Author: Michelle

Canada Cups – Coming Unwired in a Bralette

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Canada Cups – Coming Unwired blog tour.

This tour is all about soft cupped bras in their many forms, whether it be bralettes, camisoles, or actual soft cupped bras – all designed by Canadian Designers. For my stop, I’m making a bralette from the Pin-up Girls Sweet Sixteen Bralette Collection.

The Pattern

Beverly Johnson is the designer of this pattern. Beverly owns Bra-Makers Supply here in Canada, and is one of our amazing sponsors! Beverly was willing to provide a pattern to a reviewer, but I’m such a pattern hound, I already had a copy of this pattern. Rachelle of That’s Sew Venice gladly accepted that offer though, so we are both making the Sweet Sixteen bralette pattern. You can read Rachelle’s post here.

A Few Details About the Pattern 

Beverly says, “Most would not say “support” and bralette in the same breath, but oddly enough, this one can be very supportive. With the options this pattern offers, this bralette could become your new breast friend! The typical ready-to-wear bralette is only available in smaller sizes..not ours!”

It’s because this pattern offers both support and a fuller range of sizes, that Rachelle and I both wanted to make this bralette. Just so you know, there are 72 sizes included in this pattern.

A little later in the post, I have some ideas to share with you about making this bralette more supportive.

Another Sponsor – Club Tissus

Another of our fabulous tour sponsors right here in Canada is new to me: Club Tissus. They very generously offered the tour bloggers a discount and free shipping to try their merchandise for this tour. Thank you, Club Tissus!

My thoughts were, ‘A deal on lingerie supplies?’ I went to their website right away.

My first impressions were, well, it was all in French. I do know some French, but am not familiar with French material names. Then I found the box in the upper left corner that allows us to switch from French to English. (Whew!) That was better. I had no trouble navigating their site after that.

I bought this gorgeous mesh to use for the cups.

I found everything I needed to make my bralette there except neckline trim elastic. I had some of that in my stash.

Living across the country, mine took four business days to arrive. That’s still really good. I did have one mistake with my order, and after emailing them, they had the right item in the mail within a day.

Set Backs

I had a couple of set backs with my plans for my first bralette (okay, there were three all together) – which is not something you want to happen when a sponsor has donated your material!

My first was mistake with this material wasn’t a mistake, and I should have stuck with it. I simply cut out cups from the material – no matching, just random cut outs. But no, I decided I could do better and I tossed those cups out. (Remember this bit for later.)

Then I decided to use the colored part of the mesh. I didn’t like that once it was cut out and sewn. It was too multi-colored. Those went in the garbage.

Next, I was going to match the patterns. It turned out I wasn’t able to match the print exactly for each cup. No matter where I laid my pattern pieces on the remaining fabric, I could not get a match. Unfortunately, I had already cut out one half of the bra and matching pattern designs takes a lot more material than not matching.

I let that idea go, and just cut out another set of cups – I was right back to what I first did, except it’s three cuts into the material later. I was on my way.While sewing the cups, and then top-stitching them, my machine decided to eat my material and made a big knot! As I gently tried to unpick the knot… I made a hole. 

Sadly, there’s no repairing that, and by this time, I didn’t have enough of this mesh to make new cups. I had to start over.

Take Two

  Thankfully, I was able to make this beautiful bralette with a stretch lace cup, and power net for the band from materials in my stash.

Oh, I love these colors together. This is the Platinum duoplex, power net, and strap elastic from Bra-Makers Supply. The lace is some gorgeous lace I found at Fabricland in Ontario. I really love these together.

I couldn’t find a 4 x 3 hook and eye in Platinum and I didn’t like it in black, beige or ivory, which were all I could find. So I lowered the back where the straps attach to use a 3 x 3 hook and eye.

 Here’s the side view. So very pretty.

 How does it fit? It fit quite well after I shortened the back band.

Here’s the band I cut out based on what I thought were my correct measurements. After re-measuring, I was an inch smaller than I thought. However, I ended up shortening the band to that red broken line. That’s more than just the inch difference. So if you’re making this pattern, which is a great pattern, just know the band fits big.

Once I had the band shortened, it was perfect. I’ve worn this for full days, and it’s very comfortable.

Support 

Using only stretch lace for the cups, I wasn’t expecting this to be the most supportive, but I would say it’s actually better support than any other bralette I own.

I thought of some options to make this pattern more supportive: Lining it with foam, which is an option mentioned in the pattern, but not my preference. Other options could be to line the lace cups with sheer cup lining, or some firm stretch mesh, or even duoplex. All of these would make this very supportive.

PHDs

  There are always the Projects Half Done. This was one of them. A lovely camisole pattern.  I bought the material for it; a gorgeous cotton/silk blend, and this lacy material I thought went well with it. I received the High Neck Camisole pattern from one of our wonderful sponsors, Lingerie Secrets.

As it turns out, I’m actually glad I didn’t get this completed because just before the tour started, I found an even better lace in my stash!The lace is a cotton lace too. I like this so much better than the original material I bought for this.

Thank You

I  want to express my gratitude to these wonderful sponsors for our tour! They’ve donated patterns, fabric, and findings to our bloggers, and have gone above and beyond and donated prizes for you – our readers.

Tour Discounts (These discounts have ended.)

  • Funky Monkey Fabrics is offering a 10% discount for the duration of the tour. Use code: CC10 for 10% off store wide until October 22nd. Not valid on already discounted full bolts.
  • 20% discount storewide at Fabric Please. Use code CANADACUPS.
  • 10% discount from Central Sewing Machines (email your order directly to Muriel@centralsewing.com to receive the discount)
  • 10% discount from Midnight Mountain Fabrics. Use CANADACUPS10 for the code
  • Free shipping from Club Tissus on all orders over $100. Use code: livraison100

 Come back here for our wrap up to enter into a draw for one of the prizes! Just look at these prizes!

Happy creating!

Tour Schedule

Hang with us as we reveal our inner secrets. 😉

 

 

 

 

// Please note that none of these post links are available before the scheduled date. If you click on one too early, you will get an Error 404: Page not found. You know about those, right? //
♥
Sunday, October 15

♥
Monday, October 16

♥
Tuesday, October 17

♥
Wednesday, October 18

♥
Thursday, October 19

♥
Friday, October 20

♥
Saturday, October 21

♥♥
Monday, October 23

  • Giveaway winners announced on all the blogs:

Little Heart Threads, Glitter in my Coffee, Michelle’s Creations, Mrs. Weaver’s Finest Unmentionables, Gracious Threads, Élégantine!, That’s Sew Venice, Sprouting Jubejube, Flying by the Seam of my Pants, Filles à Maman
♥

 

What Was I Thinking?

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

Are you all excited for our tour kicking off tomorrow?The kick-off post is tomorrow, but we’ll have to wait until Monday to see one of the gorgeous makes our bloggers made. But let me tell you, there are some really gorgeous makes!

What Was I Thinking? 

In the mean time, let me share with you an experience I recently had.

I saw a gorgeous top, and loved it right away. It was on sale too, so how could I go wrong?Isn’t that fun?

The problem is, I forgot what my figure it like. I realized it again when I tried this on in person after I’d ordered it.

Then I remembered my Croquis, and wondered why didn’t I digitally try this on before I bought it.

Do you see how all those fun little details fall exactly where I don’t want attention! All on my hips. That is not the look I want.

That top is being returned, but I thought I’d keep looking, but this time try things on digitally.

The Bag Look
Yes, I dubbed this one the bag. I didn’t think this did anything for me at all, so I kept looking.

Better   I did think this one is better, however, there’s no wow factor for me. And I’m not sure about that pattern band at the bottom.

Even Better I think I liked this one the best. However, I think before I buy this one, I’ll go try in on in person.

See you tomorrow for our kick-off!

Happy creating!

Paleo Bread

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

I think I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I can’t have dairy or gluten. In fact, I don’t do well with grains either, so I gave those up this year too – all under my Dr’s guidance, just in case anyone is concerned.

There are a few foods I miss. I miss bread. And cheese. Oh, the smell of pizza… So, missing these foods, I do try to find alternatives.

A Hit

I’ve tried a few things and some have been good. Others just didn’t turn out how I wanted.

One hit was Cloud Bread.featured-img

I think I hadn’t had any bread for a few months when I first tried this, and my husband and I both loved it! In fact, our meal looked pretty much exactly like the photo above. We had BLTs for dinner, and it was great.

Is it actually bread-like? No. Not at all. However, it was light, and fluffy, and gave us something to put ingredients in-between.

A Miss

The next try was a miss – twice. Grain-free Blender Bread.

Blender Bread I really wanted this bread to work out. This recipe is from Danielle Walker, and I love her recipes. In fact, I have all her cookbooks. However, this one just didn’t work for me. There was even a correction to the recipe that’s in the cookbook, and I used the corrected recipe.

The first time I made it, it didn’t cook all the way through. So the second time, I baked it longer, but still it just wasn’t cooked all the way through. It’s not an inexpensive recipe to make, so sadly, two times is all I’m willing to try.

Another Hit 

This third Paleo bread recipe I tried worked wonderfully. In fact, I just made this yesterday.

 With only 5 ingredients, this Paleo Almond Butter Bread is a snap to prepare. Kid-approved, and perfect for breakfast, lunch or snacks. Love this stuff!

This Paleo Almond Butter Bread is a hit. My husband came home and saw what looked like a loaf of bread sitting on a cooling rack in the kitchen. He wanted to try it right away.

It looks like bread, and it’s really quite bread-like.

We broke out the olive oil and Balsamic vinegar, and each cut a slice of bread. After that, we cut a second slice each. Then my hubby didn’t wait for me, and cut himself a third slice.

Yes, this one is a hit. 

If you’re looking for some Paleo recipes, I’ve collected quite a few on my Pinterest page, including the ones in this post. All the photos except these last two are from the websites with the recipes.

Happy creating!

Craftsy Class Review – Make the Most of Your Blender

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

With Craftsy’s Unlimited membership rolling out this week, and a two-week free trial, I took advantage right away, and decided it’s a great time to do a review again and let you know a little about the Craftsy Unlimited.

I’m reviewing Vitamix Quick & Delicious Make the Most of Your Blender class. I started to this the same day the membership rolled out. 

Nicki Sizemore teaches this class. I like her. I love that she has a similar philosophy as I do and makes almost everything herself. I do too – mostly for health reasons, but still it’s refreshing to see.

Reviews

 The class has 29 reviews. There’s one 1-star review, and I had to look at that right away to see just what someone found so terrible about the class. The reviewer said there were no measurements given and no recipes. Well, recipes are all in the Materials for the class, and they do have exact measurements. Without giving the whole recipe away… these measurements look pretty exact to me.

Another reviewer gave a 2-star rating for the class because she didn’t realize it was all about the Vitamix Blender. That one is in the title… Another gave a 3-star rating because the last lesson was all about a Vitamix Blender. Again, it is a Vitamix class. So the only negative reviews don’t hold a lot of weight for me. Other than that it was all 4-star and 5-star ratings.

Lesson Outline

 First Thoughts on the Class

Some of my first thoughts on the class were how refreshing it was for me to watch a cooking class where everything is being made fresh and from scratch. I loved it.

There are a few recipes I simply won’t make. I can’t have gluten or dairy for health reasons, so I doubt I’ll make butter myself, but I still watched that lesson. I found it fascinating to see it come together. If I could have dairy, I’d be making butter in my blender!

I loved watching Nicki make dressings, and the nut milk too. I got so many new ideas for how to use my blender.

The one thing I’ve never done, and doubt I’ll ever do is make soup in my blender. I have no desire whatsoever to run my blender for 5 -7 minutes to heat the soup. I do use it all the time to puree soups, and then I return everything to the pot to simmer.

See the steam coming from the blender in this screen shot from the class? That’s just not for me. I could see making the soup recipe and then pouring it into my nice stainless steel pot to cook it. That’s just my preference.

One recipe Nicki demonstrates is a soft-serve-style ice cream. We make soft ice cream all the time in our blender. It’s one of our favorite desserts. I use frozen fruit and either cashew milk, or coconut milk, and blend them together. Sometimes I add a date or two to sweeten things a little more. It’s an ice cream we can feel good about eating.

The last lesson is, again, one I won’t use, but still watched. It’s making fresh bread from wheat ground in the Vitamix! I don’t think I ever knew making bread could be that easy. Alas, no wheat bread for me.

Personal Recommendations

I think this is a great class, and definitely one I will want to buy when there’s a sale – and there will still be sales! There are so many great tips for using a high-speed blender, especially a Vitamix.

Thoughts on Membership

I wanted to share a few thoughts on the new Craftsy Unlimited membership. I don’t know that I will want to do Unlimited continuously. I may do it once in a while – and that is a possibility. I checked with Craftsy, and I can join up for a month and then cancel, and then six months later do that again. I love that!

There has been a lot of wondering with talk of Unlimited membership if the classes we’ve purchased are still ours. Yes. They’re still ours.

Here’s what is says in Unlimited membership about our classes. 

In Unlimited membership, you can find your classes fairly easily in your Class Library under your Account Settings. This was the easiest way I found to find my classes.

You can also access Help from your account settings. Help isn’t so easy to find at the moment, but this is one way to do it. Help is right under that red arrow on the left-hand side.

Craftsy Unlimited membership doesn’t have all your previously purchased classes separated like they had them before. There isn’t a Library of just the ones you’ve bought. All the classes are there.

The one thing I couldn’t find were the Great Courses. I asked Craftsy about them and was told  ‘The Great Courses are not available within Membership right now. Currently they only allow their classes to be sold a la carte.’

Lastly, if you have an Unlimited membership with Craftsy now, and are trying to access it from your Class Library where all your classes are, you can do that easily too.

Do you see the red arrow at the very top? When I click that, I can access all of the Unlimited classes.

So far, membership is looking great!

Happy creating!