-conscious and more proud of the curves!

This is one of my completed goals for Katy's Q2 Finish-Along.

Well Helloooo Garment Sewing!

It has been quite a while since I have done any garment sewing, so it's time I got back into it!  First up will be two pieces: underwear slip and nightwear pants.  Useful, practical and won't take up much room!  I have been collecting all the lingerie bits and pieces to create Gertie's new pattern Butterick 6031 and I finally have it altogether.  Gertie is even going to start a sew-along on the 1st April which I am planning to join in with.

I also bought some GLOW IN THE DARK Star Wars fabric to make some pyjama pants for a friend who lives far away in Australia.  I know he will love them, I'm just waiting on his wife to give me the measurements of one of his favourite PJ pants so that I can best match the finished garment size.

The crossed light-sabers glow in the dark

Personal Reflection

Whilst enjoying my garment-making hiatus, I have done a little reflective thinking about why I didn't want to make garments.  This has been for a number of reasons:
1.  I don't want to make clothes for my current figure.  I am a bit ashamed that I let myself put on so much excess weight over the winter.  I don't want to be photographed either.
2. I tidied out my wardrobe and realised I have FAR TOO MUCH clothing already.  The very last thing I need in my life is more clothing!  The added trouble is that I don't ever throw clothes away.  If it is too summery to wear, it gets put into the spare room closet.  If it is too small or too big, it gets put into a size-labelled container and hidden in the loft/attic until I return to that size in the future.
3.  My sewing room -which is also the spare room- is full of my Mister's things.  We are still awaiting a joiner to create storage space in his workroom and so in the meantime my room is a storage room, which makes anything larger than a bit of patchwork piecing difficult to work with in there.
4.  I am LOVING doing patchwork at the moment.  I bought some beautifully coloured prints and am really enjoying making them into something wonderful for my sister.  I also bought some sweet little girly fabric that I am enjoying cutting up to it's best advantage to create a patchwork quilt with too - I have no intended recipient for this quilt, but it is bringing me much joy creating it.  (I'll share some pictures of these in my next post)