Month: October 2022

A Vintage Kit and Pattern

~ Michelle

Over the years, I purchased a few vintage patterns, and even if I don’t make them up, I enjoy seeing how they’re made, and what things have changed over the years.

One day a few months ago, I saw a neat vintage lingerie kit on eBay. I couldn’t resist!I would have loved this if it had been the bra kit! However, this was the long leg girdle. It’s not anything I will make to wear myself, but still. As I said, I couldn’t resist it.Doesn’t this look amazing?

Even though I wasn’t planning on making this up, I was still excited to open it and look at everything. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. It’s old. It’s discolored. It’s very stiff and rigid.

Here’s everything that was in the kit. The pattern and instructions are in great shape. But the fabrics leave a lot to be desired.The power net was the oddest part of the kit. It was so stiff and had no drape to it. It was also discolored from age.

  Can you see the discoloration at the bottom of this piece of power net? The whole folded side was this yellowish color.

The tricot that was included in the kit was still lovely. No age showing on it at all.

The lace  and elastics were stiff and aged as well. Other than the pattern and instructions, these girdle clips were the only good part of this vintage kit.

It was  a fun trip down the vintage lingerie lane, but for the most part I’ll stick to newer patterns and materials.

Happy creating!

Loungewear Cami

~ Michelle

I recently received the most gorgeous Black Leopard stretch lace and knew right away I wanted to use it to make a new camisole.   This lovely lace is from B,Wear (as you can see in this photo from their website). In the descriptions, it says it comes straight from France. Ooh la la!

As I said I knew I wanted to make a camisole with this, but the question was which pattern?

I looked at a few, and I didn’t want a lace border. It’s already lace. I looked at a lot of patterns, both patterns that I have, and sewing patterns available on the web.

I actually have a favorite RTW camisole, and wanted to find something similar. My favorite has bust darts, and a more rounded neckline. After looking for a bit, I decided the Style Arc Loungewear Cami was the closest to what I wanted.

One thing I changed is I made the neckline a touch rounder, but only on the front.

The pattern has a facing on the front and back, so if you follow the pattern, the top and back neckline seams are enclosed. I didn’t want to use the facing as I didn’t want anything to detract from this gorgeous lace pattern.

I finished the edges with some black fold-over elastic. If I were doing this again, I would use the FOE on the front the back necklines, sew the side seams, and then do a continuous strip of FOE along the underarm.

I love this lace!

On the back, I left the pattern in more of a V-neckline.

This is so very pretty. It’s a lovely soft lace with some stretch in one direction. I have just a bit left over, but I’m thinking it will be enough for some bra cups.

Happy creating!

No Sewing This Week

~ Michelle

I haven’t been sewing this week, nor last week. In fact, much of my summer sewing was all geared to getting ready for teaching classes. Yes, I’ve started holding bra sewing classes.

The whole time the Bra Bee was on I was sewing 22 fitting bras. The rest of the summer was spent finishing those bras and getting ready.

Twenty two bras! I learned to sew them assembly-line style.

My classes are at the same store where I took my professional classes: Central Sewing Machines.

However, I’m not at the same location. I’m teaching at the West End store.It’s a treat it is to teach in this store. They just had their grand opening at the end of June. It’s a beautiful new facility. One of the best features is the classroom is on the main floor. First thing when you enter the store, there’s a mannequin advertising the bra and panty classes wearing the tiniest bra and panty set.

At the back of the store is the classroom. The classroom was all set up and ready for us! We had our fittings there behind the screen.

I’m starting the classes with the PUG Classic pattern. It a basic pattern, so a good place for beginners to start.Four women signed up, and I was happy they all left with well-fitting bras.One woman was really having a problem with her fit. No matter what we did,  her bra wasn’t fitting. After two attempts with alterations both times,  and the end of the class nearing I suggested flexi-wires. Once we put the flexi-wires in her bra it fit her perfectly. It was amazing the difference the wires made in her bra fitting. 

Another woman was also having wire troubles. We shortened a wire for her, but it’s a lot of work to cut them, file them, and then put the heat shrink tubing on them. We also tried the flexi-wires for her. They fit into her bra perfectly, and she was happy with how comfortable her bra was.

I’m already looking forward to the next class!

Happy creating!

Cashmerette Stanton Hoodie Dress

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I’ve been looking at the Cashmerette Stanton Hoodie dress. I think it would be a great dress for winter. Nice, comfortable, warm. What more could I want? But.

My only concern is it’s a very straight design, and I’m not. Yes, that’s a very straight dress.

So, I thought, I know what I’ll do. I’ll try it on my croquis. Sadly, the program I had for that is on a crashed computer.

Not to be deterred, I turned to an online photo editing tool. PicMonkey. I’ve used it in the past, and it worked well enough to ‘try on’ this dress.

Here’s my croquis wearing the line drawing of the dress. One thing about trying on clothes this way is it won’t account for any adjustments I make to the pattern. I won’t be using one size. I’ll be blending sizes together to get a better fit.

Here’s my croquis wearing the plum dress the model is wearing on the website.I’m still not sure about the shape for me, but it might be one of the most comfortable dresses I ever make. I definitely think it’s worth trying.

If you do want to make a Cashmerette pattern, one of the things they have that I think is great is their Size Calculator.

   You plug your measurements in, and it tells you what size or what sizes to make. For example, my pattern would consist of 3 different sizes and a Full bust Adjustment. That calculator does a lot of the work for me in telling me what sizes to use on the pattern.

Happy creating!