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? //
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Sunday, October 15
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Monday, October 16
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Tuesday, October 17
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Wednesday, October 18
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Thursday, October 19
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Friday, October 20
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Saturday, October 21
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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
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This is 
Along with the Mountie material, I chose a dark red that coordinated, and a Native print to contrast for the lining.
The inside has another zipper pocket, and a card pocket with a small slip pocket behind it.
There are lots of pockets! That seems to be a theme of CWD’s bag patterns.
No pockets here, just Mounties! I really love this bag.
A little Sewn zipper pull.
And a leather tassel because I made an extra one with my last bag and it matched this bag too! My hardware came from Emmaline Bags.
And from the back:
I love these straps! Adding that extra bit of color takes them from basic and functional to not-at-all-plain, and makes them another feature of the bag.
Personally, on behalf of the bloggers, here’s a shout out to 
Do you think we could get that out of our heads once it got in? Hmm, I wonder if those are soft-cupped bras they’re wearing?
a Rafflecopter giveaway (This giveaway has ended.)
I love this polka dot material.
I also love the bling I used like the sewn label, the leather maple leaf, the leather tassel, and handmade hanging tag.
Canada 150 Take Four
Such a pretty detail.
The inside of the bag is the same for both bags. Off white material with red maple leafs, and a slip pocket.
I used the lining material to make the straps as well. I just couldn’t resist those maple leafs! Em told me these women are Colombian and like lots of color and bright things, so that helped me decide to make one set of straps brighter.
You can see on the sides, I’ve added the snaps to the side of this bag as well, but have left them unsnapped. I want the bags to both have their own unique look when they arrive at their destination.
I love this. This was created to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday this year – there’s one for each province. I found mine at a local quilting store. I thought it would be perfect for my Canada 150 – In the Bag bag.
Being a transplanted Westerner, I’m covering the Western Canadian sponsors for our tour.
Stay Home Fabrics is located solely online with 99% of their customer base being Canadians. They also have quite a few customers who make handbags. They offer a large variety of fabrics: fleece, minky, linen, cotton, flannel, knit, and interfacing.
This zipper pocket is the perfect size.
Over the top love!
