These are the first two patterns I have tested for Bella Sunshine Designs. I had actually never made anything from BSD before. I have to say, I was impressed with the detail in the pattern and instructions.Â
The Coraline Cami has a few options. It can be made with or without a shelf bra, and it can be shirt length or dress length. A camisole can be used as night out shirt, a layering piece, or for lounge wear. Versatile!
Since there are no sleeves and the neck and back are cut low, this pattern doesn’t need a lot of fabric, so I was able to use the remainder scraps of DBP (not sure what DBP or other sewing acronyms mean? Check out my post HERE) from making the George and Ginger, Ginger Dress (post coming soon).
*This post contains affiliate links. This just means that if you buy it through my link, I get a few cents to help me continue to bring you awesome posts.
Â
The straps are made from FOE (Fold Over Elastic). I had never used FOE before, but I love learning new things! I zig zag stitched the back side of the FOE onto the wrong side of the fabric. Now you can use a regular zig zag stitch or a three step zig zag stitch which is the one with the line breaks. The three step is supposed to tunnel less. That part was a little tricky at first, because you have to get a feel for how to hold the elastic with the dbp (it was a little slippery). You also have to make sure the zig zag stitch is wide enough to catch the FOE, but not so wide that it would be visible underneath the elastic once it’s all sewn up. So, I picked my stitches once and then just went slow.
After the FOE is zig zag stitched, you simply flip it over to the right side of the fabric and use a stretch stitch or a coverstitch to secure it into place. I used my coverstitch, I have the Brother 2340CV. This gave me some trouble as well at first. The FOE is thick, and my coverstitch feed dogs didn’t want to move the fabric along. So out came my seam ripper once again (okay, maybe it came out 2 or 3 times on this part!). I tried out some different settings on the coverstitch and found out that if I increased the stitch length and lowered the presser foot tension buy one full knob twist, it all fed through great. See the picture below for how it turned out!
Now, the straps on this did end up being too short. I chalked it up to me having a long torso since the other testers didn’t have this same issue. I ended up adding almost 3 inches to the straps so that the cami sat where I wanted it too. So my suggestion on the straps, is to make them a little longer because you can always try it on and cut the straps shorter if needed.
But in the end, I think it turned out really cute, and I like the pattern!
Now the Primrose Panties are of course…underwear. I’ll post a flat lay picture, but I’m not risque enough to post a pic of me in them on the blog! Sorry. But, I will tell you this. They are super comfortable and the biggest part of why is the gusset.
I do have a few panty patterns, but this one is unique because the gusset is seperate from the main fabric. Most underwear patterns just have you sew the gusset on top of the main fabric, whereas on this one, you sew the gusset (with NO EXPOSED SEAMS) between the front and back main fabric. This means, the main fabric can be something super soft like DBP and the gusset can be something super breathable like Cotton Lycra or Rayon Spandex.
I made this pair out of DBP and Rayon Spandex.
I posted a picture of the inside so you can see the closed seams on the top and bottom of the gusset and the separation of the main and gusset fabrics. Neat huh??
Oh, the options on these underwear you ask? There is a high rise and low rise option and a low cut and high cut version. These are the low rise, low cut version because I like coverage on the bum. There’s also the option to use either fabric bands or FOE around the waist and legs. Bands are really comfortable, but you might like elastic better for some clothes (skirts and dresses maybe.)
