Month: February 2015

Panties To Match

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

Here are my panties to match my Sewy Rebecca bra.

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Did you know Sewy actually has panties to match their bra pattern?

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Here they are. This is from the Sewy website. And here’s the line drawing of the pattern from their website.

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Aren’t they lovely?

And on a side note, I’ve found being an English-speaking person, who does not read or speak German, the best way to navigate the Sewy website is on Google Translate. You can read everything translated into English, but you can’t place an order when using Google Translate. Ask me how I know. You can see the Sewy website translated here.

Back to my sewing. The panties I made are from my TNT Kwik Sew 2286, but I altered the front. This time, since I was adding the lace panel and wanted to keep the scallop at the top of the lace, I remembered to add the lace elastic to the waistband before sewing the lace panel on. I love them.

And here is the matching set.

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My intent is to make two pair of panties for each bra I make. So after my Rebecca was done and I got out my cotton spandex, I realized I only had enough cotton for one pair of panties. I already have the lace cut out for the second pair of panties, but it looks like I have to wait for them.

I told my hubby I needed to order more cotton material, and, well, we had a discussion and he suggested that since I’ve bought all this other material with plans to sew other things, I needed to sew something other than bras and panties to match. Sigh. He just doesn’t understand how addictive bra making is. And for a garment I have to wear every day – it’s just such a delight to put my own on rather than anything RTW.

We came to a compromise – I ordered more material and I’ll sew something else before I sew another bra or panty. But… there was the Watson Sew-along, and there’s Erin’s Bra-a-Week Challenge going on right now, and there are patterns to perfect now that I have my size and fit all figured out. I’m having a very hard time choosing another project when I want to sew bras and panties.

So, I told myself, while my supplies are on the way, get something else sewn and then I’ll have both time and resources to sew another pretty matching set.

So, a Flirt Skirt it is.

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This is in a stretch denim. Look at that flare at the back. Such fun. It really is flirty. My skirt’s not quite done. I still have the waistband to finish, but that won’t take long at all. The ‘top’ is simply material I draped over my dress form. I’d bought some of material to make a cowl neck top, so that will be next… after my second pair of panties.

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Happy creating!

Sewy Rebecca Revisited

~ Michelle

This week I’m looking at my Sewy Rebecca pattern again. I do really like the pattern, so wanted to revisit it. However, the hard part was I felt like I was starting all over again with fitting. I’m not, but I’ve had too many ‘doesn’t quite fit properly’ experiences to not be a bit gun shy.

So, the first thing I did was compare the muslin I’d made a few months back to my correctly fitting Shelley bra. I pinned the muslin over top of the bra on Catherine.

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You can see here, the size I’d traced off and sewn up was too big. I wasn’t sure of my size, so actually graded up one size from the largest to make sure I was getting the proper depth of cup. I’m glad I did. I could see I really would be fine with one size down. Also, I traced around the muslin in pencil to show where the seam lines are underneath.

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You can see the lines here at the underarm, and in the first picture at the top and bridge. I also traced the bottom of the cup where the seam is for the cradle. That gave me a clear indication of sizing.

Once I was finished I took the muslin apart and trimmed off the seam allowance. Then I laid those pieces over the pattern pieces to compare those. Again, I was pretty sure I had the correct size. And one last comparison – I measured the wire line length and the cross-cup seam length and they both match up too. I was ready.

For the band, I laid my Shelley band over the Rebecca pattern to find the size. I really did use my whole pattern as a sloper to make the new pattern fit.

I adapted the Rebecca bridge to the right height for me, and added in the correction to the pattern for the flat spot I have. I also made the cradle smaller to fit the smaller wire I use. So the last change I need to make was to adjust the larger cup to fit into the smaller band.

Before I cut into my good material though, I sewed up another muslin.

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There. Almost all the wrinkles are gone. There are wrinkles on the dress form’s bra though, so this is looking perfect. Now to pick out some material.

I’ve bought some lovely material over the last couple of years that I’ve been saving for that day when I had my fit down. It was time to break some of it out!

I picked a gorgeous Black Cherry kit I’d bought from Bra-Makers Supply. I loved this kit and was really looking forward to using it. I’m not disappointed.

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One of the first things to happen was a set back. I went to press my seams and one little touch of the iron scorched my material. I don’t know how my setting dial on my iron was turned to the hottest setting, but I adjusted it and got out my seam ripper. I had some lace on that band and I still wanted to use it.

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Next I want to show you what the Omega shape means – in practical terms, it means the cup is bigger than the cradle. Do you see those edges do not meet? As this was still a bit of a test run – even though I took a lot of preliminary steps – I didn’t do any alterations to the cup pattern. I will take in the wire line of the cup’s pattern on the next one I do. On this bra I did a gathering stitch along the bottom to ease those two parts together.

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You can see here the gathers inside the cradle. But with some serious steam after the cup was sewn into the band, you can’t see the gathers at all.

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And here’s my Sewy Rebecca. I love this color. I love so many things about this pattern. It looks as neat (almost) on the inside as it does on the outside. I really love that. As I was sewing, that was what excited me the most.

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Here’s the cup before it was sewn into the cradle. All the seams are enclosed. The cross cup seam is enclosed between the lace and the lining. The power bar seam is enclosed between the duoplex and the lining. It looks so very neat inside. I’m quite excited about that.

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Here’s the bra from the side. That little piece of lace was unpicked from the scorched section I showed you earlier. I’m really pleased I took the time to do that. I’m loving that little detail. As well, the steam really did make those gathers disappear. You can’t see them.

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And here’s the back. The findings kit isn’t available in Black Cherry, so I used black. The cotton isn’t available in the Black Cherry either, so next week black cotton and lace panties to match.

Happy creating!

A New Family Member

~ Michelle

We just celebrated Valentine’s Day, and today is Family Day in Canada. So, it’s a perfect day to show you all our newest family member.

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This is our new dog, Tiberius; Tibbers for short. Tiberius is a rescue dog. He was found wandering the streets of California and was taken to a rescue shelter there for a month. After that he made the trip up to Canada and another shelter for a few more weeks. Now he’s with us. This photo was taken while he was still in California – you can tell by the lack of snow!

What a wonderful Valentine’s day gift to our family. He came over on Saturday, so our Valentine’s celebration was all about getting to know him and him getting to know us.

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Without seeing his parents, there’s no sure way to tell exactly what breed mix he is, but the pet adoption agency thinks he’s Dachshund/Manchester Terrier mix.

We found a great adoption agency in the city near us. Calican Rescue Foundation. They specialize in adoption of small dogs, which are a lot rarer here. Everywhere else we looked were only large dogs. We just don’t have the room for a large dog. Calican bring them up from California, which has a lot of smaller dogs available. We loved what they were doing.

Something else that really impressed us with this organization was how they don’t even place the dog with you unless they think it will be a good fit. The first part of the process is a phone interview. After that, there’s a one week trial in the home. So our Tiberius has a week to get used to us and us him. I can’t see any troubles though; he is a really sweet dog.

A big inspiration for me came from Novita over at Very Purple Person. Novita blogs about caring for foster dogs, and has had a few go through her home in the few years I’ve been following her blog. That sounded wonderful to me. I thought I’d suggest it to my family. Well, there was no way my family wanted to care for a dog and then let it go. NO way! That conversation did open the door to some talks about adopting though.

He has quite the personality too. He’s very well-behaved and learning commands quickly. He loves to cuddle, and is a bit mischievous. I came home to find only one slipper at the front door when I’d left two there. He’s made off with one of my son’s socks, and pulled a stuffed toy off the shelf. After that, we bought him his own stuffed toy and he’s content to leave the other one alone.

We’re having a wonderful Family Day with our newest family member.

Michelle

A Beige Shelley Set

~ Michelle

I’m pretty sure I’ve used that title before, and will likely use it again. I really like my basics and I like the Shelley pattern by Bra-Makers Supply. Here’s my most recent Shelley:

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I need to make some proper-fitting foam inserts for photos. I don’t like all the wrinkles! However, as a bra, this is my best yet. I love it. It’s kind of funny because I saw this lace on the Bra-Makers Supply (BMS) web site, and ordered it right away. When I got it, I was putting it with my other laces, and lo and behold, there was another order I’d placed before for the same lace. Yup. I know I like it when I do that. It wasn’t the first time, and I doubt it’ll be the last. I did that with a Merckwaerdigh lace as well.  It’s good to know I really like it.

For this Shelley, I did what I did for the last couple of bras I made. Rather than making alterations to the cup to make the larger cup fit into the smaller cradle (Omega shape), I went in-between the sizes. The cup corresponds to a 42 wire, the cradle I need is a 38. I used the 40 cradle. The wire still fits. In fact, BMS say with their patterns you can go up or down a wire size if you need. That makes it perfect for me. The fewer alterations, the better because one alteration leads to another and another.

I thinned the area under the cup even though I used the larger elastic. You can see that here:

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Beverly, The Fairy Bra Mother, did a very informative blog on how to do this and I’ve been doing it since. You can read her wonderful instructions here.

I also lowered the bridge, adjusted for a flat spot I have and added a vertical dart to the pattern to take out a little excess under the arm.

It’s so wonderful to have learned to do this, and from now on I can have perfectly fitting bras. That is tremendous!

Another sparkly idea that came from Beverly was to add some Swarovski crystals to the bra. Pure brilliance. So, I added a little bling to the bra too. This bra has bows and crystals.

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I attached these sparkling little delights on the bridge just above a ‘floating’ piece of lace. I say it’s floating because I only sewed the sides of it into the seams of the cup and cradle. I used the Swarovski Hotfix Crystal Tool to attach the crystals and love the result. The only change I’d make here is one that will make it a bit easier for me – attach the crystals before inserting the under wires. However, as much as the tool seemed to want to wobble a bit, the end result looks nice and straight.

The back is quite basic.

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There is a small pucker where the hooks and eyes meet the band, but it’s not the very large wrinkle showing in the photo. That was just me not catching that the band wasn’t on Catherine (my dress form) perfectly straight. I was fighting a cold and forgot to check to see if the band fit properly into the hooks and eyes. I think there’s a 1/16″ little tuck there because I  didn’t want any edges sticking out.

Now, for matching panties.

You’d never have known it by following my blog, but I do love matching bra and panty sets. For a long time I was on a quest to find cotton because I love my cotton panties. Once I found my source at BMS, I was working on getting my bra fit down. All the materials for my bras and panties come from BMS except the elastic lace I used on the waist bands – that came from Frog Feathers on Etsy.

Here’s the first pair of panties I did:

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I love these. Nice soft cotton and matching pretty lace. Who could ask for more? I used my favorite Kwik Sew 2286 pattern and altered it. I did go up a size because the cotton just didn’t have the same stretch as some other knits I’d used in the past. The alteration I made was a simple one. Rather than cutting the front on the fold, I traced the whole front out and then cut off the one side of the front. I added a seam allowance to both sides creating two new pattern parts.

I did run into a bit of a snag not having thought it all through enough. When I was adding the lace to the waist band, I realized I didn’t want to cut off the scalloped part at the top of the lace. So I just ended the elastic lace where the other lace started. Next time I will add the elastic lace to the band before sewing these two parts together.

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Having that little blip happen helped me with my second set of panties though. Here’s my second pair:

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Yup. I love these too. It’s the same base pattern, but on this one I traced the front out and laid my lace over it. I wanted the scalloped edge at the top. So with the lace on top of the pattern, I drew a line where the lace ended. Then I traced that part again and added a seam allowance. For this set, I added the back waist elastic first. That wasn’t going to work for the font though. For the front I added a bit of left over upper band elastic. It’s hidden behind the top of the scallops.

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Here it is from the inside. I didn’t want to leave the front without any elastic, even though the lace is a stretch lace.

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Here they are, my two new matching panties.

Happy creating!

My Gift to Me

~ Michelle ~ 5 Comments

I often get money for occasions, and I don’t mind at all. I usually have a running list in my  head of what I’d like to buy, so gifts of money are always appreciated. This past Christmas was no exception, I was given some money by my father-in-law.

I can’t count the times I’ve used money I’ve been given towards sewing, but this time I decided I’d buy something that would be well-remembered. I knew exactly what I wanted. A very good friend of mine makes the most beautiful scarves and accessories. I’ve loved one of her scarves for years – the RoseOnie Scarf.

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Isn’t this stunning? This image is taken from Valerie’s Etsy store. Oh, I love this scarf and have since she first made it. Valerie says ‘I designed this scarf in memory of my amazing mother. She loved Gardening and Roses. This Rose Garden is for her, for the inspiration she had and continues to impress on my life.’ You can see this scarf along with the many other beautiful accessories Valerie makes here.

I didn’t want to stop with just the scarf though. I wanted a set of her hand warmers to go with it. I thought about the ivory ones, but then thought I also have a black scarf that they could match, so went with black hand warmers with ivory roses.

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Again, this image is taken from Valerie’s Etsy store. I must admit, I felt so pretty wearing these gorgeous custom made-for-me items. This was one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten! For years to come, I’ll wear these and remember the generosity of my family, and a friendship I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy since my 20s.

Just a day after I received these from Valerie, I was at a work-related conference, and you know I had my beautiful new scarf and hand warmers on. I had so many comments on how beautiful they are. Thank you, Valerie!

Happy creating!

Long Line Watson and Some Bling

~ Michelle

I had such hopes my Watson was going to be perfect this time. The good news is my hopes aren’t completely dashed. My Watson isn’t perfect, but it’s not that far off.

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Here it was beginning to take shape. I’d made two changes. The last time I’d made it, I made the largest size, but it was a bit small in the cup, so on this one I graded the cup up and then put some gathering stitches along the seam line and aligned those gathers at the bottom of the cup where it crosses the cup seam. Those little gathers are hardly noticeable and then I didn’t have to change the cradle at all.

The other change I made was to ‘beef’ it up a bit. I lined the cups with power net. It does offer a fair amount more support than the last one.

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I have no idea why the front looks off-center like that with the foam cups in, but it doesn’t look like that without them. However, it does look a lot more deflated.

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There, all deflated with wrinkles and puckers. However, the center front isn’t off. It now looks fine.

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Here in the side view, you can see it gapes open a bit where the cup meets the cradle. It does that when it’s on me too, so I may need to shorten the underarm length on the pattern there. However, the more exciting part of this photo, which I don’t know that you can see there is really is more support to the cups with the power net added. It does give them more of a firm shape.

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I didn’t do anything different on the back. In fact, I was a bit lazy. I often do the elastic along the band separate from the straps, but they’re all one this time. I also used band elastic again. I have it on hand, so used what I had. Especially as this bra was still a test.

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On this side of the bra you can see where I put a pin. I didn’t have any sewing pins with me in my bedroom, so just used a safety-pin to know how much I’ll want to remove from the pattern. That’s an three-quarters of an inch fold there, so a fair bit to remove from the pattern, but I also have to remove from my Pin-Up Girls patterns there too.

So, will I make the Watson again? Well, if I do, I won’t use the power net for the cup next time. I may try a mesh instead as it’s a bit lighter, or I’ll double up on the Lycra. The single layer of Lycra just isn’t supportive enough for my size. An inside power bar is another option I’ve thought about to add more support to the Watson.

Lastly, a dear friend had her 50th birthday this week. She wears a Medical Alert bracelet but only has the one bracelet. I asked her if she’d like a second bracelet that can inter-change with her ID tag. She loved that idea – something with bling she said. Out came the Swarovski crystals and some lovely small hematite beads. She was so happy to get some more bling. What girl doesn’t love some bling?

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Happy creating!