When you came across a roll of lycra fabric with feline faces all over it, there’s two things that you can do: dismissed it immediately as tacky and moved on to another fabric; or mesmerized by those little eyes staring at you and suddenly found yourself paying for the fabric. I was the latter.
Then I turned it into a bra and panty set. An awesome bra and panty set, that is.
The bra pattern is my usual Pin-up Girls Classic Bra #1230 size 30D altered to 26F. You can see that the shape of the cups is a bit different because I’ve changed them into demi-cups style.
It was quite an easy alteration where I took out some of the height from the upper cups. My usual wires were too long for this style of cups, so I chopped them off a bit at the center part, sanded them smooth and wrapped them with plumber’s tape to prevent the sharp bits from cutting the fabric.
For further reading, I suggest to read Amy’s post: Hack Your Bra #1 that explains how to do several types of alterations including making demi-cups style.
The cups were lined to reduce the stretchiness of the lycra and the side seams are reinforced with plastic boning. Instead of lycra, I used black powernet for the bra band. I followed Amy’s tutorial on adjusting the length of bra band for different fabrics with great result. Amy, what would I do without you?!! Thank you so much!
The panties pattern is actually the bottom part of bodysuit from Merckwaerdigh Strap4. I cut them on the waist mark and lowered it 5 cm further. The back part is shiny black mesh fabric. I still have a lot lycra leftover that I planned to make into a longline bra, unfortunately I ran out of black elastics! I have never found plush elastic here in Japan and usually order them from Merckwaerdigh or eLingeria, so my cats have to wait for several weeks now. Bummer.
Anyway I’m happy with this set. They are quite ridiculous and maybe a bit creepy with all those little eyes staring, but I love them! Expect the kitties to come back to this blog once I get hold of another batch of black elastics!
Bra pattern is Pin-up Girls Classic Bra #1230 from eLingeria, size 30D altered to 26F.
Panties patttern is lower part of bodysuit from Merckwaerdigh Strap4.
I just want to say that i love this set (especially the lining) and your blog in general. I haven’t sewed in a long time and am really only a beginner, but i am feeling really inspired reading all your posts! I love your style.
Thanks for the great blog
Those are hilarious, cat lycra is much too hard to resist. Great job on the sewing, I’m not even willing to attempt lingerie!
Cute!! I wouldn’t have thought of using a print like this, but you have inspired again! These are adorable!
Oh my goodness I would buy this in a minute. Actually in a moment.
I love seeing your posts about your underwear sets, they are always so whimsical!
Seeing that you’ve had to use plumber’s tape to finish the ends of your shortened underwires, (and for your corset too,) I thought I might suggest bone tipping fluid… I work for a studio that makes a lot of corsets for theatrical use, and we use tipping fluid frequently. It comes in a tiny paint can, and is a lot like paint, but much thicker and glue-like. You coat the tips of bones or underwires with it to smooth all sharp edges and then let it dry. You seem to make enough structured undergarments that I thought you might find it useful. We order it from Richard the Thread, it is listed under their corset-making supplies.
Happy Sewing!
Hi Kristin!
Tipping fluid sounds like something that I will need
I aso love finding the Richard the Thread website
Thank you much for sharing the tip and your resource!
Hehe. These make me laugh. I love the placement of the bigger cat on the undies. Was that deliberate? Kind of a bit creepy at the same time too though! I bet these put a smile on your face every time you wear them. How are you going to wash the bra with plumbers tape on the wires?
The cats are actually about the same size. I think it looks bigger because it’s black. The placement wasn’t deliberate though
I hand wash all my lingerie. I think plumber’s tape will be fine as they are created for much rougher treatment.
This is Genius! Absolutely LOVE them!
LOVE THIS!!!!
Ridiculous or not, I love them! Would totally wear these!
That is ridiculously adorable. Tacky schmacky, who cares?? Embrace it! Custom lingerie rocks.
Awesome! Cute and original….you will be inspiring bra makers everywhere!
This is the most amazing underwear set ever. I want cats on ev!erything
haha this is hysterical!! I love this set! I would totally love to wear that set myself 😀
If only I were brave enough to sew a bra…
You should try Joyce! It will be very rewarding ^^
Good thinking. An unusal and fun lingerie set.
The cutest undies e v e r !!!
Awesome! What a fun set!
So, so awesome. Meow!
I LOST MY SHIT when I saw this on Instagram which means you think I would lose less of my shit seeing them here but nope. STILL LOSING MY SHIT. This is just he best on so many levels. The cat print….. I can’t. It’s so brilliant. And I love the panties with a mesh back! I’m sure this isn’t a real “sexy time” set (Hi honey, all my bits are covered in CATS!) but wearing this would make me smile all day. A quick question about lining… do you grade your lycra a smidge smaller than the lining? This tutorial (
http://sigridsewingprojects.blogspot.ca/2013/03/interfacing-lycra.html) suggested it but I’m not sure it’s worth it. I just made 2 bras that are basically garbage due to lining woes so I’m curious if you have any lining tips. Also, what kind of elastic did you use on the top edge of the cups? It’s hard to see.
Heather, you made me laugh! 😀 😀
I never grade my Lycra though. It might make a difference but I just don’t have the patience.
My Lycra and lining pieces are exactly the same, then I basted around the edge using loosely length zigzag stitch. If the Lycra is very stretchy, or the cup has more than three pieces, maybe grading the Lycra will be needed.
I use foldover elastic on the top edge of the cups
Love these! Perfect bra and undie set!!
This is cute, gorgeous and fun!!! Where did you find this wonderful peice of kitty kat fabric, I must make myself a set!!!
Thank you! I bought them in Okadaya, a fabric store in Shinjuku
If anyone knows of an online store to purchase this wonderful fabric, please let me know.
I couldn’t find the exact fabric but they have loads of fabric with cats on at http://www.meowscape.com/ They only deliver a small selection outside the US though.
This is amazing! I love it. I totally would have bought it too, but it wouldn’t have occourred to me to turn it into lingerie. Brilliant!
YES!!! *fist pump* This set is AWESOME! There should totally be more prints in lingerie! I would have totally passed over this fabric but you have made it into something amazing and magical!
*fist bump* Thank you Carolyn!! 😀
I’ve been following your progress with this set on twitter–wow, it’s amazing! Looks great and like ready to wear!!