Author: Michelle

Porcelynne’s Eve Demi Cup Bra

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

Well, I did it. I finished my Eve demi cup bra, and I have to tell you it is incredibly comfortable.

It took a lot of work to find my perfect size and fit. I think I made at least 4 fitting bands to get it just right, then I must have made 6 (or possibly more) cups sizes and styles.

I was not getting that perfect fit with the Eve until we tried the demi cup. Than we found the cup style that fits me best.This lovely kit came from Porcelynne’s shop.

I can’t tell how wonderful it was to sew again. I just had to do it in bits. My hand is recovering, but it’s recovering slowly. Still. I couldn’t just not sew. I have a three different splints I’ve been wearing, and they’ve made it possible for me to do everything I need to do AND sew.

I have more sewing plans for the summer – maybe too many for how slowly I’m sewing – but I can’t wait to work on more projects.  Here’s the back of the bra. It has a nice curved U shape to the straps. Despite all the testing, this was a bit big for me. I think it’s mostly due to the fabric. I’d been using nylplex from Bodil’s shop for my test bras. This time I used the kit from Jennifer’s shop.   

One last mention, which I did mention before. This little strip of channeling beside the actual channeling is holding a piece of boning. Before I started to recommend this to everyone, I wanted to wear this and know it was comfortable. Honestly. I couldn’t feel it at all.

It’s a great tip for all the Omegas out there to get a better fit and get the coverage they need with smaller wires. It works!

Happy creating and I hope to be back soon with more makes.

Porcelynne’s Complete Bra Making Course

~ Michelle

Porcelynne has released their Complete Bra Making Course today. This is the course I’ve been reviewing for the past few months, and using to sew up the newly redesigned Eve pattern.

The Eve pattern is included with the course as well. Complete Bra Making Course with Porcelynne - image 1

Here’s what’s included.

Learn all about bra making fabrics, wires, findings, how to measure, fit and sew a full custom fit bra. This course contains 30 video lessons with 13 hours of content. Jennifer walks you from the process of understanding materials and to sewing a lace foam cup bra. Follow her through the fitting process on a very difficult person to fit – herself.

The course is available in a few options: the full course or as 6 different parts. The course is also 25% off until the end of the month! This is the first course that we have integrated into our new website (the rest are on their way) and it has a few new features. All videos are closed captioned and can be downloaded individually to view off-line.

I really have to say I’m impressed with this course, and the Eve pattern. While it’s on sale, now is the time to try it!

I mentioned recently that I’m having trouble with my hand. That hasn’t improved. In fact, it’s worse. So for now, I won’t be doing very much sewing – I can’t even sew up the last alteration I have on my Eve pattern. We were so close to fitting it perfectly – really. One alteration to go and I just can’t physically sew right now.

I’m hoping with rest my had will recover and I’ll be back to sewing soon.

Happy creating!

Porcelynne’s Eve Cups Redesigned

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

Hello. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. I had an odd after-affect from a cold. I had so much pain in my one hand, I could hardly do anything with it. It’s slowly improving, and I’m hoping to get back to normal soon.

I have many sewing plans so need my hand 100%! So, what have I been doing? I’ve been testing the re-designed Eve bra. 

Eve Classic Bra Bundled Pattern - image 1

Jennifer and I agreed the regular Eve cups did not fit me. So I tried the Vertical cups. They are part of the Eve Classic Bra pattern – which is now available. It has the regular cup, Vertical cups, and Demi cups.

Jennifer and I agreed that we were close, but think the Demi cups will be the best fit for me.

I’ve cut out my first pair and they were too small. I have the next size all sewn up and will be putting those into my fitting band right away.

Eve Classic Bra Cup

Let me tell you a few things that impressed me with the Eve cups.

I was using a 38 wire, but to help with side coverage, we made my cradle a 42 wire length. What amazed me over and over was how the cup fit into this cradle WITH NO ALTERATIONS!!!

Honestly, this was amazing to me. Stunning in fact. After the many years of so many alterations to get a cup to fit in a smaller cradle, this really did amaze me.

Jennifer has designed all these cups to fit into different cradles. For example, a D cup that would fit a 38 wire cradle, and a D cup that fits a 40 wire cradle, and one that fits a 42 wire cradle, and so on. The same for the E cup, and the F cup, and so on up and down the cup size range. All designed for each cup to fit different sizes of wires/cradles. All with no extra work on your part.

Here take a look:    Do you see where the cup joins the side seam? There isn’t a dart in the cup. There are no gatherings along the wire line. No, this cup is simply designed to fit into this size cradle.

That might not seem like a big deal when most patterns’ cups fit into the cradle – but that doesn’t work when you are an Omega! No, that means adjustments. But not with this pattern.

If you’re wondering, I could have used a cup that fit into a 38 cradle too – but I really don’t get enough side coverage and support with that.  

I don’t know of another bra-maker/designer who has done this for each cup size! There are hundreds of cups. I promised to tell you something else about the side of this bra. Do you see where that red line is? That’s where my wire ends. Normally, if the side of the bra was raised up this much higher than the wire, the side seam would be flopping over. Not here.

The reason is Jennifer had me sew a strip of channeling as close as I could beside the wire channeling, Then insert a piece of boning there. It worked perfectly. It gave me a little more side coverage which I need, and I can’t feel it there.

I am honestly very impressed with the redesigned Eve cup pattern. If you have problems fitting your bra cups into your frame like me, or even if you want an incredibly designed cup, really, give these a try.

Happy creating!

P.S. I’ll be back soon.

Reviewing Porcelynne’s Bra Making and Fitting Course

~ Michelle

Hello! I’m back. I haven’t been doing a lot of sewing but I have done some. Mostly what I’ve been sewing is a fitting band and cups. I’ve been reviewing Porcelynne’s Bra Making and Fitting Course.

If you go there right away you’ll just get a message that the course is being tested. The course is due to be re-released the beginning of June, so I’ll let you know before that. 

As part of the review,  I went through all of the steps in the course. I followed it as if I was a beginner bra maker. I have to be honest, there were many things about the course that really impressed me. But I’m going to make you wait to hear about them all.

For now, I’ll just show you my final fitting band with cups.This is actually two different sized cups. I was testing to see which I preferred.

This next photo is showing something I’ve never heard before. And if you ask me I think it’s brilliant. I’m not going to say more – you have to wait until my next blog post on the course. You tell me what you think is happening here.Lastly, for this post anyway, the back.Have you made a fitting band? I’m already planning to test some other cups in this. I’m also planning to go through Porcelynne’s Eve Sloper Creation course to change the shape of these cups. The volume is perfect – and I cant’ wait to share more on that with you. 

Happy creating!

Still Here

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

Hello! I know it’s been over a month since I posted. I’ve been sick twice in that time, and at present am still getting over the second cold of the season.

I don’t have anything to show you just now, but I promise I will be sewing and  working on things when I’m feeling well enough.

Happy creating!  

 

The Smallest Bralette and Panty

~ Michelle

It’s been a busy few months for me. I had overcommitted to too many things, but things are slowing down a bit and I’m catching up.

One of the things I was catching up on was sewing a new pair of panties for the store display. I wanted to sew something that reflected my own style and what I would teach more. For me, that meant cotton Lycra rather than power net for a main fabric for panties.This is a lovely heathered cotton Lycra from BMS. I’ve also used the Veronica Panty Basics pattern from there.

It felt really good to get these done as I’ve been promising them for more than a month.

Central Sewing has also had a few requests for a Bralette class, so there was no better time to sew up a matching bralette.I used the Poppy pattern from House Morrighan. I made the size 6 but graded the cup to a B cup instead of the C/D cup in the pattern.

Here’s the sweet little set together.So cute! One of my favorite things about this set is the little hints of color coming through the bralette. The reason for this is the tulle I used to line it. It has stretch in one direction so worked for this. It’s this multicolored tulle from B,Wear.Isn’t this lovely? I’ve used it a few times now, and been so happy with it every time. Because it has stretch, I’ve used it to cover foam cups.

With the bralette, there’s just bits of this lovely color coming through.

Above there are hints of pink, blue, and yellow.

Along another part of the hem is yellow, pink and blue. I really love how this turned out with these bits of color peeking through.

Here is the cute little set on the display when you come into the store. The date for the bralette, and the panty class will be with the display soon.

That really is an adorable little set, and I’m pretty sure the smallest set I’ve made so far.

Happy creating!

A Late Valentine’s Josey Milady

~ Michelle

I’m really loving my Josey Milady (named after my best-fitting bra pattern and Prima Donna’s lovely Milady bra). In fact, I find myself reaching for these ones that I’ve made more than any others in the bra drawer. I think I need more of them.

This one is inspired by the most gorgeous lace, and my recent Brenda Brief panties.  I really like these panties. So really wanted to make something to coordinate.

My newest Josey Milady.This gorgeous lace comes from B,Wear.

I love the red and black together.   Oh, I love this combination.

  A lot of my inspiration comes from RTW bras, and this one is no exception. I love the Fantasie Leona bra. Here’s the inspiration.

And here’s my take on it.I hope you all have wonderful inspirations that you bring to life.

Happy creating!

Making a Foam Lined Bra

~ Michelle

I had been asked a few questions on how to make a foam lined bra. Here’s what I’ve been doing.

The first thing I do is take my pattern pieces and mark where the seam allowances are. Most of mine are where the designer put them, but all my bras are adjusted for an Omega shape. And yes, you can do this if you have an Omega shape.

You’ll have to ignore the orange markings on the bottom of this first photo if you’re following along to do this yourself. You DO NOT want to cut that part off. The rest of the seam allowances you do cut off.

Here’s another example. You can see on the bottom here I’m not cutting off the seam allowance on the bottom of the pattern. You will need that – that is the part that is sewn into the cup.

Once you have cut off the seam allowances on your pattern, you have a foam cup pattern pieces that fit you and will line up perfectly with your lace cupped bra.

Sew the foam cups together with a wide tight zig-zag stitch. Once you’ve sewn your foam cups together cover the upper edge of the foam with fold over elastic.You’ll want to sew both the foam and lace cups into the cradle at the same time.

The underarm elastic will fold over the foam, so it only gets one pass of sewing (the second one) when sewing on the elastics there. 

Your foam cup is fully attached to the cup. It is attached at the bridge, fully under the cup, and at the underarm. It does not move. The foam cup is loose under the lace at the top.    As well, you can change the shape of the upper edge of the foam, and have some fun with the foam not being exactly the same as the cup. The foam on the cup above follows the curve of the lace cup.

On this bra below, instead of following the curve of the outer cup, I gave the foam more of an up-swirl towards the underarm.I do my best to line up the vertical seams on the foam with the seams on the cup.

I hope this blog post has answered all the questions you’ve had, but if you have others please let me know.

Happy creating!

Brenda Briefs View D

~ Michelle

I made another pair of the new Porcelynne pattern – the Brenda Brief. The pattern has four styles, and loving lace as I do, I made the other style with lace.

I have a lovely black and red lace on my cutting table so thought I’d make something that would coordinate with that.

I think these are darling! I really do love the lace on the side on this pattern. So pretty.

One thing I did differently on these than the last pair is I didn’t use FOE.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

  This is clear to see, I used a fabric band for the waist instead of FOE. This is quite easy to see.

This is harder to see (although I overexposed it) I also used fabric bands instead of FOE at the leg opening. I wanted something just a little softer, and thought I’d experiment.

I think it turned out wonderfully. It looks the same as FOE.

Isn’t that a lovely side view?

Lastly, there’s the back view.

Another very pretty view of that lace.

These look like briefs on my model here, but they are true hipsters. They aren’t a difficult sew, but the joining of the FOE and lace is a touch tricky. Thankfully, there’s a sew-along video coming to show you how to do that.

This is another lovely pattern from Porcelynne.

Happy creating!

Porcelynne’s Brenda Brief Pattern

~ Michelle

I recently made the new Brenda Brief panties from Porcelynne. I have to admit, I was taken with the lace at the side of the leg. It’s such a pretty feature. It can also be color blocked, but it was the lace that won me over.  Brenda Brief Pattern - image 1 I knew exactly what I wanted to make with this pattern too. I wanted something to match my new Prima Donna inspired Josey bra.So, here is my newest make – the Brenda Brief pattern. Oh, well you know how I feel about these. I say the same thing over and over. I love them! I really love this lace! You can find it at B,Wear.

I love this side view. I love the lace at the side.  Isn’t that just lovely? What a great way to make a matching set by using the same lace at the leg opening. Or do a little scrap busting by using the color blocking option.

I really like this pattern. It comes in four styles. Two briefs (view A & B) which sit higher, and two lower styles (view C & D) which are close to a hipster. I plan to make the hipsters next!

Happy creating!