Lingerie Sew-Along: Final Touches and the Finished Product, Part 15

Well, crap. The sun just isn't going to shine here, and without it's cooperation, any pictures I take of myself in the Pauline slip are just going to be dark and scary.
So let's just finish up the Lingerie Sew-Along, shall we?

When last we left off, we finished the side seams, the bodice facing, and we bound the top edges.

As far as the bodice facing edges on the inside are concerned, they can either be serged together with the bodice seam allowance, bound, or just basted together. The point is just to keep the inside facing from bunching up inside your bodice and creating unsightly lumps.

The inside bodice facing edges, pinned and ready to be dealt with.

Next we have the straps. They can be done as detailed in Pretty Pretties or as we discussed in the post about sewing straps to the Pauline Bra.

All about pdf patterns

The new frontier of sewing patterns is digital. Everything seams to turn to digital at some point and sewing patterns are no exception. E patterns are now being offered by the big four (Simplicity, Butterick, McCall's and Vogue) as well as a dozen websites including Etsy.com.

The great thing about digital patterns is that you can buy them and print for a fraction of the cost. There's no waiting for the mail to come, as most are emailed to you within 24 hours, or better, directly downloaded. I highly recommend Burdastyle.com for downloading patterns. Here's my favorite:

That's right,  you click download, and this pattern (which is free, by the way) is on your computer. You hit print, tape the pieces together, and start sewing.

Now, my very favorite thing about digital patterns is that some enterprising individuals, (yes, including myself) have started taking rare, expensive, hard to find patterns and making them available for download. Most of these are vintage originals whose copyrights have expired. Some are just used as inspiration to create an original pattern that still reflects the style and design so sought after in certain digital patterns.

Mary Anne Bandeau Pattern

Now there are some drawbacks to print at home patterns. They can be bulky and hard to store. There are two ways I store my larger printed patterns. One solution is to store them in a labelled file folder. My favorite way to store them though, is to print the pattern picture out and tape it to an envelope. I use the 6" x 9" manilla envelopes so they fit right in with my other regular patterns.

Marilynn Apron Pattern

Another great thing about pdf patterns is that once you buy them, they are saved on your computer. If you rip a piece, or lose one, or want to make it in a different size, you can just print again.
Some pdf patterns are larger and more complicated to put together. Many buyers are put off by the paper and ink they'll have to use up on their home printer. An easy way to get around this is to save the pattern to a cd or small thumb drive, take it to your local print shop (xerox, staples, they all do it) and have them print it for you.

So just in case you're interested, and so you know I'm not just plugging my shop, here are a few of my favorite pattern pdfs:

LaPrairieLady

Also from LaPrairieLady

From PatternRunway

From BettieMarie

Any questions?

New Pattern PDF and Another Giveaway.

I've just finished spending the entire day taking my favorite bra pattern from the 1940's ( a jewel from my collection provided by my fantastic mother) into a pdf. The pattern was unprinted and to get a visible outline I copied it by hand, scanned it, and added notations to the perforations on the pattern. And oh, the Photo-shopping... when we move back to the sates the first thing I'm going to do (after getting a burger at Denny's, of course) is to enroll myself in a Photoshop course, because learning by winging it makes for slow going.
So here it is:

12 hours of drafting and now it's available as a pdf in my shop.
And to alleviate my computer related headache, I'm going to give away one free copy of the pattern above to one lucky follower because giveaways make me happy.

How to win (you can do one or all):
1. Comment and tell me what your favorite piece of lingerie is, either one you have, or one you want.
2. Become a follower of this blog, (and leave a comment telling me you have).
3. Like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook (and leave a comment telling me you have).

Good Luck! I'll announce the winner next Monday!

And we have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! The lucky winner is Alice of Alice's Closet whose comment # was chosen by a random number generator:

She has a super cute sewing blog that you might like to check out.
Congrats, Alice, and thanks for reading A Few Threads Loose! Just leave a comment here on this post with the pattern you want, and how I can email it to you, or email me at afewthreadsloose@gmail.com.
The prize? Alice get's to choose any one pdf pattern from my etsy shop that she likes.
I have some super cute pdf patterns on there, but by far, my favorite is the beach bra pattern.

Either that or the flight cap pattern which is my other best seller. I think it's because my husband was gracious enough to model it for me.

Lord, but he's good looking!

Boredom leads to giveaways...

I'm bored. My husband left at 3:00 this morning to catch a ferry to Denmark as the first leg of a two day motorcycle trip to the UK. So naturally I'll be anxious and incapable of concentrating until I get the phone call tomorrow that he's safe at his hotel.
So I'm doing a nice little giveaway to get my mind off of things.
I'll be giving away one free pattern PDF of your choice from my etsy shop to one lucky winner.
I'm a huge fan of pdf's because sometimes you just don't want to wait for the mail, you want to sew it NOW!
I especially like patterns that are short and sweet. I'm an instant gratification kind of girl, and I don't want to use up all of my printer ink on 60 pages, which is why I chose to make these into PDFs for my shop.

Many of you are already familiar with the beach bra pattern. I love sewing this one and I recently discovered it looks great with a nice vintage pair of overalls.

Then there's the flight cap pattern you might have seen as well. I was lucky enough to get my husband to model it for me, after receiving a nice lecture from him on how to wear it at the proper angle.

And my newest pattern that I just finished is a 1940's mitt or fingerless glove pattern. This one is super cute and I'm trying to figure out just how to incorporate it onto my every-day wardrobe. The pattern suggests lace but I can't stop thinking black suede... we'll see.

To enter the giveaway, you don't have to go through the usual hoops of checking out my shop (unless you want to, that is).
All you need to do is become a follower (if you're not already) and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite thing is to sew.
You can also leave a comment to let me know if you became a follower for an extra entry.
For a third entry, you can like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook

What's my favorite thing to sew? I love sewing bras. I don't know why, but I can't seem to resist a vintage bra pattern.

Good luck! I'll announce the winner on Saturday the 14th.