Welcome to a new year! I really do  love a new year with all the potential opportunities we have ahead of us.

What plans do you have? I have many sewing projects that have been waiting for me, so I’m thinking I will start with some of those. I have too many pretty bra kits and patterns to stay away from bra-making for too long though. Hmm. Maybe one project and one bra?

One of my first goals is to get some pants to fit well. I have a big challenge though. I have a condition called Lipedema. It’s not nice. It’s painful, and causes me to gain weight on my lower body. This has caused a 15-inch difference between my waist and hips.

At present, I’m only able to find elastic waisted pants that will fit me. But I would like to try and make pants too. I’m sure I’m going to need elastic in the waist still, but a plain front might look dressier. Or an actual pair of dress pants! I can’t tell you the last time I wore a nice pair of dress pants.

So I’m looking at something like the Largo Cargos or the Duet Trousers by Love Notions.   I’ll let you know how this part of my journey goes.  So that is one goal I have for 2024.

Another goal I have is to make a doll. I’ve already bought all the supplies I need for one. I just have to sit down and actually do this now.

Here is the site that has inspired me: MayaWaldorfDoll on Etsy.  This beautiful doll is from her site. So lovely, and so inspiring. I’ll share more resources for doll-making later.

Lastly, I have a few Laura Heine collage quilting projects that have been waiting for me.   I love this! It’s so charming, and reminds me of the villages both my mother and father were from.

 And lastly, these adorable stockings.   My thoughts are if I get started on some of these non-bra projects sooner rather than later in 2024, they have a chance of getting completed!

You all know my heart is in bra-making. But I’ve bought these other projects, and they’re sitting waiting for me. It’s time!

One last comment. Do you remember the matching undies I made for my son and DIL last year? 

  Well, the kids were over for dinner for Christmas and took me aside. Then they flashed me their matching hips! They had on their Christmas kitten undies!  I never expected to see them wearing them.

Have you thought about what you want from 2024? What sewing goals or plans do you have for 2024? I’d love to hear. 

Happy New Year, and Happy Creating!

I thought I’d do a quick review to wrap up 2023. So, I’ll make it short and sweet. The year started out with Josey, but then I tried Freja and love it! There’s also the Brenda Brief pictured here, and it’s a really lovely panty pattern.

  My Frejas included a silk bra, and all of these lovelies as well. One of them turned out to be a surprise favorite of mine.

A few more gorgeous Freja bras. Another favorite or two in this grouping.

  Here’s one last bra that didn’t fit into the collages. So pretty!

Bras weren’t all I made this year though. I had to make panties to go with all these lovely bras.Lastly, there were the tops I made when I took the TomKat Stitchery fitting course. I’m still working on the pants part of the course.

Lastly, one final project from 2023. My silk tap pants.

It was a great sewing year!

Happy Creating & Happy New Year!    

I was looking at the blog posts I had coming up, and realized I missed one of my makes. I’m not sure how I missed them as they’re a favorite of mine, but I did miss them.

I made some lovely lavender Clover Boy Briefs to go with my new bright bra. And I have decided my favorite panty pattern is the Clover, so I naturally pulled out my favorite pattern. Oh, I think these are cute!

Here’s the side view. And of course the back view.     I had thought these would go really well with my bright bra, but it just so happens they also go well with my platinum bra! These coordinate very well, but just for fun look at these panties with the platinum bra. That little bit of purple in the lace makes this matching more fun, and a bit less matchy-matchy.

Happy creating!

For my knit top in the TomKat Stitchery fitting class, I now had a few new alterations to add to my Concord Tee.

If you haven’t seen the Concord Tee, here it is.

It’s a basic tee with a few options. What I love most about it is it goes up to a G cup in sizing – and I don’t have to do a FBA!

So, I learned I need a narrow shoulder adjustment from making the woven top. Then once I made my knit top, I learned I also need a gaping neckline adjustment, and a sway back adjustment.

Where was all this information when I was learning to sew in school? I don’t remember having to making any adjustments then. I also don’t remember wearing anything I made, so that might be why.

I didn’t want to break out new material to test these adjustments, so thankfully I had just enough fabric left over from my first tee shirt.

This sleeveless tee has all my adjustments. And it fits quite well. If I want to improve it even more I’ll add 1/4″ to the gaping neckline adjustment, and 1/2″ to the sway back one.

However, a big part of this course is to not overfit. This is wearable and fits quite well. I’m learning to be happy without everything having to be perfect. Along with the side view I captured some ghosting in the lighting. The pretty pink bra peeking out is my favorite Prima Donna Milady that I bought and is too small. Still it’s getting use on my display form and is inspiring me.

And the back.     I noticed putting it on the display form that my back and its back are different! The alterations I made caused it to fit just a little more awkwardly. Ah, it’s for me not the display.

Next in the course are knit pants and woven pants. It will be interesting!

Happy creating!

After I finished my Cashmerette Concord Tee, I sent a photo to Whitney, the instructor at TomKat Stitchery. I really wasn’t happy with all the bunching in front of my arms. What was this?

I did mention this alteration in my post about the Montrose woven top. I need a gaping neck alteration. It was actually this make that helped us figure out I needed this adjustment.

I would NEVER had figured this out by the name. What does this area have to do with the neckline? If you want to see how this alteration is done, you can see it here.

  So although there is gaping, this is still a perfectly wearable top. Or a wearable muslin as it’s called in the class.

Here’s the full top.

I do love this fabric. This was from B,Wear a few years ago. I had saved it for the perfect project and this was it.

Here’s the side view. The top has a nice scoop neckline, with 3/4 sleeves.

And the back.   So, although there is some gaping/bunching up of material, I’ve worn this a few times already.  I love it.

Happy creating!

I’m still loving the Freja pattern. I decided I had some pretty colors, it was time for a nice basic black bra. Well, not too basic.Isn’t this pretty? I really love the lace. It has a barely there look to it with delicate floral outlines and just a hint of color on the petals.

I also love how delicate the lace edge is.Oh, I like that. Who knew lace addiction was a real thing?

Here’s the side view.   And lastly, here’s the back view.  As I said, it is basic, but it’s a very pretty basic black.

I had cut out a second black bra from a kit I bought from Emerald Erin. The lace is the loveliest lace. I had everything cut and ready to sew on my cutting board when I saw an announcement from B,Wear.

They have brought in a new color of elastics. Pistachio. I ordered a couple of kits. It’s too pretty to resist. I think it will go perfectly with my second black bra, so it’s current waiting for the mail to arrive.

I’ll share it as soon as it’s finished.

Happy creating!

Hello all! Just a short sweet post to let you know Etsy is having a sale.

Today and tomorrow only. $10 off a purchase of $40.

I know I have a few things I’ve been looking at. Time to save a couple of pennies! 

Happy shopping. 

I have a lace addiction. There doesn’t seem to be any support groups to help with this – just a wonderful bra-making community that all shares this same addiction.

Well, I saw this lace and had to have it.I love it.

I thought it would wonderful with lilac, but I just made that gorgeous Vibrant bra with lilac. So I wanted something else. I dug in my stash and found some platinum duoplex and it works perfectly with this lace! I love it! I’m much happier with it than I even thought I’d be.

That little pop of purple in the lace. The black embroidered flowers. It’s so pretty. This bra doesn’t have the flash and pop of color the Vibrant bra did from the side or back, but they can’t all be vibrant. I’m really going to have to get busy sewing some panties to match all these bras I’ve made.It’s just a lovely platinum back.

After years of RTW bras in either beige or black, I love having all these colors.

One last photo collage of this pretty platinum Freja bra.    Hmm. Even my display needs matching panties!

B,Wear had this lace as one of their August Kit of the Month options.

Happy creating!

I saw this kit on B,Wear’s site and it’s simply called Vibrant bra kit. And it is vibrant! It’s gorgeous!I saw it and loved it immediately. I knew I wanted to have a beautiful bra using this vibrant kit.

Again, I’m making the Pin-Up Girls Freja pattern. It’s my current love.Oh! (you’ve heard this before) I love this! I was thinking as I was finishing this bra that it doesn’t seem to matter how many bras I’ve made, I still fall in love over and over with the lace, and the pattern, or how it looks when it’s finished.

Here’s the side view:That peek of fuchsia elastic is just gorgeous! I love that.

It’s even lovely and vibrant from the back.I’m not done making a new bra wardrobe using the Freja pattern. I have two more kits sitting on my cutting table ready to be made up into more pretty bras.

I need to make some matching panties to go with all these lovely new bras. I’m a bit behind on those. You’ll see those soon.I recently purchased the Josey bra pattern for my niece. I don’t know if you’re aware, but according to an email I received from La Bella Coppia, the Josey pattern will no longer be available after the end of this year. Her website will be closing sometime in September.

The Josey is still one of my favorite patterns. If you don’t have it, there’s still time to get it for yourself.

Happy creating!