The undies saga returns

In this episode of the undies saga  heourroine makes more attempts to make herself well-fitting, sporty-looking, affordable cotton undies.

The story began when, armed with a swimsuit sewing pattern (Kwik Sew 3239), this slightly stingy sewer bravely tackled issues of pancake bottom, lack of overlocker and few materials (due to stinginess) - to produce promising but not-quite-there-yet underpants.

Then she received a valuable gift - a free bikini-style undies pattern (Megan Neilson's Acacia). This produced a few wearables -

Acacia - Used lingerie elastic for the classic look. The shape wasn't exactly what I was after but it was quite wearable - until the elastic started to come apart with each wash!

I made a couple of versions of Acacia with self fabric binding, with mixed results. One pair didn't stretch much after I was done stitching it up, the other pair wouldn't stay up.

In the spirit of upcycling, the next pair was made out of two of the boys' unwanted t-shirts. I won't be doing a  gusset in a contrast colour next time, okay? 

For this pair I went back to the Kwik Sew pattern for a higher waistline - but it is too high. At least there's a barbeque on the back. I used  foldover elastic at the waist (but it's not folded over), and strips of viscose/elastane (from a maxi dress that I shortened) around the leg holes. 

I made a second pair from the same Kwik Sew pattern with a slightly lower waistline and using viscose/ elastane for the waist and leg openings. But theres no photo because but I'm taking them out for a test drive. My takeway from this exercise is not to use old or thin jersey. It feels a bit baggy on (though the shape is fine.

This one I have high hopes for. It's the boyleg view from the Kwik Sew pattern, with a deep panel of viscose/spandex around the waistband (so it's not too low cut) and the legs are just folded under and sewn down. I had to draft a gusset for this because the original pattern doesn't have one (just a front lining piece).

I found with my first boylegs that the seam at the centre back gives me a nice bum shape. However the flip side of this is having to put up with wedginess. I wanted short legs on than designed because  I want to be able to wear them with re-usable pads when it's that time of the month.

Bamboo is back in my life

As a person of Chinese extraction, I'm familiar with things like the sight of a building completely covered in bamboo scaffolding, eating with bamboo chopsticks and cooking on bamboo steamers.

Less traditionally, I'm dipping my toe into bamboo fabric and knitting yarn (well, thinking about it and looking for it anyway).

But it's taken me till now to buy a bamboo toothbrush and bamboo clothes pegs (which can be tossed in the compost once you remove the non-bamboo bits).

When I announced this to the boy, he said that his family used bamboo toothbrushes when he was a boy! Which would have been back in the 70's and 80's! And they weren't even hippies!

So it's great that I can slowly switch to bamboo where possible (and affordable - 7 bucks for a toothbrush seem expensive) without having to worry about resistance from the within the household.

Though it makes me sad that bamboo implements went so out of fashion for so long, to be replaced by animal-choking plastic.

Mindful walking

While the boy and The Little Madam were off playing croquet, I decided to take a mindful walk.
A mindful walk is when you go for a nature walk somewhere and make yourself really conscious of the views, the smells and how you are feeling.

For example on this morning's walk I was really, really mindful of how my vulnerable my knees are since my injury about 6 weeks ago, and how much I really don't want to break them again.

You might actually call it a stroll, but that sounds so common...