I'm Dyein' Over Here! A Mini Tutorial

 

It's no secret that I'm crazy about Fehr Trade's FREE Lacey Thong pattern, so what more appropriate project to use to perfect some dyeing techniques for lingerie delicacies?

 

After researching several different dye products online, I learned that JACQUARD dyes fit the bill for what I want to accomplish. Lingerie in general, and bras and panties specifically, are constructed with a myriad of different fabrics and components which run the gamut of fiber content and each individual fiber can require a different dye. Here are the 3 products I will talk about:

The little jars on top contain Acid Dye and the pouches across the bottom are i-Dye and i-Dye Poly. These two products come in dissolvable packets meant to throw in the washing matching to dye a large load but I just used tiny bits of each and the stove-top method.

 

Here are the fibers the different Jacquard dyes will color:

 

Jacquard's i-Dye: dyes natural fabrics including cotton, silk, wool, linen and rayon

 

Jacquard's i-Dye Poly: polyester and nylon

 

Jacquard's Acid Dye: dyes protein fibers including wool, cashmere, alpaca, feathers, silk and some nylons. It also dyes the white rings and slip rings used in bramaking. Don't be afraid of the acid, it is simply vinegar.

 

I did all of my dyeing prior to constructing the panties. On this project, this is what I started with, color-wise:

The lace and fold-over elastic on all of them was white. I dyed this first in Acid Dye to use for my color match for the fabric:

The panty fabric for the violet and teal were poly/cotton blends but neither color was the exact match I wanted. The violet fabric was too blue and the teal fabric was too turquoise. Since the content on both fabrics was mostly cotton I used Acid Dye on them and I liked the results. 

 

The panty fabric for the Aztec gold was white cotton knit from a 6-pack of men's Hanes t-shirts. Soft and lightweight and perfect for this project. I used Acid Dye on it, as well.

 

Here are the final dyed pieces ready for the cutting table:

All of these dyes are made to be used with hot water, either in your washer for a large item or on the stovetop for smaller pieces. The Acid Dye and i-Dye require that fixatives be used along with them. Acid Dye uses vinegar and i-Dye uses non-iodized salt.

 

Here are the basic tools you'll need for stovetop dyeing:

 A large stainless steel pot. (No aluminum...it affects the dye) I had an old pot with a steamer insert that worked great and made rinsing and washing out much easier.

 

Utensils such as tongs and a spoon or spatula to stir with.

 

An old cup or jar.

 

An old towel you don't mind staining, used for blotting after the rinse.

 

Vinegar, used to intensify and set Acid Dye.

 

Salt, used to intensify and set i-Dye.

 

Dedicate any tools you use for dyeing strictly for that use, don't use anything you plan to cook with in the future.

 

I also found this tiny little spoon to be invaluable for adding the dye powder. A little bit of dye goes a long way:

I wasn't able to take any pictures of the actual stovetop process since it was time sensitive and I was dealing with a pot of boiling dye but I can report that it is actually a simple process. My results were excellent!

 

Prior to starting this whole process I mixed up a pot of Acid Dye and added snippets of all kinds of laces, fabric and elastics to see what all it worked on. It was fascinating to see which fibers grabbed the dye and which didn't:

While I was at it I threw in the first bra I made thinking that it might come out with over-all coverage of some sort. NOT! It didn't budge the satin bow at the center bridge, the cups of polyester Tricot or one of the elastics on the straps:

I will even this up using i-Dye Poly at some point.

 

I plan to do a lot more dyeing and can't wait to do some bra and panty sets. I drool over the kits on Merckwaerdigh's Etsy site and now I can make my own!

 

Bottom line...don't be afraid of dyeing!

From Beefy Tee to Lacey Thong

This is a LOT of fabric! I always have a hard time finding 100% cotton knit and I love it for panties.  I have some new white Fruit of the Loom men's undershirts I am going to try some dyeing on. Then it occurred to me that I might find black tees to make panties with my newly dyed black lace. Enter my local Wal-Mart. This is a men's 4X and it is about 2 yards of great cotton for $4.97!

 

It's been many years since I've used fabric dye and now that I'm addicted to making lingerie it goes hand in hand with dyeing lace and bra components. The lace below was nude before dyeing black to go with my Beefy Tee fabric. I used Jacquard Acid Dye  purchased at Texas Art Supply . I used the stove-top method and it's very easy. Don't be scared away by the word "acid". It calls for nothing more than vinegar used to set the color.

 

Fehr Trade's Lacey Thong has become my all time favorite panty. It fits great, is so comfortable and makes up so beautifully with the addition of the lace:

I had enough foldover elastic for a second pair so I recycled this Vogue top from last season. This fabric is the softest rayon knit and I thought it would make a perfect thong.

The lace was up-cycled from a camisole. Can't wait to wear these!

I have white lace and foldover elastic on order so sometime next week I can curl up and dye. So far I've purchased the Jacquard Acid dye in black, teal, Aztec gold and violet. Lingerie drawer, get ready to rumble!

2013 Spring Pantone Color Contest

 

 

The spring Pantone colors are beautiful and stray just enough from my usual color palette to entice me into entering.

 

Great...now what?!

 

Since I needed a two-piece outfit and the colors needed to adhere to the Pantone limitations, and also pass muster from our contest facilitator, the lovely Sigrid, I decided I'd better shop for fabric locally rather than online. Nothing floated my boat! I came home empty handed and discouraged.

 

Wait a minute, might there be something in my stash? Eureka! I had two fabrics that I thought might work; a polyester poplin I had purchased earlier this year from High Fashion and a knit from Gorgeous Fabrics. I photographed them and asked Sigrid to apply her "magic dots":

 



 

Yippee! Sigrid agreed that my fabrics have close representations of 7 of the 10 Pantone colors as shown below and marked by scissors:

 

 

 

Again...now what??

 

Every time I go through my patterns I think of that scene from Gone With the Wind when Scarlett tells Mammy, "Go up to the attic and get Mother's old box of dress patterns!" She was on a roll with Ms. Ellen's portiers and so was I with my poplin!

 

The dress I decided to embark on is almost lost on the pattern envelope. Semi-boring, right?:

 

 

But wait!

 

The line drawing is awesome! For me, almost like making a long-line bra! I'm in!

 

 

 

It turns out the hard part was finding a pattern for a coordinating piece for my knit fabric, of which I didn't have very much. Then I found V8885. At first glance, rather , eh...

Grandmother-of the-Bride-ish:

 

 

 

 

Until I saw the line drawing of View A and then I thought it would be just the snappy little accompaniment that I needed for my dress:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest is history...so sew, sew, sew. I have complete reviews of V8718 and V8885 on Pattern Review and here is my official contest flyer:

 

 

 

Thanks so much for reading about my contest adventure! And, please, let me know what you think of my interpretation of the 2013 Spring Pantone colors! Check out all the entries on Pattern Review and cast your vote!

 

 

 



Uber Upcycle

BEFORE:



VOGUE 1250

AFTER:

MakeBra Balconette Bra DL101

Do you have things hanging in your closet that, while you like them, they just never get worn? I made at least 3 versions of Vogue 1250 and I never wear them. Rather than try to figure out the reason why I just decided to keep loving the fabric and make something else.

 

Enter into my life another fabulous bra pattern! MakeBra's downloadable balconette bra. It has a 3-part foam cup, side boning and underwires. The straps are attached to the cup and the foam lining provides good support, a beautiful shape for the cup and comfort on the shoulders.

 

This bra is basically my muslin for fit but I will definitely wear it!  For my base I used a nude bra kit from Fabric Depot. I also bought the tricot bonded poly filler from them as well as the foldover elastic. Their bra kits are so reasonably priced (This one was $12) that I use one for the spandex, elastics and findings and save the lace for a pair of panties. There is always a good amount of simplex left over, too, actually shown in the pic below.  

 

The foam cups (and straps) start out as these pattern pieces:

 

 

The construction of the foam cups was fascinating! The pieces are butted together and zig-zagged creating the shape of the cup. Here is the inside:

 

 

Working towards my goal this year to try new techniques and products, I was excited to use boning for the first time. Easy as pie! I bought mine at Joann and it is simply a flexible plastic strip cut to length and inserted into a channel. I found that using my pedi wand was perfect for rounding off the sharp corners. Here's a before and after on that:

 

 

The boning came with its own channel but it was a scratchy cotton and I did not want that against my skin so I used leftover channeling from my underwires. Here is a pic of the inside:

 

 

And the outside of the band:

 

 

The addition of the boning is really nice to keep the band from wrinkling up. I think I will add this feature on all bras from this point forward.

 

There is a lot of foldover elastic used on this bra and I need to perfect my application of that! It is seen here on the strap, which is oh, so comfy since it's padded:

 

 

Here's a view of the back. Yes, I usually use thread that matches but didn't feel like making a trek to get some and since this is basically a muslin for fit I didn't obsess over it like I usually do.

 

 

 

The most fun of this bra is that any fabric can be used for the cup cover; knit, woven, lace, it just doesn't matter. I had fun with fussy cutting this one from the Vogue 1250 fabric.

 

This was a fun project! Matching thong coming up next!

 

More info on the pattern and company on my Pattern Review.

Ladies Who Lunch

I had a lovely invitation to join friends today at the annual March of Dimes luncheon and Neiman Marcus award ceremony honoring Houston's 10 Best Dressed. The FABULOUS runway style show presented the Fall/Winter collection of Emilio Pucci.

 

I wore my recently completed Vogue 1314 with fabric by Gorgeous Fabrics, which in itself, is rather Pucci-esque.

 

I felt great in my little spring-worthy outfit mingling with our town's "see and be seen" crowd. The March of Dimes is a great charity so I was happy to buy a $50 raffle ticket for a chance to win a $5000 spending spree at Neiman's. As the emcee was reaching into the bowl to pick the winner, I thought "I'd love to win it...but I sure wish they carried fabric."

 

I'm hopeless.

 

 

 

The Real Gift from Blogging

See these two good looking broads? You probably know them as PDiddly (P's Thrifty Sewing Blog) and Art Attack via their blogs and Pattern Review, but guess what? PDiddly lives in the UK and Art Attack is a Texas girl and yet here they are together. That is the gift of blogging!

 

Pauline's work occasionally brings her to Houston and we met last year and just clicked. (Go figure...) Tonight we had a wonderful Italian dinner and talked sewing non-stop. At one point, she was pulling down her sweater to show me the gorgeous detail on the bra she recently made. We probably raised some eyebrows but neither of us noticed as there was too much fun stuff to cram into too little time together.

 

What I wouldn't give to live closer so that I could help Pauline with her upcoming wedding trousseau!

 

We all enjoy ideas, inspiration and motivation from each other's blogs but...if you ever have the opportunity to actually meet one of your blogging buddies...do whatever you can to make it happen. It is the true gift that blogging has to offer.

 

 

 

 

Valentine Blog

 

I think that celebrating Valentine's Day is an American thing...i.e...a "Hallmark moment".

 

But...I want to steal the limelight from the 'special occassion specialist' and take a moment to wish my blogging friends all around the world a happy day of love.

 

After all...that is the true spirit of Valentine's Day. Not candy...not flowers...not cards...not sexy nighties...not anything or everything red...just LOVE.

 

And... with my blogging friends, it happens to be sharing a love of SEWING. Dull? Boring? Old fashioned? A thing of the past or of days gone by? Oh, let's feel sorry for those that have that mindset!

 

In any event, this Valentine is not for them, it is for YOU. This is the day for saying... I Love You...and I do.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Double-layer, Raw Edged Neckband Tutorial

In my continuing 2013 quest to add new techniques to my sewing repertoire, I happened upon a really cool raw edged neckline finish while making Vogue 1315. Since this dress might not be the right cup of tea for everyone, I thought I would pass on the neckband technique which can be used on any knit garment. I just finished using it on View D of New Look 6150 resulting in the cute tee above. And yes, it's Rodeo season in Houston hence the belt and boots. (and pearls...only in Texas!)

 

This technique is easy and fun. Start out by cutting two strips of fabric the length of the neckband that comes with your pattern. Cut the strips on the straight grain if your fabric has a crosswise stretch. You want the stretch. If there is no neckband piece with your pattern you can cut the strips approximately 4" shorter than the circumference of the neckline, measured after the shoulders are sewn. One strip should be 1-3/8" wide and the other 1-5/8" as shown below:

 

Next, sew the ends of the narrow strip, right sides together. Then sew the ends of the wider strip together wrong sides together. You will end up with:

 

Next, with right sides up, pin the narrower band over the wider band, matching seams and having raw edges even on one side. Baste near the even edge. Here is a pic of that (lifted and pinned section) on Maggie:

 

Now, with right sides together, pin the band to the neck edge, stretching slightly as you go, then stitch:

Trim this seam allowance to about 3/8":

Turn seam allowances toward garment and give it a good press from the outside:

Edgestitch and topstitch, or use a double stretch needle, which I think is easier and gives a better result.

To curl the raw edge of each band pull edges slightly and....Voila! The double-layer, raw edged neckband:

I will use this technique once in a while for a different neckline finish on casual tees and dresses. It's easy...try it!

If you've not tried NL 6150 and would like to read about it, here is my complete Pattern Review.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheetah Frocks Rock!

I love this dress!

 

Vogue 1315 by Rebecca Taylor. Fun to make...easy to wear...lots of design detail setting it apart from the everyday, such as double layered, raw edged neckline:

 

Front pleats on skirt forming the other side of pockets, more easily shown here on the line drawing:

 

And such a cute detail on the garment itself:

 

 

Also cute unbelted:

 

And from the back:

 

 

In closing, I pay homage to CocosLoft who was my inspiration for this dress...so much so that I even used the same fabric! Thank you, Coco. Copy cat? No, I'm thinking copy cheetah.

 

Click here for my complete PatternReview.

 

Thanks for stopping by!