You may recall my last foray into panty making brought up this sweet pair of pink polkadot bikini swim bottoms made from a vintage 1970's Kwik Sew Pattern #653. They were too small and the leg too low for me back in July of 2015.  Today, they fit really well in most areas though still need the leg raised to account for a short front hip distance and protruding thigh muscles. 

On the photo above you can see from the blue marks how much I need to arc the leg opening. How do I know what I needed? I put these on, used my tailor's chalk, folded away the excess fabric and marked where I estimated the leg opening needed to be for comfort and ease of walking. 

This is the original pattern cover. And yes, I'm making this in a size 10 with a slight amount of excess added to the seam allowances. The pattern was designed with woven fabrics in mind (on the bias), so there's extra ease. Besides, I matched the pattern pieces up to other RTW panties and patterns that currently fit and found the size was workable. SO strange, because I am not a size 10, at all. 

You can see here that the amount taken out at the top of the thigh is going to be around 1.5 inches. I often use my fingers to estimate inches. My full finger measures ~ 3" and the first knuckle is 1" long. Pretty neat eh? Helpful if you are without tools.  No, that's not a rememball or string to remind me. Just where I stuck my hairband to make sure I didn't lose it. 

Because I didn't feel like fussing with folding these in half, side seam to side seam and then marking the opposite leg, I just cut one leg the best I could given the tailors chalk markings.  Love those duck billed scissors. Then, I matched the crotch seam and side seam (I cut beyond both into the back piece a tiny bit), and pinned the right leg excess to the left leg and marked with tailors chalk.  Then, I cut the left leg. Dang if that wasn't easier and just as accurate for my needs. 

I keep those cut away bits until I go back to my copy of the pattern (I always make a copy) and mark the modifications I made. Sometimes I don't have time or space to do it when sewing, so I just keep a little box next to my sewing machine that stores the extra bits until I'm ready to mark up my pattern.

Now aren't these just the cutest things you ever did see? I'm so proud of myself. I feel like a Tropical Romance Queen!  They get me singing, "she wore an itsy bitsy teeny weenie... pink polkadot bikini..." And now I want to make a cute polka dot top to match!  Unlikely that I will make the same top as on the pattern, but who knows!

Because these bottoms fit so well, I wanted to try them without 2 layers of fabric (the swim bottoms are fully lined front and back) and in a wicking / wickaway material.  I had a tiny amount of this drapey knit wicking fabric left over from the hiking shirt I made here.  The fabric is some I bought from Joann's in their performance and dancewear section. It's a ribbed knit which means it's either a 1x1 (1 knit row to 1 purl row) or 2x2.  That means the fabric didn't ravel and tends to lay flat quite well. But either content or construction makes it quite drapey. That also means the fabric tends to stretch out of shape.  

When I lay out my fabric, I didn't have enough to cut the back piece all the way to the true crotch seam between front and back. The back piece ended up short. No worries, I figured. I'll just see how the fit is because that odd amount may just work out in my favor or it may not. 

Here they are all done. You can see the crotch seam doesn't appear to be too small.  I did cut the leg elastic 2" shorter than the actual pattern leg measurements. That worked out ok, but the elastic is a little too big and doesn't appear to help pull in the drapey fabric.

When worn, these fit super great!  I even wore them to a dance class followed by hours of dance practice. Final results:

• They hit top of my hip bones beautifully, the legs aren't tight and I hardly knew I had them on.  And I discovered they fit in all the same ways my favorite Cacique / Lane Bryant "daily driver" panties do. Yay! I've been wanting to make more panties rather than buy so I'm well on my way!
• They slid around a little, tended to hug body parts and wander into places they needn't be (imagine if there were ruching in the place where a center back seam might be).  
• I also didn't create a crotch lining and the pattern didn't have one.  Next time, I'll add a cotton crotch lining for sensitive areas of the body.
• This fabric (all poly and non natural) tends to draw out body odors as it wicks the sweat out. Maybe you haven't had any issues with that. For me, non-natural fibers don't allow my body to breathe. When I wear a wicking top, I notice that even with proper hygiene and deodorant, I begin to sweat and smell bad quickly as though I've not worn any deodorant at all.  It must be a reaction between my body and the fabric.   
• I sweat a lot while dancing, and they did wick quite well. In that sense, they were quite comfy.

Overall, they're really great.  I think they'd be fun for hiking.  

Here are both pairs together.  You can see that I stretched out the elastic a little too much on the bottom pair. But you can also see how beautifully the nylon-lycra behaves and is designed for just this style of pattern.   

I loved my ziggy sweetheart top Jalie 2794 so much that I decided to use one of my coveted Farbenmix cotton T-shirt knit to make a 2nd version.  I cut the olive and green stripe on the selvedge edge so that it would result in blocky striping along the neckline. I adore this color blue with the teal / aqua. The shirt is super comfy. 

I took the shoulders down a size. Basically about 1/2" taken out. I think that helps smooth out the lines from bust to shoulder. You can still see my typical bust dart that likes to creep in. I'm very, very short distanced in the front armscye curve. That and the bust curve out often mean I have "wings" of fabric that hang out there if I don't take a bust dart. Judy Barlup was the first to suggest that I'd like that alteration, much like she uses. She's right on. Though, in this top, I think I will skip that alteration for now. It doesn't seem that important for this type of play / casual top. 

I asked the #sewcialists on instagram for their feedback on the fit of the back. Kate Davies (@fabrickated) gave a great suggestion to add a little more at the hips and see if the rest relaxes. I also agree with chrichrimano, marishi3000, and thegreenviolet that a small swayback adjustment may help fit the lower back curve. Swayback adjustments are very normal for me. On some patterns, the swayback adjustment has been many inches which resulted in a weird sharp angled curve that really doesn't work out well on the body.  So, it's really nice to have a shirt fit so well overall that the adjustments are minor (less than an inch and very low angles) rather than being huge and major (many inches & angles).