Draft Number Four

May 22, 2021May 21, 2021 ~ Michelle

I’ve finished draft number four in the Bare Essentials method, and I think I’ve got it.There are still one of two little changes to make. I’ll want to move the apex in, and the strap attachment as well.

Other than that, I’m ready to start manipulating my sloper into a pretty bra pattern.

I checked and rechecked the bridge on this one to make sure it was fitting just right. I couldn’t find a gap anywhere. I even made the cups and frame in sheer cup lining so I could see everything under the bra. I know now that the bottom of the bridge is wide enough, and the top of the bridge is narrow enough now.

You can see in the above photo just how far over the strap attachment is. That’s way too close to the underarm area, so I’ll change my pattern on that next.

I don’t have any changes for the back, unless I decide to make the back strap attachment closer to the middle of the back.

The next part of the process is what I’ve really been wanting to learn – how to manipulate the sloper. This is completely different than anything I’ve learned so far, and I’m quite excited to get to this point. The next few weeks should be very exciting for me.

Happy creating!

Wires and Another Draft

May 15, 2021May 12, 2021 ~ Michelle

Have you ever put on a comfortable bra and then wondered why it’s suddenly hurting? It could be your wires. This just happened to me just a week ago.

I looked at the bra and could see one of the wires had bent, so thought I have lots of wires, I can change that out.When I saw the wire, I realized why it was hurting so much!

The other odd thing I noticed was these aren’t the same wires. One has an orange end, the other a white end – but no color on it at all. All my wires have a bit of color on the tip, so I have no idea where the wire might have come from.

I decided to try the Flexi wires from Needle Nook Fabrics. I know others carry them as well, but I got mine from there. That bra is so comfortable now!I may try these in my draft next.

Speaking of my draft, I’m on version III. There is still one more size adjustment to make. It seems the difference on me for the average depth and the deep depth needed to grade out more. I’ve made that adjustment and version IV is on the cutting table.The good news on version III is I have the bridge width for the bottom correct now. The top on this needs to narrow a bit though.

Once I have the draft fitting just as I want, I’ll have to adjust the apex. This is far too east-west for me. Then I can begin playing with the style.

Happy creating!

A New Drafting Course

May 11, 2021 ~ Michelle

Merckwaerdigh has a new Pattern Drafting course available!

I have most of her e-courses, and they’re all good. I appreciate learning from many different teaching styles.

Happy learning & creating!

Something a Little Different

May 8, 2021May 6, 2021 ~ Michelle

I didn’t get to any sewing this week. To be completely honest, my husband had 2 surgeries in the past 3 weeks, and I was utterly exhausted afterwards. I didn’t realize how much I was carrying it. He’s fine. He’s better than ever, and so thankful he was able to have the surgeries. So all is good there.

I wasn’t sewing most of this time. I wasn’t doing a lot of anything other than watching videos. However, I did watch one video, and I found it very helpful for something I’ve wanted to cross off my to-do list.

It’s been five years now that I’ve had this sweet little preemie Cabbage Patch doll. She’s adorable, and I got her because I too was a preemie baby.The first thing I did after I got her was curl her hair. Then I made her a sweet little slip dress with some pantaloons underneath.

I’ve been very happy with her transformations, but there was one thing I still wanted to change. My eyes have some brown in them but overall they’re green. I wanted my preemie baby to have green eyes too.

This past week a video started playing after one I had watched. It was an artist re-doing the eyes and make up on a doll. He said he used watercolor pencil crayons. I stopped the video right away and went to my sewing room. Yes, I still had a tin of watercolor crayons with my fabric markers. I was going to redo my doll’s eyes.

I didn’t take off her eye color first, for a couple of reasons. I don’t know that I could re-draw the eyes well enough to satisfy me. And as I mentioned, I have some brown in my eyes as well. So I decided to ‘enhance’ the eyes, rather than re-do them completely. Here are the eyes in a side-by-side photo. Yes, they’re a little bit brighter and lighter. She’s just perfect to me now.

I’m off to play with my draft. Happy creating!

Basic Beige

May 1, 2021April 29, 2021 ~ Michelle

A couple of great sewing friends contacted me. We’d all taken classes with Jeanette of Sew Uplifting, but we were all feeling a lack of motivation. We decided to get together over Zoom, and agree to some accountability – we’d all make something by the end of April.

I shared I was just weary, and didn’t want to keep working on my draft right now. I don’t want to give up on it, but I wanted to sew again. So I said I’d sew a bra.

I need a basic beige bra in my wardrobe, so that’s what I made.This is my drafted frame and the cups from B, Wear’s Angie pattern.

This bra is using my new wire style and size, and unfortunately, although that seems to be fitting better, I now need to go up a size in the cups.

The Omega shape is causing problems again.

I’m using a size smaller wire, so I had to lower both the front and the sides of the cups to get it to fit in the frame. This is also a narrower frame – to fit the wire. Once I put the bra on, I could see I really need a power bar to pull in everything on the side.

Something I really like about the Angie pattern is how rounded the cups are. They give such a nice shape when wearing the bra too. However, using the smaller wire size and narrower frame, the rounder shape didn’t seem to be fitting into my frame as well.