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Sunday 4 December 2016

1930s-esque Vintage Lingerie: Tap Pants and Bralet

Hi everyone! I haven't been posting much recently due to some changes in my life - mostly very happy changes, but also for a negative reason. If you've been following Miss Morris and my other blogs, you'll see that I haven't posted for what feels like months; this is due to college being very busy, and my chronic fatigue getting a lot worse. As well as that, I've also had a trip to Prague where I met the lovely Rosa! I've been busy, so I haven't had time to sew, blog, write my novels, draw much (except I recently got a new graphics tablet, which I'm currently experimenting with), or design.
The Christmas holidays are coming soon, and I have a couple of exciting projects lined up for when I have the free time; some boy-style Lolita shorts out of some fabric I had stashed for me. I'm looking forward to making these masculine-ish items, as it will be a lot different from making dresses!

But for now, here is a project that I've been considering blogging about for a few weeks now. I recently finished some vintage tap-pants, to match a bralet that I made last year out of my Nana's old slip that she gave me to repurpose into something new. The fabric is an old pink satin, which was very thin and soft to the touch, and feels very luxurious worn.




For my 18th birthday this year, I got a course book on making lingerie, which was what prompted me to make them. I love lingerie anyway, especially by What Katie Did, and a pair of tap pants that I ordered from them are so lovely that I wanted to make some more. The book contained instructions for drafting your own patterns, however, my poor, frazzled brain couldn't figure out how to do them, so I ended up printing off a copy of VeraVenus's pattern, which worked like a dream.
I adapted the pattern to my size, and instead of adding a placket with buttons and using the waistband, I made my own waistband on the bias and made it a drawstring channel, using satin ribbon to keep the tap pants on my waist.






The French seams on the inside.


(very messy) Flat-felled seams on the inside.
 All the seams are either French seams, or flat-felled seams, the latter of which is a new technique to me that I learned in my lingerie book. I made the pattern even bigger by inserting a panel of broiderie anglaise lace on both sides - which on the inside were made into flat-felled seams. Then, I added two rows of lace to hide the seams. I think the lace looks very pretty together!



When I made them I didn't have a specific era in mind, just that I'd like some shorts to go beneath my vintage dresses, but when I tried them on together I thought that they looked rather 1930s. They're very comfortable, and I love how they look together; the ties on the bra match the look of the ribbon ties on the tap pants, which makes them look quite uniform, I think.

2 comments:

  1. Ellie, Jesus, this is beautiful! So sweet, soft, delicate - such a wonderful work!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Rosa! I'm writing you a letter at the moment, though I'm very slow so it might take a while to get to you. :)

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