Reposting with the link to the mysterious travel light jersey. Originally posted 27 Dec 2020.

We are getting a bit personal today. Let’s chat invisible underwear. Wait, what?

Okay, maybe not totally “invisible”, but definitely so from the outside world’s point of view. In fact, one of my pet hates is where you can see lines of my underwear from whatever I’m wearing on the outside, particularly when I’m in tight-fitting athletic leggings. And if it’s through jeans, then I feel even more self-conscious with it. For this reason, I’ve been known to buying “no show” or “no VPL” knickers from different places. However, they don’t always fit all that well, or may not stay put all day, and can be rather expensive.

I’ve thought about making my own for quite some time. In fact, I almost tested the no show briefs pattern by Greenstyle ( www.greenstylecreations.com/products/no-show...) before its launch (but then caught a bug, and had to miss out on such an opportunity!). It is probably no surprise that I bought the pattern pretty much as soon as it came out, but then, over time, I got more nervous about finding that fabric which does not roll at the edges when stretched. Until I got wind of a mysterious fabric called “travel light” at Minerva, that is!

I was thrilled when this fabric arrived. I’ll be honest - it is hard to describe. It is stretchy, and recovers incredibly well; it is lightweight, and doesn’t seem to crease; it washes well, and dries quickly. More importantly, there is no rolling at the edges when stretched; the colours are vibrant, and the prints cheery. It was very promising indeed!

For me, the trickiest part of making the no show briefs is the cutting. I’m pretty sure I spent more time cutting the pieces than sewing them together! How can that be? Well, most of the edges that you cut end up as the finished edges on your end product, because no hemming, adding elastic, or any of that “normal” underwear making finishes are necessary. This makes it a super quick sew, all of which can be quite easy done on your sewing machine.

Because of this, I took great care during the cutting out phase. I even invested in a mini rotary cutter for this project to go round the curvy curves better. The trick for the smoothest cut, I find, is to make longer cut in one go, rather than lifting and putting down. And if you do end up with a little “step”, you could smooth that out with an additional careful trim.

This fabric actually felt pretty strange to cut out. Dare I say it, it almost felt “rubbery”. I am aware that this is not the most flattering word when you are talking about a fabric that’s about to get worn next to your intimate area, but I’m just talking about the cutting experience here (and if you must must know, together with a cotton jersey gusset, it is totally fine to wear). It offers a very clean cut, with zero possibility of ravelling, which makes it great for this project.
I should also warn you that this project is pretty addictive! I made 3 versions which are photographed here (plus one of my bum under a pair of briefs and the most problematic athletic leggings that you will ever own – EVERYTHING shows through these normally!). I made the first version straight out of the envelope in a size C (I love the letter sizing system, by the way) with low rise and cheeky cut. They fitted quite well and stayed up all day, with no wedgie to report (TMI?). I was absolutely delighted! It was magic, especially considering that there were no elastic added to these.

There was some slight bagginess at the back, so I modified the second pair with an angled back crotch seam, following the instructions in the pattern. This worked perfectly! For the third pair, I did exactly the same, and added some stretch lace to make them fancier.

Whew, I think that’s enough invisible underwear talk for now!

Until next time,
Alice from Queen of Darts ( www.queenofdarts.com)

#minervamaker #minervamakes #travellightjersey #greenstylensb #noshowbriefs #nsb #sewingunderwear #sewingknickers #sewyourownunderwear #sewingundies