Made by a Fabricista: Sewing Lingerie With Stretch Lace & Mesh

Lingerie sewing is so addictive!! Once I get the fit down of a particular bra or undies pattern, I want to make 4,647 of each of them. I sewed up my first bra a few years back and my lingerie sewing stash has multiplied like bunnies since. I've picked up a bunch of stretch meshes and stretch laces from Fabric Mart in recent months, I never need to order more than one yard at a time because these projects take itty bitty bits of material. 

My bra is Orange Lingerie's Marlborough pattern. It's approximately a 38B... I say approximately because the pattern is altered for my figure. I've sewn up lots of Orange Lingerie bras before, this was my first go with her undies. You can see my complete journey fitting and sewing up the Marlborough bra from day one-- it started a little over a year ago when the pattern was first released.

The gorgeous stretch floral mesh is a Maggy London nylon/spandex I picked up this summer from Fabric Mart. I paired it up with a luscious purple nylon/spandex galloon lace I had in my stash. The elastics and findings are all from my stash as well, each purchased over time from various shops online. I used a white nylon/lycra mesh knit from Fabric Mart... but I hand dyed it to a slight off- white because it was just too stark against the floral mesh. I also dyed the underwire channel. 

I made up a very, very weak dye bath of about 1 gallon of water about a couple tablespoons of RIT dye in Sunshine Orange and swished around the mesh and wire channeling around for a matter of seconds. I did pre-wet the material make sure the dye job would soak up evenly. In the left picture above you can see the faint contrast between a true white material and the newly dyed power mesh.  The picture on the right there is after the dye job and drying. Not drastic, just a mild change. I completely forgot to dye the hooks on back and was too lazy to, so that is pretty bright white still. (I like to dye my lingerie materials!! You can see more details on other fabrics I've dyed for previous unmentionables on here my blog.)  Now check out my secret layer of fabric below!

I inserted a secret layer of a non-stretch nylon in between the floral and white meshes for my bra. I take a large square of each fabric, enough to cut out all my pattern pieces from and use a spray adhesive to stick them together. Layer 1: the floral mesh, Layer 2: the non-stretch nylon, Layer 3: the stretch power mesh. Once the big pieces are all temporarily glued together, I cut out each pattern piece. Of course the bands need to stretch, so I skipped the non-stretch nylon for those pieces.

These undies are sooooo pretty!  They feel so high end with all the pretty meshes and laces!!! I used the Orange Lingerie Montgomery Brief pattern. I cut a size large waist and graded up to the XL for my bum. What's neat about these are the lack of elastic on the back leg, no VPL! It's two layers of stretch mesh and lace from Fabric Mart. The pretty pink ones I used a poly/spandex stretch lace I got from Fabric Mart a while back, but are so other yummy stretch laces found on their site here. I used scraps of white cotton jersey for the crotch liner bit.   

I LOVE my new dainty lady things! It's so much fun to sew this stuff up because they are pretty quick to come together. Once I get the right fit with the right pattern for my figure, it's glorious to know that I have the power to make my own high quality lingerie.

Happy Lingerie Sewing!!

~Kathy
Kathy Sews