Bra-Makers Challenge – February

February 24, 2018February 23, 2018 ~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

As soon as I saw the Bra-Makers Ultimate Challenge, I decided it was something I wanted to do. For most of January and February, I’ve been turning things down. No, I don’t want to do that, try that, or join that. However, the Challenge fit with what I wanted to do – focus on building my skills.

February’s Challenge

Here’s the challenge for February:

February – Love yourself – make any bra, bralette or panties using red stretch satin. There were a few more guidelines on the BMS website.

Isn’t this a sumptuous color? Just click on the link or the photo to go to the BMS website and see it for yourself. I’ve never worked with stretch satin before. But I’m game.

Plans

While I’m trying some of these new fabrics and patterns, I’m going to incorporate ideas I’ve picked up along the way. One of those ideas is to try the ‘better Shelley strap extension‘. Beverly wrote a tutorial on how to make an extended strap attachment.This photo is from the BMS blog. You can read the post here. I thought this looked lovely when I first saw it.

Here’s was my sketch trying to decide what to make for February. Did I want to add lace over satin for the power bar? I even entertained using red mesh finished with fold over elastic instead of lace on the upper cup.

All I had decided for sure was to add sheer cup lining to the cups as the satin is a stretch material.

I also drew some new panty ideas for the challenge.I planned to use my mashed-up Aphrodite pattern, but I wasn’t as happy with it as I hoped. I didn’t like my mash-up. The original pattern is so lovely. Unfortunately, I don’t like elastic at the waist and leg openings.

Putting Plans into Action

I ended up using my drafted panty pattern. These are stretch satin and cotton Lycra. Then finished with stretch lace at the waist and leg openings. I’m loving these!

I added a lace garment tag to the side. I’ve added these tags to panties I’ve made in the past.Here’s the side view. And the back. I was almost out of cotton Lycra, so had to make these with a seam in the back.I love these! Next I made a the bra to match.

Matchy Matchy

There are so many things I love about this bra! Well, let me show you.The whole bra cup and cradle is stretch satin. I’ve lined the cup and cradle with beige sheer cup lining. That little part on the upper cup that looks like there’s nothing there? That’s sheer cup lining. It disappears against the skin.

A Few Features

The pattern I used for this bra is cloned from a RTW bra. I loved how the cups fit, but there are a few elements about the bra that are uncomfortable and don’t fit.

So, I lowered the bridge and the underarm to help make this more comfortable than the original.

Another change was for design only – to split the upper cup. The lower half of the upper cup is stretch satin and sheer cup lining. The upper half of the upper cup is sheer cup lining alone, then finished with fold-over elastic.

Lastly, I extended the strap as per Beverly’s instructions in this blog post.

Below you can see I only pulled on the elastic in the underarm area where it’s usually pulled. I marked on the strap extension where the power bar ended and the extension began and made sure not to pull the elastic beyond that point.

Here’s the side view:Do you see those puckers where I gathered the cup to fit into the cradle? I don’t like that! Those puckers aren’t so noticeable when I’ve used duoplex. That made me sad.

Here’s the back:Oh, the back looks perfect! The red power net really matches the stretch satin well. I debated using the satin for the band too, but had some red power net in my stash, so went with that.

What I Love

I’ve shared with you what I don’t like (those puckers). However, when it’s on me the cup is more filled out than on the display. (I still don’t like them.)

So now, how about something I love about this bra? I love the upper cup!I love this sheer cup lining detail. It turned out better than I had hoped.

I did make a second pair of panties to go with this bra. I’ll share those next week.

Happy creating!

Boyshort Panties

January 31, 2018January 29, 2018 ~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

Beverly Johnson has a new class on Craftsy. Lingerie Essentials: Boyshort Panty Styles. It is a great class!As soon as it came out, I signed up. I love Beverly’s classes. I have them all and have watched them all too, which I can’t say for all my Craftsy classes.

A few people have told me they saw the above image and thought the class was about making briefs. They weren’t interested in making briefs. Don’t be fooled! Those are boyshorts. They’re a combo brief boyshort. You can see more on them later in this post. I made a pair of these.

Great Fit

I was planning to make boyshorts to go with my January BMS Challenge submission. Before I cut into the very pretty lilac cotton Lycra I had, I decide to make a muslin. My muslin fit so well, I decided they weren’t going to just be a muslin, I had to get some nice lace out and make them into wearable boyshorts. Here they are on my new display. I’ll share more about this display soon.In the first photo the shorts are pinned. In the second photo they’re unpinned. I definitely have more going on in the hip and thigh than this display!

Here they are from the back.Again, pinned and unpinned.

When I held these up, I loved the shape! They reminded me of ’50s shorts. I know they’re higher-waisted than most boyshorts, but they were just too cute to change. They also reminded me of these high-waisted Ooh Lulu Betty panties.I’ve always loved this shape.

I was so happy with these, I did make a pair to go with my bra for the Bra-Makers Supply Challenge. I made the combo brief/boyshort lace-backed pattern Beverly teaches in the class. The combo brief/boyshort is the one shown in the photo for the class too.

Lavender Set with Matching Boyshorts

Here’s the lilac set I made for the BMS January Challenge. I drafted the bra using the information in Beverly’s Bra-makers Manual Vol. 2, and I drafted the panties from Beverly’s new Craftsy class.I LOVE lilac! I don’t know why I haven’t had a lilac bra and panty set before.

I did decide to alter these panties though. They fit and were fun being high-waisted, but I wanted them to be more traditional boyshort style to see how they would fit. Boyshort styles usually gape at the back on me.

I lowered the waist and finished them with some lilac lace trim. And… they fit. Below, on this side view, you can just begin to get a peek of the back. This is the combo panty I mentioned earlier. It looks like a brief from the front, but a boyshort from the back.Here’s the full back view of the bra and panty.

Oh! All that lace! This is my favorite set I’ve made!

TNT

I made a second pair of panties to match this bra using my self-drafted pattern for the panties. I am so happy with these lovely sets and am looking forward to the next BMS Challenge.

Happy creating!

Ultimate Bra-Makers Challenge

January 27, 2018January 28, 2018 ~ Michelle ~ 10 Comments

I had it all planned out. I bought some lovely ivory duoplex and power net to make both my tester bra and my first bra once the ‘final’ draft was completed.

Then something fun happened.

The Ultimate Bra-Makers Challenge

Beverly, from Bra-Makers Supply, announced the Ultimate Bra-Makers Challenge starting in January 2018. Have you seen it? Here’s a blurb from the BMS site:

“Our idea is simple – each month starting on January 1, we will give you a theme with a challenge to complete by the end of the month. The challenge will be to use a new fabric or a new pattern chosen from Bra-makers Supply (yes, we will discount those items!) You can submit photos of the finished project to enter the challenge. Tag us on Instagram and Facebook @bramakerssupply and use the hashtag #bramakerschallenge2018… Each monthly winner will receive a $25 gift certificate from Bra-makers Supply. How easy is that?”

January’s challenge is the Pantone color of the year: Ultra Violet. SO pretty! I just happen to have a lilac kit from my trip to Ontario two years ago. I was saving it for when I got my draft just right.

The kit is one my hubby picked out. It had the paler lace that is on top in the photo. Something I’ve learned about myself in this bra-sewing journey is I prefer tone-on-tone bras. So if I’m going for red, I want all the tones to be close to the same shade. So I wasn’t over-the-top in love with the paler lace. I dug into my stash and found this darker purple, which was really nice. Then I saw this lilac one on the BMS website. Love. That was the lace to go with my kit.

Pattern

I’m using my self-drafted pattern for this bra. I am so happy. This fits perfectly, and I love the color!

I used Beverly’s CD Designer Bras by You to create my own Shelley-style pattern from my draft.

Here’s the side view: Even though I’m drafting the pattern so there shouldn’t be any difference between the cups and cradle, I still find I’m having a tiny bit of a length difference. A quick little gathering stitch running along the bottom of the cup, and it fits in just fine. Also, there are no wrinkles on me, but a few on Catherine.

Here’s the back of the bra.When I was taking the photos for this, I noticed I missed catching the very bottom edge of the strap elastic under the eyes. I’ll have to take that back to the machine and tack it down.

I love the lace detail on the back.

Road Bumps Design Elements

I had fixed everything on my pattern, and had my bra cut out. The cups were sewn. The lace was sewn on the band. The band was attached to the cradle. It was time to get the elastics out of the little finding kit and sew them on the band. Then I realized I had drafted my pattern for the ‘soft’ elastics. The new elastics I had in my kit weren’t going to work for this band.

I wasn’t happy.

The bra went into a time out.

I’ll have to draft a new band and label both bands – one ‘soft elastics’ and one ‘firm elastics’. That will save any future frustrations.

The next morning I pulled out some elastics from my stash. I tried some beige elastics behind the band, and then some black.

I decided the black looked better. Those little picots were almost a shadow behind the band. To bring all the elements together, I added a black bow behind the lilac one at the front. The Gothic arch looks wonky here, but that’s just on Catherine. I tried to get it to lay flat, but it just wouldn’t.