What's not to like about an undergarment which can also work as an outer garment? We think this pattern is as cute as can be, and it's a fun way to add variety to your lingerie wardrobe. It relies on compression for support, so we're offering a variety of base fabrics to let you adjust the strength of your compression, as well as to vary the amount of transparency of the garment. Some of us like our outer garments to be more opaque! This year the Bra Sewing Bee will cover how to incorporate an internal bra band into your garment to give you the support of an underwired bra along with the cute look and easy construction of the corset. It also gives you tips for doing alterations, including a full bust adjustment!
Traditionally, the Odessa has been a compression support garment, so it relies on negative ease to get support. The three base fabric choices that you have are Stretch Mesh for light support and a sheer look, Regular Power Net for moderate support and a semi-sheer look and Tech Sheen for moderate support and an opaque look. You can pair your base fabric with either lace or our beautiful bamboo jersey. We have 2 beautiful laces and 3 darling prints to offer. We add 1/2" elastic ribbon to highlight the seams on the bamboo versions. You can specify your boning based upon your own preferences, and if you get boning, you might also want to add Twill Tape to cover the boning on the inside of the garment if you don't sandwich it between layers.
The free pattern comes with a cute thong, and you can often get your undie fabric from your corset kit if you use the Stretch Mesh or Bamboo Jersey option. Just add an Undie Finishing Kit to get your undies. For our lace versions, you can get a Friday French Cut undie kit and sew along with the Sew Along! We have a darling bright pink stretch lace - Cyndi - that goes with our Cherry Lime Pop lace if you want to make some Wednesday Cheekies (we'll use Willow for the elastic waist). I think that I would opt for both a Friday French Cut and a Wednesday Cheekies for two undies to go with my Odessa! You can see the pink stretch lace peeking out of the top of one of the kit pictures. You might prefer a traditional undie fabric for your bottoms. Microlycra is substantial (but not thick or heavy), opaque, liquid, soft and smooth. Microlycra Air is thin, opaque, soft and smooth. Stretch Mesh is airy, a bit textured, soft and sheer. Be sure to check out our free Odessa Sew Along so that you're all ready for both the Ruffles and Flourishes class and Monica's Adding a Fitting Band class.
For this Sew Along, we're offering Cherry Lime Pop with Willow as the main color for a bright, happy look, Dreamweaver with Antique Rose for a subtle look and Vixen (foxes), Anemone (blue flowers) and Clementine (the fruit ;)) for a fun outerwear garment, although I can totally see myself using it as a sleep top!
Our kit is offered in 2 sizes, Smaller and Larger. The Smaller kit easily makes up to the size L-XL. The Larger works easily for all sizes.
The Odessa Colors are:
A Lace Odessa Corset Top Kit contains:
The Bamboo Odessa Kit contains:
Odessa Add-Ons:
Odessa Internal Band:
For your Add on Undie Kits, you have a few options:
Your panty will match your lace unless you specify otherwise. As always, feel free to choose your favorite elastics or narrow lace (please leave us a note if you don't see your choice!). You can also add a 9" square of absorbent fabric for your panty panel! You can find our collection of Waist Lace and Elastics here, and our collection of Leg Lace here.
Sewing Notes:
The strength of our microduoplex fabric, which makes it so wonderful for bras, also makes it hard to puncture with needles and pins. This is true with most duoplex fabrics. Use either fine silk pins or Wonder Clips to pin (I find Wonder Clips work best), and a Microtex 80/12 needle with a smooth thread like Superior Threads So Fine or Mettler Metrosene to make it easy to sew. In my testing, the So Fine thread and Microtex 80/12 won the challenge of the nicest stitch on microduoplex, and as long as my presser foot completely covered the seam allowance, I found it just as easy to sew as quilting cotton. I moved the needle to the right to set my seam allowance at 1/4" since my presser foot is a bit wide. I find it works well to saturate the lace with liquid starch and let it dry before laying out your pattern pieces and cutting your fabric. This stiffens the lace until you wash it and the lace has enough body to behave well in the sewing process.
We offer all these pins, clips, needles and thread here on our site.