Sewing

A Black Plunge with Butterfly Effect

~ Michelle

I must say, I was inspired recently after reading Madalynne’s blog where she planned to do a bra-making marathon. (Way to go, Madalynne!)  I was inspired and thought I’d see what I could do too.

So bright and early Saturday morning, I cut out 2 bras. One in black with some gorgeous black and pink lace. The second bra is a beige, with a pretty beige and tan lace. Both sets are from Bra Makers Supply. I was off to a good start. Then reality began to impinge on my plans. I had laundry to catch up on, and my dear hubby and son arrived home after a 4-day camping trip. But I did make some progress.

The black bra was the first one I worked on. And it was coming together very well. Until I hit a bump. Perhaps because there was so much activity happening around me that wasn’t usual activity, whatever the reason I made a faux pas after attaching the upper band elastic to the outside of the strap. I didn’t notice it either. It wasn’t until I had turned the strap over and was trimming the excess, and had a brief thought as my scissors snipped the material, ‘that looks folded’. SNIP.

I’m not sure how I folded excess material under the elastic, but I did. And then I cut it! Ouch. Well, I know me too well; I’d never accept that. I knew I wouldn’t wear it if it had a flaw. So, out came my trusty seam ripper, and I carefully started removing all the stitches from the strap. First, I removed all the stitches from the elastic I’d just sewn on. That wasn’t too bad. That was just a zigzag. But the side with the trim on it had both zigzag and 3-step zigzag stitches that had to come out.

I got it all done, and attached a new strap. I re-sewed all the elastic and trim to the outside of the strap, and then carefully turned it and matched it up and sewed the 3-step zigzag. And it looks good. Whew.

Okay, enough drama. Here’s my black plunge with a Butterfly Effect.

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I think the Butterfly Effect is more pronounced when the style isn’t a Plunge style, but I’m still very happy with it. It’s a very pretty way to add some lace to a bra. And I do like lace.

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Here’s a closer view of the Butterfly Effect. You can also see the foam cups I have behind the cups. The way a Butterfly Effect is done is a bit unusual. You start to sew the cups together, stop, add the lace, and then finish sewing the cups together. This effect is shown and explained in detail in the Bra Makers Manual.

The little pink bows that match the pink so perfectly were from the Bra Maker’s teacher I had here one weekend. (I’ve had the lace in my stash that long.) She had a big bag of bows and I think I might have drooled when I saw it. She let me match up a few bows to lace I had. Thanks, Jane.

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Isn’t that adorable? I took the picture before I had sewn the bows on.  They’re just pinned on at this point. But what a great color match.

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Now on this one, there are two pins. One is holding the bow in place for where it will go. the red-headed pin is to make sure I remembered, once the bra was all sewn, which strap I’d messed up. Looking at this, I’m really pleased with how well I repaired this faux pas.

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And the back of my newest plunge bra. I may tweak this back a bit and bring the shoulder straps in a bit. They’re not falling off my shoulders, but they do look quite far apart when I look at the back. Something for me to think about.

And that second bra I cut out? Well, it’s all cut out and sitting on my desk just waiting for me to have a few hours to myself to begin it.

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The good news is, it will wait.

Happy creating!

La Bella Luna

~ Michelle

I hope all my Canadian and American readers both had wonderful holidays. Canada’s birthday is July 1st, and America’s is July 4th. Let me tell you, there’s one week a year where most of the continent is celebrating.

I just finished the cloned bra I made for a friend of mine. and it looks so pretty. Prettier than the pictures show. And she LOVED it. She exclaimed when she saw it that it was prettier than the original. Well, that made me feel good!

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She chose Ivory & Pink for her colors. And they really do look so nice together. All supplies came from Bra Makers Supply. Here’s a close up of the set we bought at Bra Makers Supply.

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And the back of  her bra.

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It all went together quite smoothly. Cloning is easier than pattern adjusting!

There were a few things I noticed on this bra that were a bit different than I was expecting. One was on the original bra, the manufacturer only used 1/2″ band elastic – if it was that wide. I was really surprised when I saw it and how narrow it looked. I didn’t measure it, but honestly, it looked like the same as the upper band elastic. I changed that to 5/8th width which is more supportive and should be more comfortable.

Changing the size of the elastic meant I had to add that extra bit to the pattern I traced. That wasn’t a problem, but there was not room for all that elastic under the cups. So, with bated breath, I followed the advice Beverly gave in a recent blog. She explains how to cut the elastic so it will fit under the wire.

I read her blog and thought, ‘that makes sense’, but then when it came time to actually cut the elastic! Oh, my! What a terrifying feeling. I had just spent hours sewing this bra… and it’s for someone else… and she paid for all the materials… and I’m about to cut it! Can you feel the drama there? Well, I can tell you I’m so very thankful it all turned out.

But I didn’t just cut the elastic. That was too big a step for me, so I took a preparation step first. To help me feel more comfortable cutting, I folded the elastic over the seam where the cups were sewn into the cradle – that same seam the channeling will be sewn onto – and then traced on the elastic where I could feel the seam underneath the elastic. Sorry, no pictures of that. I was busy holding my breath that it would all work out! Then I simply cut along that traced line. It all worked perfectly. When I do this again, I’ll take pictures to show you.

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On this slightly blurry picture (Sorry, technical difficulties), you can see the elastic is much wider at the lower bridge than what can possibly fit under the channeling. Trimming the elastic is a great option.

As well, on the above picture you can (barely) see the seam in the bridge. That was another one of the surprises I found on the original bra. Most patterns I’ve come across have the bridge cut on the fold. This original bra had a seam in the bridge. So I added a seam allowance to the bridge, and seamed both the duoplex on the front of the bra and the sheer cup lining.

Again, not super clear, is the lower cup of this bra is lined and there is a vertical seam in the lining. It shows up much better in this photo of the original bra.

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That seam line that is visible is actually in the lining, not in the lower cup. So I copied that as well.

The only finishing touch I’d still like to add are a couple of bows to cover the strap seams. They always make it look so much prettier.

One last surprise on this original bra was the lower cup fabric is stretchy! That one doesn’t even make sense. When dealing with cups larger than a C why would a manufacturer use stretchy fabric? It’s not supportive. So one negative is my friend said she could use a little more room in the lower cup. It fits and she’s still thrilled with it, but we’re thinking of changing things up for her next bra. I’m thinking the Shelley bra will be perfect for her.

And lastly, my friend, Jan, really loved her apron. She wanted a picture of her wearing it for the blog. Not only her wearing the apron, but she grabbed a spatula from the kitchen to make it look like she was busy cooking too.

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Happy creating!

Kwik Sew 3300

~ Michelle ~ 5 Comments

This is such a pretty style. Here is my Kwik Sew 3300:

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I think it looks so pretty with the black and white theme. The lace was a gift, and the floral stretch lace is from a local fabric store. All other material supplies are from Bra Makers Supply.

It’s pretty, but there were a couple of fitting issues. One really wasn’t a biggie. This bra  had the straps pinned up about 2 inches here in the picture – so I shortened those.

The bigger fitting issue is the upper part of the cup is loose. I could pinch a quarter-inch out of the upper cup. That shouldn’t be too hard to fix on the pattern, and thankfully it doesn’t show when I wear it. This style actually fits similarly to how a foam cup bra fits.

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You can see here where I pinned the cup.

The steps I took beforehand really helped me to get the cup to fit properly. Here’s what I did for this bra (and some of this is from  past posts, but I’m putting it all together here):

The first thing I did was sew up a muslin for the cups. I did this twice. After looking at the pattern pieces, and picking the one I thought was closest to my size, I sewed up my first muslin. I used some scrap cotton I had left over from a skirt muslin I’d made. On this first one I could see how much I would need to adjust the pattern along the wire line. Remember, I my wear one size bra for the cups, but my wire size does not match that – it’s quite a bit smaller. So that was my first adjustment.

After I altered the pattern I sewed up another cup muslin. Again, I used some left over cotton, but this time it was from one of my moulages. This second one I pinned over an existing well-fitting bra. It was a pretty good fit at this point. But still needed a bit of adjustment. On this second muslin I drew where the seam lines fell underneath it.  Again, dealing with an Omega shape means most patterns don’t fit the way they are.

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At this point I was pretty sure I had the right size and shape for me. And I was really close.

This bra has a vertical seam, so no upper and lower cup, but instead and inside and outside cup. I was using lace for both the inside and outside cups, so I lined them both with sheer cup lining. That made both cups completely non-stretch to give it the support it needed. I’ve done this before on all lace bras, and it works great. I usually don’t use Lycra because I don’t find it offers the support needed, but using this sheer cup lining would be a great option for under Lycra too.

At this point I was feeling quite confident that this bra was going to fit without any issues. You see, most of my issues have been the bridge and the adjustments I needed for the Omega shape. I haven’t run into this looseness before.

I didn’t use the band that came with the pattern. I used the one I know fits wells. I now have a custom bridge that is working great for me and I wasn’t going to mess with that. As well, I drafted the cradle on my band to fit a Vertical wire and a custom bridge. After all the work to get the band to fit so well, there was no way I was going to try another band! All I was really wanted was to insert the 3300 cups into my band for a different look.

Even though this bra pattern still needs some tweaking, the steps I took ahead of time really were worth all the effort. And if you have challenges with fitting, I really recommend this method of fitting the bra cups. A shout out to Sigrid for sharing this. And after much searching, I realized it was not in her blog, but on Pattern Review. She explained this when she reviewed Merckwaerdigh’s BHST2 pattern. Really a great tip!

Happy Creating!

Sewing for a Friend

~ Michelle

So what am I working on? I’ve cloned the Prima Donna Luna bra. It’s a very pretty bra, and my friend is so happy to have a good-fitting bra. But the color is not what she would have chosen. I know that too — when you get outside of standard sizes, you don’t always have the same choices, and pale green would not have been a choice she normally would have made. But when one makes bras, we can choose what materials and colors we want.

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So, my friend came over and brought her bra. And I set her up on my computer to look at Bra Makers Supply’s kits. She looked through and picked a few she liked. And she found more than a few! But we’re starting with one kit and one bra, and we’ll see from there. While she was looking, I was using the pin-method of cloning. I showed her how by putting the pins into the seams, the fabric isn’t damaged at all.

Here’s the kit she picked. It’s very pretty and delicate looking.

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As well as a bra, my friend is moving into a new house, and she wanted a new apron that would go with the colors of her new kitchen. So again, we went shopping – this time to the fabric store, and with pattern in hand, we picked some fun colors for her new apron.

The apron is a pattern I bought on Craftsy. It’s a pattern by So Sew Easy. She has a number of free patterns I’ve been looking at, and will try at some point. But the apron pattern is the Reversible Apron – I’ve got you covered!.

After I bought the pattern and we bought the material, my friend decided she didn’t want a reversible apron. She wants two aprons! So although I’ll be using the pattern to cut out the apron, I won’t be following the instructions as they are written, and won’t be able to give a fair appraisal of the instructions, or at least not all of them. I did follow the instructions up to attaching the neck ties, but not after that. And dropping off in the middle of instructions like that, left me to come up with a way to finish the edges. However, up until that point, she did a great job explaining and showing with pictures how to sew the apron.

Here’s the apron I made:

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I love that front panel. It’s so charming.

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And the material here with the sparkles is the neckline trim, ties, the waist band and ties, and the bottom band as well. Why shouldn’t a girl be sparkly in the kitchen as well?

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This picture really shows why the apron is called ‘I’ve got you covered!’ – it wraps around the hips. That is a very nice touch if you ask me. Much better than just covering the front of the body. This apron wraps right around Catherine (my dress form) as Catherine really doesn’t have any hips at all.

And lastly,

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Faith, hope and love … and musical notes! It’s even got flowers in there. That just about wraps up everything I love right there.  Hmm, just thinking, it needs lace.

Happy creating!

Disappointment… and Success!

~ Michelle

My last bra wasn’t even blog worthy, so I decided to make another beige bra. I really do need a couple of lighter bras for summer.

And I wanted lace on the upper cup too. I love lace. I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate a lace upper cup. The shape of the upper cup curves quite a bit on this pattern, and most upper cups are fairly straight across that upper edge. I did try using lace on one beige bra. I cut the lace following the curved edge and zigzagged over the raw cut edge, but I didn’t love how it turned out. I’m thinking a dart might be needed to incorporate the curve, maybe two. Like this:

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So, enough of that disappointment, and even the contemplation. Here is my most recent Beige Plunge:

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I love this bra! It’s so pretty. To use the lace, I cut the upper cups from Duoplex and then laid the lace over that. The Duoplex is from Bra Makers Supplies (BMS), and so are all my other components, except the lace, which was a gift. Thank you again, Naomi. The pattern is from BMS too, but altered to fit an Omega shape and then altered again to make a ‘fake’ demi bra, or plunge-style bra.

The lace is a nice stretch lace, but it was a bit challenging to use at first. I pinned it down, and did a zigzag over the lace, and it moved. I took the stitches out, and tried again, and it moved again. I changed my stitch length, tried again, and it moved again! I thought briefly of not using lace, but instead got out my trusty Temporary Fabric Adhesive (TFA), and sprayed the back of the lace, laid it over the upper bra cups and sewed it. It didn’t move at all. I love TFA for anything difficult like that. It worked perfectly! I’ve used it before and highly recommend it for anything like that.

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Here you can see the lace overlaying the Duoplex. I may use this technique in a few more ways. I really am happy with this and how it turned out.

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I loved the look of the lace on the upper cup, so put some on the band too. I wanted the scallops to show, so didn’t cover the whole band. The elastic has a lot of stretch, so it works very well on the band.

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And the back band. There were no problems here.

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Here’s a close up of the bridge. How pretty is that? The trim, the lace, the bow? I’m very excited to now have two bras that fit so well. What a struggle this has been.

On my desk next week is to work on the Kwik Sew 3300, sew an apron for a friend, and clone a bra for her. I told her I’m willing to clone her favorite bra so she has a pattern, and sew her up a copy, but I’m very weary of alterations just now, so no alterations.

Happy Creating!

Moulage 2 And 3

~ Michelle

You might be wondering about that title. What happened to 1? I went through the whole process of measuring myself, having my hubby measure me, putting all those numbers onto the form that comes with the class, drawing out a basic moulage with the instructor, and then drawing out my own. And I was so sure I had done it incorrectly that I crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.

When I was done my second moulage, I realized what I had thought was wrong on the first one, hadn’t been wrong. I decided to wrap it up to more practice was good for me!

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Here is the first sewn moulage on my dress form. On this you can see where I pinned the shoulders to take them in. I also decided to move the bust width together more, and the waist was loose on me.

I wish I had taped the audio from that second moulage being pinned on me. I thought we sounded like a comedy routine. First, my hubby was sure pinning the moulage on me would take hours. I have no idea why he thought this, but he was convinced it would. I finally had to tell him to be quiet and pin me up.

The moulage was to be pinned up the back, and I had explained to my hubby that it would be tight-fitting. He kept saying, ‘This is pretty tight.’ And I’d assure him it was supposed to be tight. I told him it was to fit like a second skin even. But he must have commented four or five times on how tight it was.

Once it was all pinned up the back, I told him to pin the extra out of the shoulders and he did. With no give, I couldn’t pin myself.

I think five minutes have passed by now, if that. At this point I’m done what I needed to do – I’ve seen how it fit and where I needed to adjust it. So I tell my hubby to go ahead and unpin me. ‘What? Why? Didn’t I just pin you up? Why do you want to be unpinned now?’

Well, I didn’t want to wear it forever! My poor dear hubby really had no idea what we’d accomplished in this not-hours-long endeavor.

On my next one, I decided to take some of the drama out of the fitting and left the center front open and sewed up the back seam.

Moulage on dress form

You can see this one is a little more fitted around the waist. Not a huge difference, but this one is snug around the waist, whereas the first sewn up one wasn’t.

And here it is on me.

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See. Definitely snug. But I’m told this is exactly what I’m wanting. Amazingly, making moulage two and three took a couple of days each! I had hoped to have the sloper done by now too, but that will have to be later this week.

Happy creating!

 

Slopers and Styles

~ Michelle

I saw this and it gave me a smile. I thought I’d share it.

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The other day my friend came over and she’s taking a class on making a sloper. She was having trouble getting her muslin to fit using the sloper pattern, so we looked at her instructions and it wasn’t making a lot of sense to me. I’m not the best when it’s all numbers.

I finally suggested she put the muslin on and I’d pin the sides where it needed to be taken in. She then traced the pin lines, and laid the pattern over the muslin and traced those lines onto it. And it worked. She sent me a message the next day to tell me I got an A+ on her assignment. We laughed over that. I was thankful her instructor did explain what she’d wanted her to accomplish with the numbers, and our way was just another (non-math) way to do it.

My sloper, or actually moulage, that I’ve been working on for a Craftsy class I’m taking is done. It’s an awesome class by the way – Patternmaking Basics – The Bodice Sloper. Boy is it a detailed class. And remember, I said I’m not a numbers person. There are a LOT of numbers; at times she’s using one set of numbers and I’m having to remember to use my own numbers. Whew! It’s a workout. But I’m trusting it will be well worth the effort by time I’m done.

My class is also fraction of the cost of my friend’s class. She paid over $300 for the class she’s taking. I think the Craftsy class is a much better deal. Oh, and I took another Craftsy class this past year and the instructor never responded to any of my questions – even after I mentioned this to Craftsy. And from reading the questions and comments, I wasn’t alone.  This class, I highly recommend and the instructor gets back really quickly.

One of the things I learned is before you make a sloper, you make a moulage, which is an exact skin-tight pattern. Then you add in some ease and have a sloper. My moulage was done in pencil, and although I took a picture, the paper looked blank. Here’s a sample picture to show what I’ve been working on.

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I bought some fabric today and will sew it up either today or tomorrow. I know I don’t have the shoulders just perfect yet (my dear hubby measured me), but will use that same pinch method to get them better and anywhere else I need to fix. Then I will adjust the moulage.

Happy creating! I’m off to work on my moulage.

Seemed to Take Forever!

~ Michelle

A while back – it was January, I think – I mentioned I’d ordered a booklet on altering bodices. It was one of those things that seemed to be taking a long time getting to me, so I went online and looked up the tracking number to see when I had ordered it. It had been about a month at this point. I thought it should have arrived by now.

What I found surprised me. That little packet had made it all the way from Australia to my little town in Alberta, Canada, but didn’t make it to me! I could hardly believe the label fell off while it was on its way to being delivered to my door. It made it to the post office, was out for delivery and then the next thing on the detail list from the tracking number was it had been sent to the Undeliverable Mail Office. Maybe I should call that bag of bras that don’t fit The Undeliverable Bra Bag.

What a run around! I spoke to one woman in the post office and she took all the information I had like my name, address, the tracking number, the sender’s name and address too,  and at the end of the call said for me to stay home the next day – the parcel would be delivered then. Well, that day came and went, and I waited, but no one came to my door. I called the post office again.

The next person I spoke to was most unhelpful. She could not give a straight answer no matter what I asked her. I might get the parcel in a month, but there was no guarantee. That, definitely, without a doubt or hesitation, was a very frustrating phone call, and nothing resulted from it.

I think a weekend came at this point and I had to wait a few days before I could call again. The person I spoke with took all my information (again), and this time was very helpful. She assured me I had given enough information, and with the tracking information, was the person who was supposed to receive that package. Whew. I was told it would be on its way to me.

During all of this, I was in contact with the sender and author of the booklet. She was as anxious as I was for this parcel to be delivered. I’d shared every false-positive start I’d had.  We were both in waiting mode at this point.

The next I heard from the post office was a lovely official letter telling me that as the addressee I had no authority to start an investigation as to the whereabouts of this parcel! So, I contacted the post office again, but this time to ask why all the run around. Why was I being asked for information, providing it, being told that was enough, and then being told it wasn’t, later, in a letter. They apologized profusely at this point, and told me what information the sender needed to include to start an investigation from her post office in Australia.

All I can say is, 38 emails and 5 or 6 phone calls, a letter, and three months later, I got my parcel. The envelope it was in was pristine! Not a mark or tear on it; no label either. Somehow, that had gotten lost.

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But here it is now, on my desk. Now to finish that bodice sloper and get started on some fun projects in here!

And lastly, a bit a teaser. I’ve been playing with some lace placement.

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I bought this lace from Margreet’s Etsy store, Merckwaerdigh. She has so many beautiful lingerie sets.

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This may not show wonderfully, but this is the bridge. More pictures to come soon.

Happy Creating!

A Few Accomplishments!

~ Michelle

My husband and I went away last week for our 22nd anniversary. We found a wonderful deal at Christmas time and bought it and put it away for ourselves. We only live 4 hours from the Rocky Mountains, and it’s our favorite vacation spot. Our suite had a tremendous view! Just look at this:

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This was the view from the kitchen patio door. I could just sit and look out at that. We spent 4 days with that view, and although there was still snow on the ground, and we even woke up to snow one morning, it was still perfect!

I took a few projects on my trip that I wanted to complete while I was there. One project was to complete the measurements for a bodice sloper. That’s not a big deal, but for some reason those last few measurements just weren’t getting done. They’re done now, so I can work on that.

Another project was fingerless gloves. I was determined to get them done. (I know, Andrea, it’s a bit late in the season.) I’d looked at many patterns, and finally settled on one I found on Ravelry. These are based on the Vanilla Frappe Fingerless Gloves. You can find the pattern here.

I really liked the ‘body’ part of this pattern, and decided to do just that, with a scallop border on the top and bottom. The body is knit; I crocheted the borders, so mine look different than the originals, but I’m happy with them.

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I’ve sewn one, and one waiting to be sewn up.

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The ball of white yarn is to do some flowers or hearts or some type of embellishment.

So two projects done. I also took my sewing kit to tighten a button on my coat, but that’s still on my to-do list.

And when I got back I had one more accomplishment!

I worked on another bra. I knew the area that needed work – the bridge – so I tackled that as soon as I got home. And another success! I have the best fit I’ve tried for yet! Let me tell you, if you’ve never had a properly fitting bra – one where the bridge goes all the way back to the chest wall – well, it’s a different feeling. I’ve never felt that. It’s not uncomfortable, but it is different for me.

plunge bra prototype

When I started this bra, I have to admit, I wasn’t feeling super encouraged. It feels like there have been too many challenges along the way that left me less than hopeful. I even skipped some of the little finishing details on this bra – finishing details that made it onto all the other attempts I’d made. However, this one only needs minor tweaking. That has me excited!

One of those minor tweaks? The bridge can still come up about 1/4″. But that’s it’s. So now I need to look at plunge styles. I haven’t seen a lot of patterns for plunge bras. Does anyone know of any?

For this bra, I took my Sewy Rebecca pattern and made it into a Classic pattern. I also straightened the lower edge of the upper cup to get the most lift. I decided not to do a three or four piece cup on this so it would sew up more quickly, and also I don’t see a lot of plunge bras that have those features. So, once I had a basic Classic pattern, I used my trusty Bra Makers Manual to change the cup shape to a plunge style, or ‘fake’ demi-style.

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A very basic back, with the Prima Donna U-shaped back. I don’t think they’re the only ones doing this now, but I do remember them advertising this feature.

So a few little glitches I ran into while sewing this? You can see in the above picture that the back band is a bit smaller than the hook and eye closures. That’s a small adjustment. You can see it better here:

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That’s not a big deal – just a small tweak.

Another small tweak is the lower cup. I still have to make adjustments for the Omega shape, and need to fit a larger cup into a smaller wire. On this bra, (again) I didn’t put a lot of effort into it. So when it came time to fit the cup, I simply put a fold in the lower cup’s material. The cup still fits fine, and the seam line fit as well. I have altered the pattern with a dart to take out that excess on the next one I do.

plunge bra dart

You can see the tuck here. It shows more here than when I’m wearing it.

Bow to cover seam

Lastly, a tweak to make is my order of sewing if I do this style again. On this bra I had the cups sewn into the cradle and then looked and I still had to add the neckline trim. On a style like this, I think it would be better to do that before putting the cups into the bra. It works fine, but would be neater sewn the other way.

So, I’m very happy to say I’ve had SUCCESS! It feels really good to know I’m there with just a few minor tweaks now. Whew! I said a long time ago that I hoped my journey would encourage someone else not to give up! How long has it taken me?

Here’s to happy & successful creating!

Changes in the Wind

~ Michelle

I’ve posted many photos of jewelry I’ve made recently in the classes I teach. I’ve really enjoyed taking people through the steps of making each project. I’ve also really enjoyed seeing them learn and make their own creations. However, all this is about to change, and I’m not sure I like the changes being proposed. It seems, in the classroom, I will no longer be making jewelry. Going forward I am expected to explain how to make jewelry using large photos which illustrate it. I’m not fond of this change and am thinking a change in employment will be coming soon.

Another change I experienced this past week was to lose my Lifestyle Coach. She’s no longer working with my physician, so no longer available to me. She helped me through a really rough health patch a few years ago, and I’ve been with her for 6 years. I will really miss her. As I was leaving the office and giving her a hug goodbye, she commented on the abstract poinsettia brooch I had on my coat. I took it off and gave it to her without a second thought.

I have no regrets about giving a gift to a friend, however, my coat now looked quite plain. So I pulled out my felt again, and sat and came up with a couple felt brooches to dress up my coat. I find hand-sewing to be very relaxing.

I’ll count this as part of a commitment I made to myself to make (at least) one project each month. I am on track for that with these, but it’s still early in March, so I plan to get something else sewn up. Hopefully I’ll resolve that bra alteration in my mind and get that off my desk and sewn up!

Here’s the first felt brooch I made. Quite similar to the other abstract poinsettia brooch, but this time I used some deep red with a black polka dot on it. It’s really charming felt.

red polka dot brooch

This one came off my coat for the photo shoot here.

The next one is very similar, but I changed the shape a little. I wanted it a more uniform shape.

pink zebra brooch

I LOVE this felt! It is so fun and flirty.

And the last one I changed the design again.

leopard print brooch

I had fun with all of these, and really do enjoy sitting down and doing some hand-sewing. I bought some Swarovski Hot Fix crystals and I’m going to add some bling to these.

Something helpful I’ve realized about myself while writing this blog is I really like to think things through before I decide to do anything. I don’t think I realized how much internal discussion I had with myself before making a decision. For example, I’m still contemplating the bridge on that bra alteration. I’ve even re-drawn it but am still contemplating it.  And I’m not ready to start cutting fabric on that project yet.

What’s next on my project list? Well, I do want to continue with the two sloper classes I’ve signed up for on Craftsy, and tomorrow I’m heading over to a friend’s to help her with a sloper too. Seems like slopers are next. And that bridge. I will get them done!

Happy creating!