Author: Michelle

Adjustments to Draft Number Four

~ Michelle

My Bare Essentials drafting journey continues. This past week was a bit busier for me, but I did get the changes to my pattern done.

The changes I made were to move the strap tab in, add 1/8″ along the upper cup, and move the apex over.

Here are my pattern pieces side by side. They don’t look that different.However, when they are layered one on top of the other, then you can see the changes more clearly.  It won’t take long to get this sewn up. I’ll share my progress next week.

Happy creating!

Ideas for a Bra Dress

~ Michelle

A couple of years ago, during one of our bra-making classes with Jeanette (Sew Uplifting), a class idea came up that sounded great! I was ready to sign up that day.

Not long afterwards, that class became an option and I did sign up. The Bra Dress. Unfortunately, that class was cancelled, and as yet, hasn’t been rescheduled.

A couple of my bra-sewing classmates and I have been talking about how do we do this? We can’t take the class. We’ve been waiting for two years for this now. We want this bra dress. So we’ve been brainstorming just how this would we do this.

     I even bought a bathing suit that was on sale last year – just to see how it was made.This is a swim dress from Land’s End.

Here’s the bra inside:   This isn’t exactly what I had in mind. But I kept it because I really like the swim dress.

Here’s the back band:  No, this was definitely not what I was thinking. This is a shelf bra that has wires. I’m thinking an actual bra.

So, I kept looking for ideas. I started looking at some vintage ideas.I saw this great vintage slip on Etsy. 

Here’s the back view of the slip.Again, this is like the Land’s End suit, the back is like a shelf bra. I’m still thinking of wanting the actual bra clasp at the back though.

I did fine two vintage sewing patterns on Etsy too. I think this is the idea I’m going for – a bra built into a slip, then attached to the dress at the shoulders.

Oh, I wish I could see the back of this one. However, this pattern design is very similar to the Elite bra.

I wish I could see the back of this one too. I want to know how these slips fasten.I’ll keep thinking about this. My draft cup alterations are done, so I’ll share that with you next week.

Happy creating!

Draft Number Four

~ 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

~ 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!     

Something a Little Different

~ 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

~ 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.

   The back is fine. The band is too. It was comfortable, and stayed in place. However, I’m very disappointed this is not wearable.

I’m off to work on getting my next bra to fit.

Happy creating!

Some Good News

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

Hello!

Sorry I’ve been quiet for over a month. Spring is coming, the weather is warming up, it’s sunny most days. I’m feeling more motivated to be creative again.

Something I have been doing is knitting. I’ve been enjoying the slow pace of it. I’ve been finishing the Annie’s Knit Kit. I’m done all the squares now, and have started blocking them. Here’s the square I’m blocking right now. It rolls under, and it isn’t actually square.After it’s all pinned it’s square. Then I spray it really well with water and leave it to dry. I really am enjoying this. It’s wonderful to unpin each square and see how nice it looks.

I had some good news this week. My Instagram account is back! My photos are all there. I’m so happy. I didn’t want to try to find all my old photos and upload them again.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more makes. I’ve decided to let the drafting rest for a bit. I miss actual sewing, so it’s time to make a few lovelies again. 

Happy creating! 

Drafting Adjustments

~ Michelle

I’ve been working on my Bare Essentials Draft take two and it’s coming along.

The first one fit pretty well, but the cups needed to be deeper than the average which is recommended for a first try. I also need to work on my bridge some more. For my first draft, I knew to widen the lower part of my bridge. However, when I’d made the bra, I posted a comment in the Bare Essentials support group that no mater what bra I’d ever made, it slides down a bit after I wear it. I’ve worked on my wires, and changed those. I’ve adjusted patterns, and drafted my own. Yet still, I was dealing with this.

Someone in the group responded that although they could see I’d widened my bridge already, she suggested to use sheer cup lining for the cups to see if I needed to make more of a change there. She said she did that and could see she still needed to widen the lower bridge.

So, that’s my next step.Using the sheer cup lining really helped. I needed to add another 1/4″ to the bottom of the bridge. For the first time, my wires stayed just where they were supposed to stay.

However, there’s some real East-West action happening here. I’m going to need to do an apex adjustment.I also made a mistake when finishing the upper cup. I’ve corrected this on the paper pattern.

Next I plan to do this all over again to make sure I’m really grasping this drafting method. Then I’ll start playing with the sloper to made different designs.   

I also wanted to mention my Instagram account is almost empty. All my photos are gone except just a few family ones. I have no idea why all my photos are gone either. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty empty. 

I can’t get into it either, so I have set up another account and linked to my blog. I will add content again. Just not right now. For now, I’m going back to drafting.

Happy creating!

A New Discovery

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I’m following along with the Drafting course on the Porcelynne website, and I’m learning new tricks and tips.

The first one I want to share with you is something you’ve probably heard about: A flexible ruler.I’ll be honest. I bought one of these after reading it would help to do a root trace. It didn’t help me with that at all. Not one little bit. At least it didn’t help me at all.

However, watching the course I saw a brilliant use for it! Use it to measure along the curve of the wire line. Really brilliant!

I just curve the ruler along the curve of my circle and mark where I need to mark. It’s so much easier than bending a flexible ruler, trying to hold it with one hand, and then mark with the other.

I will no longer view this as a useless item I picked up. This is really great!

Happy creating!