Bra-Making

While in Germany

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

My hubby recently made a work trip to Germany. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go with him. My thoughts were, if I can’t go with him, he’s bringing me something back. I was ready to help him with that.

First I looked at Kantje Boord. I have dreamed of ordering from them since I first started thinking about bra-making and had started to follow Sigrid‘s blog.

Sigrid made one bra, and I loved it. Seriously. Loved it. I contacted her to find out where she got the material. It turned out to be Kantje Boord.

I found it. I found it way back when I’d asked her, and I found it again just last week. You can click on the photo to find it yourself.

pak00709

It was so pretty made up. I looked again to find the photo of Sigrid’s bra, but that I couldn’t find again.

My one problem with this is it’s lace and Lycra. I have a few lace and Lycra bras and bra kits; they just aren’t as supportive as a lace and duoplex bra for me. I decided I wasn’t going to buy it after all.

A few days went by, and I was still thinking about my hubby’s upcoming trip and how I could take advantage of it. Then I had another thought… Sewy! Sewy is right in Germany. I quickly made my way to their website.

I already have a few of their patterns, so didn’t look too closely at those. I did look at the bra kits, but just looked. As I was looking, I decided I wasn’t going to be tempted by anything with Lycra. So what else did Sewy have other than bra kits and patterns?

Well, they had one thing I’ve been trying to find for quite some time: Pareostoff.

Can you make that word out? According to Google Translate Pareostoff in German is… Wait for it… It’s Pareostoff in English. Well, that didn’t help. I was thinking the ‘stoff’ part of the word is close to our English ‘stuff’, so was good with my translation Pareo ‘stuff’. Stoff alone translates to ‘material’. Pareo material. Perfect!

PareoI love it! Don’t look for it though. Sewy only a little left. Once I’d made my purchase it was gone from the website. It even came in that adorable Sewy bag for storage.

So, I’d ordered some gorgeous material and was sending it to the hotel where my husband was staying. Then I received this in an email:

“Guten Tag, MRS Michelle,

wir haben soeben folgende Artikel versandt, viel Spaß beim Verarbeiten!

Die Sendung geht an:”

After that, it had the hotel address. The hotel address was all I could make out. Hmm. It was time for Google Translate again:

“Good day, MRS Michelle,

we have just sent the following products, a lot of fun while processing!

The show goes on:”

Isn’t that great? I’m glad they had a lot of fun. It’s been fun for me too.

I’ve been looking for black with polka dots for over a year now. I have a black and white polka dot bathing suit and wanted a cover up. I wanted polka dots.

bathing suit

The Pareostoff is perfect.

Bathing suit and PareoThere were no problems with my German order at all. Thank you, Sewy!

Remember a few weeks ago I was working on organizing my patterns? Once that job was done, I decided to make a similar catalog of my Craftsy classes. I was on a roll!

UntitledThese will go right behind my nicely organized patterns in my sewing binder. I also plan to work through all my classes. Some classes I devoured as soon as I bought them; others well, others have never even been opened. It’s time.

Happy creating!

Ivory and Lavender

~ Michelle

I just finished reading Mrs. Weaver’s latest blog post. Oh my! That’s about sums it up.

two bras

Honestly, I thought Lavender and Lace was such a lovely bra. This new color combination and the lace simply push it over the top.

Mrs. Weaver has a new website coming and this kit can be ordered on there. Just look how pretty this is:

kit

Oh, that is so pretty! I want. It’s really simple.

Happy creating!

Did You Know This About Your Presser Foot? About Thread?

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

In this post I have a few tips for you.

I recently had some fun working in a sewing machine store. I felt like I’d found a dream job, but sadly an old injury made its presence known again and I couldn’t continue to work there.

While I was there I was learning so much though. Imagine a  job where you have to learn all the different sewing machines, what they do, and then practice. I told everyone I’d gotten a job in a toy store. The only thing that could possibly have been better would be to work somewhere like Bra-Makers Supply. Well, that or a jewelry store.

One of the first things I learned was about my own sewing machine. I’d even taken lessons for my new machine when I bought it and didn’t learn this:

Did you see my presser foot? One of my complaints with this sewing machine had been there’s just was not enough room under that presser foot. Well, no problem now that I’ve learned if I just continue to lift it up a bit more than it goes up on its own there’s lots of room. It won’t stay there on its own, but I’m very happy with this newly found information and have put it to use already.

Here’s something else I learned that is so interesting, and affects all of us who sew – thread can be wound onto the spools upside down! Did you know thread had a right way of unwinding and a wrong way? Me either.

So, what difference does that make? Take a look:

If you look at the beginning of the video, you’ll see I’m taking the thread off the spool with the name at the top, which we’d normally consider to be the top of the spool. As soon as I pull the thread out from the spool, it soon starts to twist. According to how the thread has been wound on the spool, the top of that spool is really the bottom. We need to test our threads (each spool we buy) before sewing so they won’t twist on us in our machines. Really, who knew?

It was suggested to me when I buy thread, bring it home and test it before sewing. Then once I know which way the thread won’t twist, take a marker and put a dot on the ‘real’ top of thread so as to know how to load it. Thread twisting in our machines is not something we want. That’s a great tip!

One last tip, but this one isn’t a video. This is from my recent Ivory Bomb.

In the past I always worked from the front when attaching my strap elastic. I just made sense to me.

strap frontHowever, on my ivory bomb, I decided to pin the elastic to the band from the inside.

strap elasticI loved how the power net was meeting the edge of the elastic. In the past, I would notice they didn’t always meet perfectly the way I wanted when I pinned from the front. Sometimes the pins would push the power net rather than go through it. I’ll be pinning my strap elastic this way from now on.

Happy creating!

A New Home

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

I’ve moved! Well, I haven’t moved physically, but my blog has. I’m not longer at eforshopping… Now, if you’re looking for Michelle’s Creations, you’ll find it at www.michellescreations.ca. If you don’t already follow my blog via email, you’ll now be able to find my blog much more easily.

Things have been rather busy of late. I’d love to start posting on my new blog address with something spectacular. Sadly, I only have some matchy matchy to share.

My new Ivory bra now has two beautiful matching panties.

I’ve used my favorite TNT panty pattern – Kwik Sew 2286. One of these days, I’ll have to try another pattern again, but I really love these. It’s a harder-to-find pattern, but if you can find it, grab it!

For these panties, I couldn’t find any Ivory cotton spandex. So, instead of cotton, these panties are bamboo spandex from Bra Makers Supply, and they are so soft! They’re just dreamy. I’m not sure I’m ready to trade in my favorite cotton in for these, but they’re a beautiful alternative.

Bra with panties

The bamboo isn’t an exact match, but let me tell you, Ivory is not an easy color to match. I bought some cotton spandex that is Ivory that didn’t match (It looked yellow in comparison), I bought some lace that didn’t match. Grumble, grumble.

Here are three different Ivories – the bamboo and two laces.

3 ivory

And here are four. The bamboo, the lace I used on my bra, and the two lace trims. Seriously, every shade possible.

4 ivory

Okay, grumbling aside. I took my bamboo to the fabric store with me and matched it the best I could with some lace trim. All these others will simply go in my stash.

My first pair of 2286s is the basic pattern. I do love it, but also like to play with the laces. When I did the cover-up on my bra, it took up the lace I had planned to use on the front of one of the panties, so I needed to think of something else. I decided to do a crisscross pattern with the laces, which form a small V at the waistline.

Front of panty 2

On the back you can see how I trimmed the bamboo from under the laces:

underside of panty 2

I love the look of the pinking sheers for trimming the bamboo or cotton under the lace usually, but my pinking sheers weren’t going to fit in that narrow V shape very well. My small scissor that I use to trim threads worked perfectly.

Underside of panty after trimming

There! Two nice new pairs of panties to go with my Ivory bra.

Happy creating!

An Ivory Bomb

~ Michelle ~ 10 Comments

I heard today was National Bombshell day. I wasn’t exactly celebrating, but I made a bomb of my Shelley.

There’s been a lot going on all around my hubby and me, so I’ve been taking my time on any projects – trying to not make any mistakes. For the most part that’s helped. Taking my time wasn’t the issue here though.

Here’s the first of my new Spring lingerie wardrobe:

front

It’s looking pretty good there. I added a Gothic arch (and I know I still need a little more practice.) I also added some fun bling. I even added a crystal to the bow to dress it up too. I really like that!

The sides looked great too. I added a bit of lace to the bottom of the band. I always look at the lace that is left over from the cup and want to do something with it. This turned out well. Everything here was just fine too.

side lace

Here’s the back of the bra.

back

Again, everything worked out just fine for the back of the band. There were no issues at all. In fact, there were no issues until I tried it on.

What the heck! It was puckering out at the underarm. This is my tried and true pattern! In fact, the last time I made my Shelley, I had compared all the pattern pieces to one of my bras and put a big pink check mark on the pattern pieces so I knew they were good. (I have a lot of pattern pieces floating around.) So I knew these fit or at least they fit at the time.

So, really?

What the Heck

Here’s the big pinch I took out of the left side of the bra when it was on me. There’s an identical pinch taken out of the right side. That’s an inch and a half! I am seriously tempted to just cut, overlap and sew the bra back together. It would look terrible, but who’s going to see it but me? It’s been almost a year since I’ve made a bra, and I need to make a few new ones.

I know I’ve lost a little bit of weight, and I really do mean a little bit. It seems I’ve lost a few inches from around my underarms!

As annoyed as I was when I finished this Ivory Bomb, I’ve already re-adjusted my Classic pattern, and will transfer those changes over to my Shelley pattern now. The next one… well, I’m making a muslin of the cup first.

pattern

Happy creating!

A Few Odds and Ends

~ Michelle

I have a few odds and ends to share with you. I have a couple of projects in the works, but can’t share those yet.

My first project to share with you is a comforter I’m making my son. It’s almost finished. Seeing as I’m not a quilter, there’s no piecing in this – just 4 long pieces of material sewn together with batting. Simple.

comforter

He loves the mountains, so the bears reminded him of that. He also loves music and plays the piano. He loves the music print. The music print was to be the backing, but he wants that on top now. To finish this off, I’m hand-tying it with wool yarn. The yarn will felt and make a nubby little ball after it’s been washed a few times.

knotting process

Too bad I didn’t work on this in the winter! Instead I have this wonderfully warm quilt on my lap now that Spring is here. My son is thrilled though.

Another project I’ve been working on is to take apart any of the bras I had in my Don’t Really Fit pile. Included in that pile was a lovely Fantasie bra. However, being a RTW bra, the cradle matched the cup size, which meant it didn’t fit me properly. I took it apart.

Fantasie cups

Very pretty bra cups should be a smiley face, shouldn’t they? (smile) I can run a gathering stitch along the bottom of those cup and put them into a frame I make with a smaller cradle. They were just too pretty to throw away. I kept the bows and hardware from this bra too.

There was something very interesting that I found while I was taking apart this Fantasie bra. I kept a piece of the channeling to show some of my bra-making friends.

Inside of Channeling

The channeling is actually wrapped up! There’s a lovely fuzzy thicker material covering the whole of the channeling, which I’m sure makes it much more comfortable.

Here’s the outside:

Outside of Channeling

Seeing as channeling is applied to the bra frame in a two-step process, I think this would be applied so the raw edge ended up under the channeling in that second sewing pass when the channeling is sewn on the bottom. Isn’t that neat?

I almost had one other project to show you, but it really wasn’t working out. I tore out stitches so many times on it. At one point, when I was faced with tearing out the stitches yet again, I decided it was time to find another project.

Garbage

This was going to be a lovely little clutch for a dear friend. It’s gone now. The photo is the last reminder of it, and it will soon be forgotten.

tease

I can’t show you just yet the second project I made, which did work out – I have to give the gift first – but this is the material I used, and it turned out so nicely.

Happy creating!

Just One More Stop at the Fabric Store

~ Michelle ~ 11 Comments

You all must really be wondering if I’m sewing at all anymore. I am, but I can’t show you… yet. All I can do is give you a tease of what’s to come.

photo teaser

Isn’t that beautiful fabric? I’m going to make you wait to find out what I do with it, but I won’t make you wait very long. Just wait until Monday, April 4th and I’ll tell you more.

So, I have one more adventure to share with you from my recent trip to Ontario. I stopped at Fabricland. In fact, I stopped at Fabricland… a few times. I told my hubby I had to go. I kept remembering all the sewists on a forum I follow who had found wonderful printed Cotton Spandex at their Fabricland stores in Ontario. There was none at my store, so I had check while I was there. I found a store close to my sister’s home. Let’s call this Store One. You’ll understand why shortly.

I scored some wonderful Cotton Spandex at Store One, which I showed you in my last post. Then I saw another store as we drove to my Mum’s. We’ll call this Store Two. I did go in, but there was nothing new there. In fact their sales were different. In Store One, the Cotton Spandex was 50% off, in Store Two it was only 25% off.  Store Two was a different division, I was told. However, there was a new sale starting in a few days, so a few days later I went back to Store Two.

My hubby dropped me off and in I went. Right away I could see the Cotton Spandex was not on sale. I had a few minutes before my hubby came in so decided to look around. Just look what I found:

black lace with gold flowers

black lace with red flowers

black lace 1

I couldn’t believe my find! I also couldn’t believe the price. It was $4.95/meter. Well, forget Cotton Spandex. I was buying lace!

I had just had a big shop at Bra Makers Supply, so I knew I had to be a little more careful with my spending – my Christmas money wasn’t going to last forever. I only planned to buy those three laces. I was really pleased to find them and with their price. Just imagine my delight when I got to the cashier and found out they were on sale by half again! I only paid $2.50/meter for the laces!

My hubby had come into the store by then, and was still helping me keep to our schedule. I really wasn’t in Ontario to shop. Once we were in the car though, I told him I needed to go back to Store One and see if they had laces too. His reaction was typical of a non-obsessed, non-stash-building, non-bra-maker. ‘What? You were just there!’

Then I explained the savings we’d have. This lace is what I need for bra-making. It’s a great saving. It’s only on sale for a limited time. I persuaded him it was a good thing for me to go back to Store One again.

Store One had only one little bolt of lace, but I bought a meter of it.

brown lace

Now my truely obsessive bra-making nature came out. I had to go back to Store Two and had to buy more of the laces. My hubby was done. He was not going back to Store Two for a third time. So this time, after a family visit, my niece and I went back while the sale was on. All these laces were $2.50/meter. Talk about a score.

black lace 2

black lace 3

black lace clovers

purple lace with pink

purple lace with silver

white lace with peach shimmer full

white lace

Once I was back home, a friend wanted to make some panties. Off to the fabric store we went and what do you think I saw? Thankfully, it wasn’t lace! There were bolts of Cotton Spandex though. I’m still very happy with all those trips to Fabricland One and Two.

Happy creating!

My Spring Lingerie Wardrobe Plans

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

We all have plans of things we want to make or sew, but last fall I realized I had so many projects to make on my list that I needed to break things down a little. I made a Fall/Winter list and left everything off that I wouldn’t be wanting over the winter. That helped me tremendously.

I did the same again just recently when I was planning a trip to Bra Makers Supply. When I started to make my list, there were a lot of darker colors on it like Black, Black Cherry, Chocolate… I took a look. Well, I took a look after I added up what it was going to cost me if I bought everything on my list, and I decided to re-do it for only Spring and Summer.

The first thing to do was to go through my stash and see what I needed to complete what was there already. I have a Pink Bra Kit but I didn’t have a Finding Kit. I had an Ivory Bra Kit too, but again no Finding Kit.

Finding Kits were on my list.

findings and bra kit

As well as the Finding Kits, I picked up a Lavender Bra Kit and Finding Kit. All of these will make a lovely light-colored Spring and Summer bra wardrobe.

While at home I looked at the cotton I had for panties. I had some Beige, and some Pink. So I needed some Ivory. Bra Makers doesn’t have Ivory in their Cotton Spandex, but they do have lovely Modal in an off white that looked nice with the Ivory Duoplex. I loved placing the fabrics beside one another and seeing how close the colors were for myself.

bamboo 2

I had my hubby with me (he was the one rushing me out of the store), and I told him to look at the Bra Kits and pick the one he liked. On his third pick, we agreed. We chose the Lavender Bra Kit and Findings, with Lilac and Lavender lace. The kit is showing above, but here’s the lace.

LS-63.5355%20Lilac%20and%20Lavender

Oh, it’s so pretty! I did realize after I left the store that I didn’t buy the Lilac Cotton Spandex, but BMS does carry it, so that will be something I still need to purchase.

Two more bras will round out my Spring and Summer wardrobe and they’re both Beige. I bought some Beige Polka Dot Tulle, with Beige Sheer Cup Lining, and a Beige lace to make Beverly Johnson’s Heather bra that was shown in her Craftsy class.

Heather on Ashley smaller

This photo is from Beverly’s blog. You can read how she made it and what pattern adjustments to make here. It’s such a beautiful delicate looking bra. I can’t wait to make my own version of it. Here are my materials for it.

beige lace beige tulle beige sheer cup lining

For the last bra on my Spring/Summer list, I chose Beige Cut and Sew foam with a gorgeous Beige and Copper stretch lace.

beige lace over beige cut and sew foam

It was love at first sight when I saw that lace. Just imagine of my delight when watching Beverly’s last bra-making class and I saw she used the same lace over a beige foam cup! It’s beautiful together.

One last purchase and (gulp) possible plan – a bathing suit. Bathing suits simply don’t fit me. If I buy them to fit the bust, they float around me. If I buy them to fit my frame, I’m spilling over the top. They have not been one of my favorite things.

The Princess Tankini Pattern.

tankini 2

Sewing a bathing suit is at the bottom of my list, so if I don’t get to it, I won’t feel overly upset about it. In fact, I didn’t buy any material for this project. The pattern is enough for now.

I can’t wait to start sewing. Happy creating!

A Trip to Bra Makers Supply

~ Michelle ~ 24 Comments

We all have plans and we all have schedules. Mine changed suddenly last week, and my husband and I found ourselves flying to Ontario, Canada with only a day and a half notice. I knew right away though, there was no way I was going to be within hours of Bra Makers Supply and not go there. I started to make plans right away.

So here’s a little post about my trip to Bra Makers Supply. I was so excited to go, and to meet everyone. However, I arrived the same morning everyone was leaving for the Bra Makers Cruise. That was a small wrench in my plans, but I did get to meet Beverly and some of the staff. It all worked out great.

Beverly and M

Beverly is as wonderful as you think she is, and so is the store! Due to our schedule, my DH had to rush me a little to get me out of the store. I arrived with a list in hand, and wanted to take my time and enjoy the whole process of being there, looking at everything, selecting what I wanted, taking photos all along the way. Our schedule demanded otherwise.

I did buy all the things on my list, but I didn’t take anywhere near as many photos as I wanted.

There were shelves that went almost to the ceiling. Everything is wonderfully organized; truly a bra-maker’s delight. Along one wall there were plastic baskets of rings, and sliders, and wires, oh my! Along the opposite wall were more shelves with laces, elastics, simply everything we need.

shelves

Just imagine shelves of laces!

wall of lace

Next to these were the Stretch Laces. I really could have spent a lot more time there. Well, my money would have run out eventually.

Below are just a snippet of the elastics. Right in the middle of the lower shelf that’s showing in the photo – the new Grey and to the right of it, the new Black Cherry. Oh so pretty! I heard they are going to be part of complete Finding Kits in those colors. Yay!

elastics

It was so fun, but DH was keeping me to my schedule. So a few quick photos, and it was time to seriously shop and hit the road again.

I bought everything I need for my Spring/Summer bra and panty wardrobe. That will be another post.

haul

Oh, just look at that wonderful stash and me not at home with my sewing machine.

After we went to Bra Makers Supply, we made another quick stop: the location of the original Tim Horton’s restaurant. This may be the original site, but a new building has been put up.

building

This location is part restaurant – you can buy your coffee and whatever else Tim’s offers – but it’s also a museum. It was really a fun walk-through. Here are a few photos from the upstairs.

Does anyone remember these prices?

prices

Here are the original donuts that were offered. I don’t remember any of these.

donuts

I thought this was a cute sign, so took a photo of this too. I have no desire whatsoever to be a Donut Maker, but a Bra-Maker. Yes, please!

sign

This poster was great. I love how it tied the donuts to hockey. For all the non-Canadians reading, Tim Horton was a Canadian hockey player, who after that career, opened this chain of famously popular coffee shops, that are still very popular today.

wall

My hubby is a Timmies fan, so this part of our stop in Hamilton was a highlight for him. With me not shopping, I had a little more opportunity to take  few photos.

D and sign

I can’t wait to get home and start sewing. Happy creating!