Author: Michelle

Finally Some Sewing

~ Michelle

Things have been so busy at my house. My wonderful husband has a new position as of Dec. 31st. He’s the Executive Director of a local society, so we are in full gear getting ready for that. My home is filled with phone calls now getting everything ready for a smooth transition for him. And lots of meetings. Many of those I’m attending as well. As if Christmas wasn’t a busy season already, but we’re welcoming the change.

I did finally get some sewing done. Not just hand-sewing this time either. This past week I set up my desk and got my sewing machine out and did some sewing.

But let me start with my new cabinet. I bought some drawer lining paper, and covered the shelves. It looks so much better inside. And I’ve filled it with sewing items.

New Cabinet

Inside Cabinet

I still have a few more things I want to fit in there, but it’s a great start! And I’m sure I’ll organize it more as I go along. I’m so happy to have it. It looks much better than boxes piled up. And those boxes aren’t in my living room or bedroom anymore. I think the best thing is if I don’t get everything put away neatly, I can just close the doors.

So what have I been sewing? I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been working on a cloned bra. I’m not done yet, but so far it looks like it’s coming together well.

Cloned Bra

Here are the cups, and bridge with band. I haven’t done the elastics, channeling or hooks & eyes yet, but it is taking shape. The cups here are sitting on some beige foam cups to show the shape. The material is a set I bought from ELingeriA. The clone is Prima Donna’s new Duchess bra.

One of the things I like about this bra is it is lined on the inside of the cups. But the lining is a bit different from many other lined bras. This bra’s lining has a seam in it. The seam runs vertically, so it gives more support to the lower cup.

You can see that in the picture below. That seam is in the lining. The lower cup front is one piece. I quite like that extra detail to add support.

Dutchess in Azelea

So ahead I still have some more work to do on this bra, but it has to wait a bit. I also have two house coats to sew for Christmas presents for a friend. I’m using a basic McCalls pattern for that.

And something I was so excited about this week was a great find. I was out looking in the second-hand stores for a sweater. We’re going to a ‘The Good, the Bad, the Ugly’ sweater party, and I don’t have a sweater. So I went looking for one, but had to look in the book section first. Look what I found!

Book Find

I was so excited when I saw these two books. Both are in incredible condition. There was a whole Singer library of books there that day, but I resisted. I was in there for a sweater after all.

And the hand-sewing I’ve been doing? I wanted an abstract-looking poinsettia pin for the holidays. I’ve made a few now and given them all away, but here’s my most recent one – on my coat where I’m planning for it to stay.

Abstract Poinsettia

Happy creating!

A Lot More Jewelry and A Bit of Handsewing

~ Michelle

I have been busy, but not a lot of sewing is happening. My classes have picked up and I’ve had four classes in the past week and a half. Seeing I only have three scheduled a week, I’m doing really well.

One of the classes I teach is Introduction to Wire Wrapping. Basically I teach my students how to make earrings. Here are some of my earrings from this week’s classes:

Imperial Japser and Swarovski earrings

These little charmers are dyed Imperial Jasper and Swarovski crystal earrings. We actually made three pair of earrings each at this class. We had fun!

Jasper and Imperial Jasper earrings 1

And these are my favorite from the class. We used the same stones, but made two or three  different charms to hang from the earrings. They look close enough that they match, but aren’t exactly the same. They look and feel very fresh.

Jasper and Blood Stone earrings

And similar to the last earrings, but these ones do match. I made these Matte Jasper & dyed Dragon Blood stone earrings to match a necklace and bracelet set I’d made.

Matte Jasper and Dragon Blood stone stretch bracelet

Here’s the matching bracelet. This is part of my Bead Stringing/Memory Wire class. I teach the students how to lay out a pattern and either put it on memory wire or elastic. This bracelet is on stretch elastic, so very comfortable to wear, put on and take off.

And just in time for the Christmas holidays, I’m including Wine Charms in my Bead Stringing/Memory Wire class. Here are a couple of the charms I made this week:

Wine Charms 1

Aren’t they adorable?

And I’m really enjoying some hand-sewing lately. And working with felt. I loved making those pansies I made, and wanted to make some more felt brooches. I found a wonderful Craftsy class called Fab Felt Holiday and made the Poinsettia brooch on there. That’s for my Mum, but my DH saw it and wanted one too, so I made him one too.

Poinsettia pin

I was quite pleased with how this turned out, but think I prefer something a little smaller.  This is quite large. Probably 5″ in diameter. And I think I’d like something a little more abstract looking.

I love the colors in this felt flower, so may make something along these lines in an abstract poinsettia.

And finally, my craft/sewing room… I did get my cabinet, and it fits exactly where I wanted to put it. I haven’t done much more to organize my space. I have felt, stones and a few bra patterns and one bra cut out – all sitting on my desk. I do believe I’m going to get a lot done in the next day or so though. We’re supposed to get 15 – 30 cm of snow in the next 24 hours! I will NOT be going out if I can help it. I will spend a nice warm day in my creative space and get it organized and start putting that cloned bra together.

Happy creating!

A Lot of Jewelry, Not a Lot of Sewing… Yet

~ Michelle

Our new space is working out quite well. My DH and I are sharing a computer desk, and we’re actually sharing it. (smile) We both have laptops, so he gets his side, and I get my side. So far, so good.

My crafting desk looks a lot better than in the last picture I shared, but I’m not done setting up. I have a storage cabinet coming in a week or so, and after that things should be much neater. I’ll post a picture after that.

So, what have I been working on? Well, it seems mostly jewelry. However, I did pull out some bra patterns, but I need a big sign on my desk to remind myself not to try to make pattern adjustments after 11 p.m. at night. To be honest, it was closer to 1 in the morning by time I realized my brain really doesn’t want to do this type of thing – at that time of night!

But it’s bright and early in the morning right now, and definitely wintry outside, so this morning is a perfect time to  work on some adjustments to my pattern.

I’m going to make adjustments to my Fantasie Vivienne clone. I really do like the overall fit to this bra. What I don’t like? The bridge is too wide for me. It’s about an inch wide at the top, and I’m not. So I’m going to adjust that. And the wire that’s in the bra is too short for the side panel. There’s more than a half-inch part that flops down when I’m wearing it. So I’m going to adjust that as well, and more than just the amount needed for the bra – the wires I have are not the same length as commercial wires. I’ll need to lower the bridge/underarm area over an inch just to make up for the difference in wires.

A few other modifications I think I’ll make are ones suggested in the Bra Makers Manual, like doubling the power net for the band to give more support. I did that in one of my first Shelley bras. This bra (below) has power net and Lycra and I love how the band feels on this – very firm and secure feeling.

Front View w Foam Cups

Here are a few things I’ve been making in the jewelry classes I’m instructing.

Pearl Turquoise Necklace 11.13.13

I love this necklace & earring set. I made the earrings first in my Introduction to Wire Wrapping class. They’re freshwater pearls and turquoise. I like the stone combination so much, I decided to make a necklace with the same stones the next day in my Introduction to Crimping class. These were from last week.

And I made this necklace as well – just last night. And will likely make a pair of earring to go with this one too.

Mate Onxy Necklace 11.20.13

I think this is so pretty. This is made with matte jasper and dragon blood stones.

This is getting a bit long, but one more quick note. I really loved working with felt recently, and signed up for the Fab Felt holiday class on Craftsy. I bought some cute holiday material yesterday for the poinsettia class on there. I’m sure I’ll have one done before I post again, so you can see what I’ve done.

Stay warm! Did I mention it was -23 C yesterday?

Happy creating!

Making Room to Sew Again

~ Michelle

It seems my sewing was interfering with my family’s ability to eat at the dinning room table. I actually had complaints. To be honest, I did leave all my projects out and did take up the whole dining room and part of the living room. So, I packed everything away thinking I’d still do some things, just bring everything out when I wanted to sew and pack it all away again when I was done. That didn’t happen. And I became the one complaining. I miss sewing! Have I mentioned I miss sewing. I really miss sewing. Do you know I’d rather sew than do almost anything else?

My DH got the message and we’re re-arranging a space in our house so I can sew again! And make jewelry because lately my jewelry components have been all over the dining room table. 🙂

So here’s the mess I have to organize today.

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I have to find a new home for all of this.

And then there’s this:

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And I won’t show you the huge pile of sewing stash etc. in my bedroom! But we’re reclaiming our bedroom even. So I have a little work ahead of me before I can sew. But I’m hopeful!

A few posts ago I mentioned I couldn’t wait to clone my newest bra. I did copy everything out and now I’m going to have space to work on it. I’m also thinking of sewing another Sewy Rebecca. I do like the way the bridge fits on that one, and the cups too. I didn’t love the back though, so would change that. Well there are a few changes I’d make, but those have more to do with fit than style.

Here is part of the cloning process.

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These pattern pieces show the seam allowances have been added to each piece. It’s really not a difficult process. The hardest part is the cups because you have to move the material a little and even remove pins as you make them flat. Depending on the cup size, it can be a bit more challenging. I usually do one side of the cup and then remove most of the pins, flatten the other side and start pinning that side.

So now that I’m making a space for myself, I hope to blog a little more often than I have lately. I’m so happy to be setting up my little area today!

Happy creating!

More Poppies and Demo Items

~ Michelle

I decided to look up felt poppies and so many more wonderful ideas were out there.

Take a look at this:

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Aren’t these adorably charming? These are from Agnes and Cora and you can find them here. So sweet.

And I found these too:

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Again, so beautiful. There are such wonderfully creative people out there! These lovely poppies can be found here.

And although this one is done with a stamp, I think it looks great!

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You can read all about how she made her poppy here.

I got the felt I bought from eBay, and have made a couple of patterns and started cutting out poppy petals. In fact, I’ve made 20 this past week, and have 24 more cut out on my dinning room table.

Here are the few that I’ve made so far. I wanted to try a few different ones, and decided I have a favorite. It’s the one on the bottom right. I really like the black felt backing; I think it makes the red stand out more. The top left one is inspired by Mary Engelbreit’s flowers. The double red one is inspired by a poppy I found on the web: here.

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And I thought I’d post a few pictures of what I’ve been making when I do demos at the store.

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Here’s a bracelet I made that is very similar to one a friend of mine bought for $85. She saw it at a spa, and fell in love with it. But it was too small for her, and she had me add beads to it to make it larger. This one uses the same beads, but on this one I added little beads that ‘hide’ under the ring beads and peak out as you move and those rings move.

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And I like those beads so much, I thought a fun little pair of earrings to go with the bracelet. Again, those little ring beads at the top will move around, so they’re very playful to wear.

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I really love this one and think I’ll have to make one for me! The blue and gold beads are so charming and bright – definitely bringing out the best in each other! I used what I have on hand for wire, but I think I would use gold wire for the one I make for myself.

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And lastly, here’s the detail at the end of the Y design on the blue & gold necklace. I used a few of those same beads from the bracelet and the rings hang loosely over the blue and gold beads at the end.

There are lots more, but these are my favorites. I’ve definitely been having fun!

Happy creating!

Some Summer Reminders

~ Michelle

I don’t like to think that it’s already almost the end of July. I am enjoying the wonderful warm weather, and fun things like the pool party I’m going to tonight make summer so enjoyable – I want it to last a LOT longer than it will!

But summer is known not to last that long. So I try to keep little reminders for the rest of the year: photos of my favorite flowers in bloom, berries from either my raspberries or strawberries that I hide from my devouring family and freeze, I’m always looking for some way to make the season last longer and my enjoyment of it last too.

This year I decided to do something I haven’t done for years. I dried some of my flowers – my peonies to be exact. I have both white ones and dark pink ones. I cut both so I’d have a long stem once they were dried, and then shook them good to make sure I wasn’t bringing any ants in the house with them. I gave them another quick spray wash in the sink, and shook them off again. I found another couple of ants this way. Then I hung them upside down to dry.

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These are the white ones. They’re freshly cut so the heads are still big, fluffy and full.

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And here they are after drying for a week or so. You can see how much the heads have shrunk down. By drying them upside down like this, the flower heads close rather than open while drying.

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And finally I felt these were about as dry as they were going to get. I almost didn’t want to cut them down. I rather liked them hanging on the wall on either side of my dinning room.

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Here they are in a vase on my dinning room table. I’ve had to alert my dear hubby about them too. I did this years ago and had a vase of red ones on the table. He saw ‘dead’ flowers’ and threw them out on me! So hopefully with the heads up, these ones will last well into winter.

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And one last photo. This close up photo shows the detail of the petals. They’re all dried and will stay upright like this; and in the middle of winter, this lovely reminder will say that something beautiful will bloom again!

On a sewing note, I read that Andrea from Satin Bird Designs just finished her first Shelley bra. You can read about it on her blog. Good for her! The Shelley is a wonderful pattern. Makes me want to sew another bra so badly! But I’m determined to lose some more weight and see what sort of difference it will make for me. I’m really hoping I’ll be able to find fitting easier, but so far that’s not happening. We’ll have to see. I may just break down and sew something just because I’m missing sewing SO much!

Happy creating!

My (Nearly) Finished Wine Cart

~ Michelle

My little blog has been SO neglected recently. But our family has been quite busy. My oldest son got a new job, a new car and is set to start in a week, and my youngest son graduated from high school. So both of my boys have kept me busy.

There hasn’t been any time for sewing recently, so I packed up my sewing machine and put it in my bedroom. I didn’t want the reminder that I had no time to sit down and work on patterns or sew.

However, I did find a little time to finish up my wine cart.

tray sitting on top

Here is the cart – I painted the whole cart in Midnight reloved Vintage Paint. And then did some dry brushing on the edges to make it look distressed. For the dry brushing I used Storm paint by reloved.

Detail of racks

This shows the dry brushing a little better. I wasn’t trying to be super neat about it. Often distress on a piece of furniture isn’t uniform or ‘neat’ – so unlike sewing!

tray moved over

Here’s the tray – all black, with a bit of ‘distressing’ along the sides. The only part of my cart I’m still undecided about is how I’ll finish the bottom of the tray. I have a couple of ideas, but did decide against the decoupage.

One possible tray bottom

Here’s one idea I have for the bottom of the tray. I have a few pieces of cotton paper. It’s lovely paper and I was thinking I’ll put some Mod Podge over it to make it more water-resistant.

another possible tray bottom

And here’s another paper I have. It’s the same material, just a different pattern. I haven’t yet decided between these two, but did have a couple of other thoughts too like using lace or a doily. I’ll just wait until I find that perfect ‘ah ha!’ and go with that.

But until I do, it is ‘finished’ enough to use.

tray on side

Here’s my not-sure-if-it’s-finished wine cart. I do have to say I really enjoyed working with the reloved Vintage Paint. No priming at all – that’s my kind of painting. I do have 3 other furniture makeovers planned for the summer. Two antique end tables and a bookcase, but those are all big priming-involved-projects – stripping, sanding, staining and sealing. Whew. But I’m sure they’ll be lovely when they’re done and worth the effort.

Happy creating!

Wrapping Up Those Lose Ends

~ Michelle

Ever have one of those moments where you can’t believe what you’ve done? I’ve been trying to find a solution to one for the past week. Last you heard from me I was cloning that very pretty Fantasie Vivienne . I went for basic black, and was quite happy with how everything was tuning out. It wasn’t until I was almost done – and I mean sewing on the hooks & eyes – that I saw this piece of material flapping around. I wondered as I stopped everything I was doing, ‘What could possibly be flapping around?’

You tell me if you see what I did wrong.

Front View

Yeah, something really doesn’t look right there, does it? I can hear other comments, like Sigrid on her blog, saying ‘Ask me how I know.’ She’d had a problem in the past with some lace too, but not sewing it in upside down! Yes, that’s what I did here. The narrower part of the lace is supposed to meet the strap attachment and the wider lace is supposed to meet the bridge. That is not happening here! Oops.

So, I’ve been thinking about it all week. Can I just ‘attach’ that piece of lace anyway, and then ‘tuck’ the ‘extra’ fabric inside somewhere without making the cups too small? Can I take out the stitches on the cross cup seam and sew the lace in the correct way? I’ve ruled out taking the cups out because there is trimming done under the underarm area after the elastic is put on. Hmm. I’m just waiting for that perfect solution to come to me to make this wearable, so it’s not quite there.

Other than that rather glaring problem which makes the bra unwearable, it didn’t turn out too badly.

Being the first time I made this style, I was guessing at what order things would be sewn in. There’s a drawback to cloning a new pattern. If there are different elements than previous patterns, you may have a surprise – like me!

Side View

Everything was fine here in the side view. I actually quite liked the fit for the most part, so this is definitely going to be a pattern I make again… with bold, high-lighted, over-sized instructions for the correct way to attach the lace!

Back View

Here’s another area where I had a bit of a surprise. I wasn’t thinking when I ‘added’ the elastic width to the little dip in the back where the hooks & eyes attach. When I went to attach the hooks, it looked too wide. Hmm. Thinking again, ‘What did I do here?’ Then I remembered, so a quick erase on the pattern, and it will be a two-set of hooks and eyes on the next one. But compared to the lace mess-up, this is no big deal. I’ll probably also bring those back straps in closer to the middle.

Under Cup Detail

And this was a pleasant surprise while sewing the bra. I really like how the cup seam sits right over the bridge-band seam on the cradle. I thought that was a very pretty design element.

So, that’s my first attempt at the Vivienne clone. I should have made a tester, but was a bit too confident. Now that I’ve been bitten, I may be a bit more cautious in the future.

I am very excited about a beautiful set of material I purchased. It was one of those items I acted on quickly because the last time I watched something in Merckwaerdigh‘s store, it was gone the next time I looked for it. So this is going to be a future bra:

black & white Merckwaerdigh

Isn’t that lovely?

And one final loose end – my tray. Well, it seems my dear husband has an opinion on how I finish the tray. He didn’t like what I had proposed, or how it was it was looking. All work on the tray came to a complete halt. I didn’t like what he was suggesting either, so we were at an impasse.

I was dropping my son off at work one day, and dropped into the store there. And I just happened to see a large tray painted all black with a rooster on the bottom of the tray. That gave me an idea. I’m going to paint the whole tray black, same as the cart it sits on, and then I’m going to put a brighter paper pattern on the bottom of the tray instead of the decoupage. My hubby isn’t thrilled yet, but he’s not totally against it either. So, I think this will be my tray solution. Pictures to come.

Happy creating!

I’m Copying Again

~ Michelle

I’ve come full circle in my blogging. I started off with a blog called I’m a Copy Cat. Well, it’s been over a year of bra-making and I’d promised myself that even if I was hugely successful at bra-making, once a year I buy a good quality bra and copy it. I don’t know that I’ve been hugely successful, but I certainly can  make a bra.

So I went back to the boutique and bought one of those bras I’d tried on and treated myself.

Vivienne Fantasie

Here’s the bra I bought – but that’s not me in the picture. This is a very pretty bra, and I do like how supportive it is. It’s a Fantasie Vivienne in berry.

Once I got it home, something was bothering me a little. You know, just one of those nagging things in the back of your mind. Then I realized what it was – the underwires weren’t as big as some of the Prima Donna’s I’ve had in the past. The Prima Donna’s are really too big on me, but this one is only about a size too big.

I couldn’t figure this out. From everything I looked at in size charts, the wire should have been the same size of wire as the Prima Donna’s.

To begin, I got my stash of wires out and laid them over the bra’s channeling. I wasn’t getting a match though. This was really bothering me, so out came the seam ripper and I opened the channeling under the arm. I know how to fix it again, so I thought why not? Although I will say it was the first time I’ve ever ripped out stitches on a new bra!

I took out the wire and to my great surprise, it’s a Vertical wire! I was SO very surprised by that. I had to be sure though, so I went to Bra-Makers Supply’s web page and printed out their forms for Vertical wires. Just look under Information to Download, and it’s in that list.

Interestingly, the wire in the bra wasn’t quite a 44VW, but not a 42VW either. Just slightly bigger than the 42VW wire. When I tried the Vertical wires, I was informed that a 40VW corresponds to a 38 wire. I found the 40VW a bit small, so 42VW would be the size for me. And I find this only a tiny bit big. That means very little alterations for me!

And I’ve mentioned this before, but Vertical wires are a much better fit for women like me, dealing with what Beverly Johnson refers to in her manuals as the Omega shape. I had no idea there were bras on the market that used Vertical wires!

I also thought I’d mention a great resource, just in case you’re wanting to clone a bra. For me, it originally came from my first Threads magazines purchase. Sadly, it’s an out of print issue from Feb/March 2002 (#99). Beverly Johnson wrote an article called “Clone a Favorite Bra”. There’s a review of this article  on Pattern Review. I recommend it as well.

But don’t be discouraged that you can’t get that magazine back issue; the same information as the article is in the Bra-Makers Manual; the only big difference is the article had photos with it; the information in the manual has illustrations.

Happy creating!

An Ivory Shelley with a Custom Bridge

~ Michelle

One shouldn’t decide to change the bra she’s making 3/4s of the way through. But I did. And I didn’t have the supplies for the change! So, a call to Bra-Makers, and a week waiting for the mail… and then some time to sew. And it’s done!

Here’s my most recent Shelley, and this one has a custom bridge, as well as some adjustments I made after my last Shelley. I used information from Norma’s book to do the bridge. This bra is in a very lovely ivory color.

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This is pretty good in terms of fit. I will have to fiddle with it a bit. When I did the new bridge, it changed the size of the cradle. When I first put the wires in and tried it on, the wires were flipping outward. I knew this one from another bra I’d made – the wires were too small for the cradle. So, having tried many sizes in and around my size, I have extra wires on hand. I grabbed the next size up and no more flipping.

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Here’s a close-up of the bridge. It’s still very narrow at the top, and lower too, to better fit the length of my wire. The above picture is also a better indication of the color of the bra.

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Here’s the side view. It has a nice smooth fit into the cradle. I’m thinking it still may be a bit fuller on the sides than I want. However, it does fit! And the bridge is going all the way back. So the only real fitting issue I would have with this one is the wires are one size too big.

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And the back. I did do what I saw in the boutique and used the same wide strap elastic at the back to connect to the straps as I was using on the straps. I was quite pleased with the look. As well, I used the same wide strap tape to join to the elastic. That was something I noticed and decided to try – all the straps were using wider strap elastic.

And finally:

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And a dart. Lowering the bridge means I have to do something to make the upper cup fit into the new lower bridge. On this bra I pinned the cup starting at the underarm, and then pinned around leaving just a bit unpinned between the top of the bridge and bottom. Then I saw how much I needed to take out of the cup. I pinned it and did a dart there – which is very close to what that Prima Donna Milady looked like. The big difference between the two bras is I’m not using a foam liner in the cup.

I did like the dart and it looks quite nice on. I may try something different next time too. I had another idea of how to make the cup fit with the lower bridge – like shortening the lower edge where the upper and lower cup join. Overall, pretty good!

Happy creating!