Author: Michelle

A Poppy Bralette for Em

~ Michelle

This post is short and sweet. After testing the Poppy bralette in larger sizes, I was asked to test it in the smaller size. Smaller sizes won’t work for me, but will work for my son’s girlfriend, Em.

Materials

I used some lovely materials from Libelle Sewing.

I used this lace.I really like this one.

And I used a printed mesh from Libelle as well.

Power net is a little too strong and snug for Em, but this mesh is perfect! And it’s pretty. I’d really like to find some printed power net. Ooh, polka dot or floral would be nice!

The band and strap elastics all came from Libelle.

 Em’s Poppy

I made the smallest testing size available for Em. A 6 C/D.

Here’s Em’s Poppy. She was right in-between two sizes for her cup size, so I measured between the C/D and DD/E and cut out a half size for the cups. The cups fit her perfectly. Unfortunately, the band on this is just a little bit too tight for Em. She could use one size larger for the band. She still took it home with her though. She thought it was so pretty.

It turns out she gave it to an even-more petite friend, and it fit her perfectly. She loved it so much, I got a marriage proposal!

Here’s the inside. The Poppy’s seams are almost completely enclosed, so it’s pretty inside too. And all those enclosed seams make it really comfortable too.I really love how neat it is on the inside.

Poppy is Available

The Poppy in smaller sizes is available today!

You can find it here.

If you want to see more Poppy Bralettes, check out the House Morrighan Makers’ Facebook group, or their Instagram page.

Happy creating!

Kantjeboord

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, my hubby went to Germany for his work, and I had some lovely items sent to his hotel from Sewy. That was a treat!

This past month my hubby went to Amsterdam. Do you know what lingerie shop is in Amsterdam? Kantjeboord! This time he went to the shop for me.

Planning His Shopping Trip

 We planned a way for him to show me what he was looking at, and for us shop together. We were thinking a video call on What’s App could work. And it did. He called me at a terrible hour of the morning, and I blearily shopped with him.

One of the things I haven’t been able to find is thin elastics used for the upper cup. Do you see the thin elastic behind the lace in this photo?  Below is a photo showing the inside of a bra. It’s showing the Gothic arch, but it also shows the elastics I use along my upper cup. I first used this elastic when making the Sewy Rebecca pattern. I really liked how the upper cup fit this way, so I do this for all my lace-cupped bras.

Here’s what the elastic looks like. It’s very narrow, and fine. I’ve checked everywhere for it. I have a little left from a grab bag I bought years ago from Merckwaerdigh’s now-closed Ebay store. Seeing as I use it all the time, I don’t want to run out. So I’ve been looking. All I have left in that grab bag are colors I’m not so thrilled about using.

I sent this photo to Kantjeboord, and they confirmed they carry it. They have lots of it. So my hubby helped me pick out some elastics.

What he brought me home is a little wider than what I’ve had, but it’s still nice and thin.I wonder how long all this will last?

 Beautiful Gifts

Other than the upper cup elastic, my hubby came home from Amsterdam with some beautiful gifts for me. Four meters of lace and three lingerie kits.

I had asked him to take lots of pictures when he was there, but he went by cab, and left the cab running while he ran into shop! He didn’t take a single photo, but he went to Kantjeboord for me!

Here are the laces he brought back for me.

This first one is a deeper pink in person. It’s gorgeous! It’s very sheer.   The second lace he brought me is this one:He also picked out three kits with me. He kept holding them up and asking me if I liked them. Well, silly. I liked them all. And he spoiled me even a little more than I asked. I asked for two kits, and he said he was there, so we should get three.

The first kit is this gorgeous lace with black Lycra.It’s so pretty.

The second kit is a gorgeous sheer multi-colored lace paired with purple Lycra. That’s purple sheer cup lining in the upper right side of the photo!And the third kit is a coral pink and grey lace with coral Lycra – with pink sheer cup lining. Oh my! They’re all so lovely! My hubby did really well.

Are you wondering how the kits differ from kits I’m used to buying here in Canada? I’ll share that in an up-coming post.

Happy creating!

Bra-Makers Challenge – August

~ Michelle

I made a matching set for my August Challenge –  Lacy Days of Summer! “Use 2 laces to create a bra, bralette, panties or corsets. Two is better than one!”

I’ve used my drafted panty pattern and two laces.These are my Hipster draft. I made these from black cotton Lycra, and two laces. The multi-colored lace is very light-weight, so that is backed with CL, but the pink/mauve lace is a firmer lace and is on its own with no backing. Because it’s firmer, I didn’t add elastic to the waist at the front either.

In fact, I think these qualify for three laces! There’s a narrow black lace trim at the legs and waist. That’s three laces in one panty!

Here’s the back of the panty.I fully meant to finish the back of the panty the same as the front, with both laces. However, I sewed these up on my trip to the mountains and didn’t remember to either: a) cut the lace out and pack it, or b) pack it. So these will only have the one lace on the back.

A Lacy Poppy

I combined testing the Poppy Bralette with the August Challenge to make myself a sweet lacy set.

Here’s my Poppy. The bralette can’t be part of my challenge entry because it’s not a Pin-up Girls pattern, and I didn’t draft it from BMS information, but I still wanted to make myself a set.For this Poppy, I made a smaller band and larger cup size than the first two. This one fits me perfectly.

I also kept the scalloped edge of the lace on this.  Poppy is an easy sew, with generous sizing. And it’s really comfortable and although this one is stretch lace and power mesh, it’s still supportive.

My Lacy Set

  Here’s my self-drafted panty and my Poppy set.I really wondered how I would like two laces together, but I really like this. And only having one lace on the back of the panty? Well seeing it from the back with the bralette, it works much better this way!

Happy creating!

Panache Inspired

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

Inspiration

Recently I read an article by Who What Wear saying Boyshorts are going out of style. That won’t be terrible for me. Boyshorts aren’t the most flattering on me. I think they’re adorable, but they just don’t suit a curvy shape as well as they suit a less curvy shape. That’s probably why they’re called boyshorts.

The article showed a few up-coming styles and there was one I really liked.

The Panache Lingerie Quinn High Waist Brief: Oh! These are lovely.

I started looking for patterns that had similarities. Here’s what I found.

First, Daydream Patterns Nora Knickers.

This pattern has lace attached at the leg. It’s great because it attaches the lace the same way for the back. The front is different, but could probably easily be adapted to be the same as the Panache panties.

Another pattern I thought of is the Ohhh Lulu’s Betty High Waist Panties.  It’s quite a similar shape, and I’ve always adored the look of these panties..

Here are the three panties together.The Panache is in-between these two patterns, but is a bit closer in shape to the Betty. If you haven’t taken Beverly Johnson’s panty class on Craftsy and aren’t comfortable drafting your own pattern, either of these patterns would get you close.

My Master Pattern

I have taken Beverly’s class, so decided I would make my own Panache-inspired panty. I pulled out the master pattern I made using the Craftsy class Sewing Panties: Construction & Fit. I usually make Hipsters with my pattern, even though on my dress form they look like briefs.Although these come up to the form’s waist, they’re hipsters on me.

Pattern Adjustments

The first thing I did was add back the 2-inches I’d removed from the pattern’s waist height when I made them into Hipsters. The pattern is again a brief. Loving hipsters as I do, I decided to go with a brief rather than a high-waisted panty. We’ll see how much I love briefs before I try high-waisted.

Next, I added a seam to the front/side. I’m keeping the side seam too, but going to move it back to the side. My ‘side’ seam is moved forward so it doesn’t show. The purple line shows where the side seam would normally sit.

You can see in the photo above how the seam is moved to the front of the panty and not sitting right at the side.

The Panache panty has a back seam as well, but I’m not adding that. The only time I add a back seam is if I’m short on material. Otherwise, I prefer no seam for the back.

Next, I decided how much lace I wanted, and then added the lace detail to the pattern.

Here’s my pattern ready to get cut out.  Lastly, I added seam allowances to those new seams, and traced off my new pattern pieces.

I’m all ready to make my own Panache Inspired briefs.

Happy creating!

Mountain Getaway

~ Michelle

We were heading to the mountains – for a whole week! We haven’t taken a whole week to get away for more years than I can remember. Usually, we’re just gone two or maybe three nights. This was going to be such a treat for us, but … what was I going to do without my sewing machine for a whole week?

Mountain Sewing

I decided I had too many projects to leave them all for a week. There were things I wanted to work on that, with a little planning ahead, I could do while away.

So I packed up my sewing machine in my tote and planned what I would sew.

Here’s my sewing machine, my iron, three cut-out-ahead sewing projects, thread, scissors, and more all packed up and in our mountain getaway.I was so excited to bring my sewing machine with me! I’ve never taken it on a trip before. Probably because, as I said, we usually only get away for a couple of days.

Some dear friends let us have their time share for the whole week! We’re in Banff, Alberta, in the Rocky Mountains.

I’ve claimed half of the table to do my sewing. You can see my computer set up on here. Believe it or not, that table looked a lot worse at the time I wrote this – with all my hubby’s work piled all over it. We got it cleared off enough for me to do some sewing.

Look at my view.Although I do plan to sew and get some work done, I know we’ll also spend some time outdoors.

Matchy-Matchy

One of the sewing projects I planned was to make some panties to go with my new Angie bra. I really like my new Angie and definitely want some panties to match.

Here’s my little set up, and you can see I’ve been sewing. My project is right there on the table with my machine and my computer. It all worked very well.

The first pair of panties I made is my basic pattern. As much as I love lace, I do really like these basic panties. The cotton Lycra is from Black Rabbit Fabrics. Although it’s cream, it matches the ivory duoplex really well. The lace trim is from a favorite vendor of mine on Etsy – Frog Feathers. I love their narrow stretch laces for finishing panties.

The second pair is the same pattern only finished with a lace panel in the front. This very pretty lace is from B,Wear. It’s light beige, but I’ve paired it with ivory a few times and love it. When I was sewing the lace panel onto the front of the panty, I realized I hadn’t brought any elastic for the inside of the waist. On a soft lace like this, it needs some support at the waist. Without elastic, I had to think of an alternative. A strip of cotton Lycra worked just fine. Here they are with my Angie. First, the basic pair with Angie.And here’s the lace panel with Angie. I only took the front photo for these as the sides and back are basically the same.  Yes, that cream is really close to ivory. I’m so happy with both of these sets.

Plans

In order to bring these projects along, and not have to bring everything in my sewing room, I had to preplan my sewing. What I was going to make, and then make sure I had everything I needed.

So I cut everything out, including my lace. I only needed to bring thread, the cut material, pins and scissors. And my sewing machine, of course. It’s worked out wonderfully, and I plan to bring my sewing with me again on future trips.

Smoky Mountains?

We were only in the Rockies for a couple of days before forest fires caused our view to look much more like the Smoky Mountains.

Here’s a view of one of the mountains the first day.I love this. It looks like a painting!

And here’s the view two days later.I was glad I brought an indoor activity when the air quality became so poor.

Happy creating from Banff in the Rocky Mountains!

Angie Again

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I finished my first Angie sewn with thread that won’t dissolve when I wash it. I tried it on and didn’t want to take it off! It’s so nice.

Angie

I think this is a really lovely pattern, and makes a very pretty bra. The design is different from almost all the other bras that are available for the home sewing market.The Angie pattern doesn’t have an upper cup like so many bra patterns. In fact, I can’t think of another pattern that doesn’t have an upper cup. There are four pattern pieces to the cups, but none of them are upper or lower. The cup is completely different due to it being all vertical seams.

As I was re-reading this before posting, I did remember another bra that was similar in it had vertical seaming – the Lavender and Lace bra Mrs. Weaver made.  The lines are different though, and that bra was never released as a pattern for sale. These Lavender and Lace bras are lovely, but back to Angie for this post.

I love the shape and design of this bra. In ivory, it reminds me of a sea shell. Delicate and pretty.

Here’s my Angie from the side.I was also happy with the adjustments I made to the cup to make this fit me and make it fit in the frame so neatly. No more puckering on the cups! I’m not going to get tired of that any time soon.

 The best part of this bra is the lift it gives. It really lifts! Okay, the best things are it lifts and it’s also very comfortable.

 Details

I’ve used non-stretch strap tape for the front straps on my Angie. All elastic straps don’t work so well for me. I didn’t have any ribbon on hand to stabilize the front of the strap elastic either, which is another way to give support to strap elastic.

A pretty bow hides all the stitching at the top of the cup where the strap is attached, and the elastics are meeting. If a bra I’ve made has a bow on it, you know I’m happy with it! It’s bow-worthy.

I also used a cute ruffled trim for the upper cup.

Alterations

The alterations I made to this pattern are: I adjusted the cup to be smaller at the wire line, I shortened the bridge and underarm to work with the wire I’m using, and I added a Gothic arch to the front of the band.

The Gothic arch was a last-minute decision. I was pinning on my bottom band elastic and decided I wanted it. So I quickly altered the bottom band to include it. I’m glad I did.

I’m so happy with this bra! And am really looking forward to making my next one already. Boy, another Ruby and Angie in the plans.

I saw a lovely strap alternative for this pattern, so want to try that when I make my next Angie. This photo is from B,Wear’s Instagram.What a lovely addition to the pattern. Yes, I definitely want to try this strap alternative for my next Angie.

Happy creating!

New Orange Lingerie Pattern

~ Michelle

Introducing the Lansdowne bra sewing pattern!

The Lansdowne is a cleavage enhancing, plunging underwire bra. The outer cup works like a super power bar, moving the breasts toward the center of the body.

To complete the cleavage enhancing effect, the inner cup is cut straight down from the strap point to the low bridge at the center front.

Available now for A to DD cups in size 30 to 40 bands!

The Poppy Bralette

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

When I started sewing my own bras, the Pin-up Girls Shelley pattern wasn’t even available yet. So many patterns have been released since then.

There are some new bra and bralette patterns available right now. And I’ve heard there are more patterns coming too. I know of three more soon-to-be-released patterns. What an exciting time to be making our own bras!

The Poppy Bralette was released today.

The Poppy Bralette

  I heard of this new bralette pattern when the designer put out a call for testers, so I offered to test the pattern. Do you see the cup sizes? This pattern isn’t all smaller sizes. This one will actually fit me. The only other bralette pattern I know of that is in my size range is the Pin-up Girls Sweet Sixteen pattern. I was really excited to learn of another designer who’s designed for larger cup sizes.

Here’s the sizing for the Poppy Bralette.

If you need a smaller size, those are coming too. The designer simply decided to test and release the larger sizes first. When the smaller sizes are available, I’ll let you know.

Other than the larger cup sizes, another appealing feature of this pattern is it can be made in cotton Lycra. Ooh! I love cotton Lycra!

Materials

This bralette can be made in CL. It can also be made in Viscose Spandex, Stretch Lace, and Stretch Mesh. It’s fully lined. You can line it with cotton Lycra again, or something with a little more support like power net.

I’m going to use cotton Lycra for my main fabric and line it with power net. Here’s the fabric I’m using:Recognize this? I just used this gorgeous cotton Lycra to make my knotty pants. I think a pretty bralette to match will be very fun.

My Poppy Bralette

    Here’s my Poppy Bralette.I think it’s adorable! However, it’s a smidge small in the cups.

After talking with the designer, we both thought it might have been the power net lining. Power mesh might have been a better idea, or simply cotton Lycra.

I did sew this together with wash-away thread, so I’m going to soak it and then try  those changes.

Impressions

  Making this bralette with power net as the lining makes it very supportive. It’s definitely not flimsy!

I like the shape of this bralette too. The cup shape is flattering, the wide back and sides are very comfortable and supportive.

Here’s the side:  I need to gather the elastic under the arm more. I’m very shallow there, and have to make that adjustment on almost every bra I sew.

Here’s the back view:Look at this nice deep back.

One of the things that impressed me the most with this pattern is almost all the seams are enclosed. Talk about comfortable! Just look here at the side seam.This photo shows the side seam and the under-bust seam. Both are enclosed. It’s a very nice feature. The only seam not enclosed is the center front.

Here’s the center cup seam, which is enclosed too and you can see the center front. It’s not enclosed, but it’s sewn down flat.     Do you see that nice wide elastic at the bottom edge? That’s 3/4″/19 mm elastic. Another supportive feature of this bralette.

My Second Poppy

Seeing as I used power net on my first Poppy, I decided to use all cotton Lycra for the second one.This looks the same on the outside, but the inside is lovely soft cotton Lycra.  Soft, comfortable, and those lovely enclosed seams. It’s really nice.

On this above photo you can see the internal sling I added this time. I wasn’t sure cotton Lycra alone would be as supportive.

Although this is still a touch small in the cups, I’ve still worn this all day and it’s wonderful.

Here is my Poppy with my knotty pants.What a cute set!

I do have a third Poppy in the works, but that will be another post.

Happy creating!

Ruby for the Challenge

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

This is a long post. I’ll warn you right up front. But I had a lot to share on the new Pin-up Girls’ Ruby pattern.

I had no time for the June Bra-makers Challenge. I was testing two patterns – you’ve seen the Ingrid pattern. There’s another new pattern coming in just a few days. I’ll post about that in a couple of days.

As well, I had to make the Knotty Pants as soon as that pattern was released, and I’m loving them.

But, I am trying to fit the challenge in again this month. To do that, I’m combining two things for this post – I’m trying the new Ruby pattern, and I’m making Ruby for my Bra-makers Challenge submission.

The Challenge

  The July Challenge was Your Birthday Suit, and the challenge was to work with sheer fabrics.This pattern has quite a few options listed. Foam-lined or all fabric. Underwired or wire-free. The bras I’ve seen sewn up are lovely! Here’s one from the BMS website:This is so pretty!

Ruby for the Challenge

Here’s my Ruby/July Challenge. I think she’s she’s lovely!I’ve made this with sheer cup lining, and black elastics. I think it works very well together.

 Here’s the side view.Ruby has a lovely shape. It’s definitely a rounder shape to the cups.

The upper cup on this pattern is shorter. A shorter upper cup helps to give more lift.This pattern calls for 1/2-inch elastic for the bottom band, which is a bit of a change for me. I usually use 3/4-inch elastic. However, this is still supportive.

It also uses 3/8-inch elastic for the upper band. Another smaller elastic choice for me.

Here’s the back of the bra.Ruby doesn’t have fabric straps. For mine, because this is a tester to see how it will fit, I only used strap elastic. However, the pattern suggests sewing some ribbon over the elastic at the front for more support.How the straps attach on the Ruby is different too. The strap is attached to the ring at the front, giving it a lovely modern look.

Another feature Ruby has is the fold over elastic along the upper cup.It’s so sleek and modern-looking!

This photo shows just how sheer my Ruby really is.  She’s lovely.

Impressions of Ruby

My first impressions of Ruby are it’s a lovely pattern. It went together easily, with no problems at all. It does go together a little differently than Shelley, which I’m so used to making, but then it’s a different pattern. The two patterns have different neckline finishes, different straps, and a different cup shape.

I do think I’m going to enjoy Ruby and make another one soon. In fact, I already have a kit to make one.

Made for Omega?

I’d read somewhere that Ruby had sewing lines for Omega shapes. I quick email to Bra-makers Supply let me know this is not the case. There are seam lines marked on the pattern. However, those seam line could be used as a guide to adjust the pattern for Omega shapes.

This photo below shows a bit of the pattern with the seam lines pointed out. I’ve drawn in a curved red line where one could adjust the pattern if you’re an Omega shape.This adjustment I’m showing would shave off 1/4-inch from the wire line, but leave the fullness of the cup. You could shave off a 1/4-inch from other cup pieces too – as many as you needed.

PSA

Do you read all of the instructions before you start a project? I don’t always read them all, and I should!

I had read through the beginning of the pattern, and traced off the Fabric pattern pieces because I wasn’t using foam cups. Then I altered the front frame, and the cups to fit my shape.

After doing that, I was looking through the pattern for the instructions for sewing fabric only. I found them on page four – there are only four pages of instruction.

Imagine my surprise when I read this:Hello? What’s this? Remember? Remember what? I didn’t read this anywhere!

So I go back to the beginning, and I read all the beginning instructions again. Nothing.

I read it again. I’m still not seeing anything.

All I could think was I’ve spent all this time tracing the pattern, altering the pattern, and cutting it out only for it to be the wrong size?

Well, it is there. It’s in the first paragraph… which I didn’t read.I saw, ‘Thank you…’, and skipped right past that paragraph to get to work.

I’ve highlighted it now so I won’t be able to miss that again. I may mark on the Fabric pattern pieces too so there’s no way I can overlook this vital bit of information again.

As a result of my oversight, my Ruby is a little small for me. All the adjustments I made worked out perfectly though. And this being sheer cup lining, it does have a little more stretch than duoplex. It almost fits. However, I will need that next size up.

I’m off to alter the next cup size…

Happy creating!

Angie Take Two

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I was a bit disappointed my first Angie tester bra didn’t fit. However, that was all my own fault. I changed my cup size after already figuring out what size to make. I should have stuck with the original size. That the cup size I’m using now.

I do have to say though, even though the cups were too small, I was encouraged by the shape and the lift of that Angie.

 Angie Take Two or Three

 So, to count, I made some cups and put them in my tester frame. Then I changed my mind on the cup size, and made a whole second tester with the Angie band and straps. So this is my third attempt. But it is my third attempt using the second band, and first cups. Oh, that’s not confusing at all!

Here’s my most recent attempt sewing Angie. This is still a tester though. I’ve sewn this with wash-away thread.This fits really well. And those vertical seams really give great lift.

After a quick soak to dissolve the wash-away thread, I’ll be ready to sew this very pretty bra up for real.

Here’s the side view.

 Adjustments

I’m making a few adjustments to the pattern to help it fit me better. Being an Omega shape, my wire size is smaller than its corresponding cup. So, I’ve used a smaller cradle than would normally be used with my cup size.

I also used my custom bridge with this Angie. It’s lower than the original Angie bridge, which I’ve heard is lower already. However, for me, I’ve lowered it a bit more.

My wires overlap at the top of the bridge.

To make the cups meet my lowered bridge, I’ve lowered the cup almost a half-inch where it meets the bridge.

And I’ve thinned the band under the cups.

Messy Testing

 When making a tester bra, I don’t want all my elastics cut to the exact size. What would happen if I needed to lengthen the back band? I’d be short elastic. So, there are all these little bits that are folded, or simply tucked out of the way for photos.

Below you can see I didn’t finish the bottom band elastic. I’ve thinned the band for my comfort once the ‘good’ bra will be sewn, and that elastic will have to be trimmed. I didn’t want to cut the elastic yet though, so it’s just tucked up for trying on and photos.

There are little bits of elastic that are sticking out all over this bra that got tucked away for the nice photo.
You can even fold elastic so it’s out of the way, and sew over it like I did for the hooks and eyes. The only finishing on this bra that’s been done is the top-stitching. I was pretty sure these cups were going to fit perfectly, so got them all ready for the next time I sew them.I can’t wait to sew this up knowing it’s going to fit so nicely.

Happy creating!