I’m really loving my Josey Milady (named after my best-fitting bra pattern and Prima Donna’s lovely Milady bra). In fact, I find myself reaching for these ones that I’ve made more than any others in the bra drawer. I think I need more of them.

This one is inspired by the most gorgeous lace, and my recent Brenda Brief panties.  I really like these panties. So really wanted to make something to coordinate.

My newest Josey Milady.This gorgeous lace comes from B,Wear.

I love the red and black together.   Oh, I love this combination.

  A lot of my inspiration comes from RTW bras, and this one is no exception. I love the Fantasie Leona bra. Here’s the inspiration.

And here’s my take on it.I hope you all have wonderful inspirations that you bring to life.

Happy creating!

For anyone who’s followed my blog for a while, you know my favorite RTW bra of all time. If you’re new to my blog, well, it’s the Prima Donna Milady.

Isn’t this pretty? It’s a lovely lace cup with a 3/4 inner foam cup. It’s comfortable, and gives great support and lift. But it never did fit me because the wires were too big.

It’s long been a desire of mine to clone it, but I just didn’t want to do all the work. By that I mean, clone a bra that doesn’t fit me, then do all the adjustments to modify it to fit me. It sounded like a lot of work I didn’t feel like doing.

Then I had an idea. Why not use my very well-fitting Josey bra pattern to make my own Milady. It turned out perfectly!I used this is from a lovely kit I found on BMS.I used the lace for the whole cup so it would look more similar style-wise to the PD Milady.I love how the lace details lined up on the cup pieces. Trust me, that was a happy accident. I didn’t have that much material for cutting them, so didn’t follow the Dogs on the pattern for cutting those cup pieces. What a happy occurrence.  Yes, I’m very very happy with how this turned out. I’m sure there will be more Josey Miladys soon.

One last photo since the foam really doesn’t show in the photos. Here’s one I took a photo of the inside of the bra.Oops, I see the channeling popped out from under the upper band elastic. I guess I’m not quite done this bra yet.

Happy creating!

Over the years, I purchased a few vintage patterns, and even if I don’t make them up, I enjoy seeing how they’re made, and what things have changed over the years.

One day a few months ago, I saw a neat vintage lingerie kit on eBay. I couldn’t resist!I would have loved this if it had been the bra kit! However, this was the long leg girdle. It’s not anything I will make to wear myself, but still. As I said, I couldn’t resist it.Doesn’t this look amazing?

Even though I wasn’t planning on making this up, I was still excited to open it and look at everything. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. It’s old. It’s discolored. It’s very stiff and rigid.

Here’s everything that was in the kit. The pattern and instructions are in great shape. But the fabrics leave a lot to be desired.The power net was the oddest part of the kit. It was so stiff and had no drape to it. It was also discolored from age.

  Can you see the discoloration at the bottom of this piece of power net? The whole folded side was this yellowish color.

The tricot that was included in the kit was still lovely. No age showing on it at all.

The lace  and elastics were stiff and aged as well. Other than the pattern and instructions, these girdle clips were the only good part of this vintage kit.

It was  a fun trip down the vintage lingerie lane, but for the most part I’ll stick to newer patterns and materials.

Happy creating!

I’m back! It feels so good to be sewing pretties and blogging again.

I have one of the new patterns BMS recently released. The Freja pattern.  It is a really nice pattern. It came together easily, and fits well for a first attempt. I’ve been wearing it, so it’s fitting well enough.This is made from a copper bra kit I had. Oh, I love this color, and I’m rather loving this bra too.

I made my usual alterations for Omega. I’m using a 4.25 cradle, with a 5.25 cup. I removed some of the excess along the wire line at each seam. Overall, I’m really happy with this.

I love the shape of the lace, and the look of the whole bra. This copper color is such a gorgeous color.

Not too much to see here at the back. It’s a tad too long. I’m wearing it on the middle hook and eye, and could probably wear it on the tighest one.

It’s also a tad small in the inner cup. I can adjust both of these easily.

It really showed that I haven’t been sewing for a while when I sat down and started to sew. I broke three needles right off the bat. It didn’t take too much longer for me to get my sewjo back though, and not break any more needles.

   Happy creating!

Hello again! I had a friend contact me saying, ‘it’s been a while since I’ve seen a blog post of yours.’ Well, sadly, I got sick at the beginning of February, and was still sick when March rolled around. I’m mostly better now, but my energy hasn’t come back.

So, while I’m not sewing, how about I show you a few new patterns.

There’s this adorable Garter Belt Collection from BMS.  

Today I saw today two new patterns from BMS.

The Freya bra pattern, and the Frieda partial band pattern. I’m excited about the Freya pattern because there is a RTW bra I’ve long admired. The Freya Dreamcatcher bra. Oh, I like this. 

Well, it just so happens that B,Wear’s April kit of the month is this exact fabric!     I know one of the first bras I’m going to want to sew when I get some energy and sewjo back. Until then, I’ll happily buy another beautiful bra kit, and a new pattern that work towards my goal.

Happy creating!

There are a few lovely bra patterns out there that I’ve yet to try. However, before I tried them, I had to figure out all the changes to my size over the last few years.

All the work on the fitting band, and getting the right wire, I was ready to try one of those pretty new-to-me patterns. I chose the Josey pattern for my first new pattern to try.Version 2 of the Josey pattern was released last week, so it was perfect timing for me to try the newer version too. It has quite a few adjustments done to the pattern.

The first thing I did was to sew up a test cup. I know my band and wires are good now. It was time to dig into my stash and find some bits that were left over from other projects and test the cup.

I found the perfect amount of duoplex, and some lace for my test cup.It’s very pretty, but it’s a tad too small across the cup.Just as the inside of the cup doesn’t cover all of the foam cup underneath it, it doesn’t reach all the way across to where it would meet my bridge.

If you remember how I was going to hack my frame from two different sizes, I’m thinking of doing the same thing with the Josey pattern.

Above is a frame that fits a 38 wire (pencil), and a  40 wire (pink pencil). The heavy dotted line is where the two sizes blend together.

Seeing as I need to make Omega adjustments, I don’t really want to go with a bigger bottom cup, so don’t want a bigger size for that. However, I do need more room about mid-way and at the top of the cup. A larger size there might just be perfect.

I’ll play with it a little this week and let you know.

Happy creating!

I’ve finished draft number four in the Bare Essentials method, and I think I’ve got it.There are still one of two little changes to make. I’ll want to move the apex in, and the strap attachment as well.

Other than that, I’m ready to start manipulating my sloper into a pretty bra pattern.

I checked and rechecked the bridge on this one to make sure it was fitting just right. I couldn’t find a gap anywhere. I even made the cups and frame in sheer cup lining so I could see everything under the bra. I know now that the bottom of the bridge is wide enough, and the top of the bridge is narrow enough now.

You can see in the above photo just how far over the strap attachment is. That’s way too close to the underarm area, so I’ll change my pattern on that next.

I don’t have any changes for the back, unless I decide to make the back strap attachment closer to the middle of the back.

The next part of the process is what I’ve really been wanting to learn – how to manipulate the sloper. This is completely different than anything I’ve learned so far, and I’m quite excited to get to this point. The next few weeks should be very exciting for me.

Happy creating!

I’m back with a short update. I’ve been doing a little sewing. Oh, it feels so good to sew again after a long time of barely any sewing.

Last year, when I was doing the BMS Challenge, I had to make myself sew. And I was really forcing myself to do it.

But my sewjo is coming back, and I’m so happy.

The first change that helped was I got a much better cutting table. Can you believe I was using a drying rack with peg board on top, and then my cutting mats. It worked, but it was starting to not work. The weight on the top was making the ends bend downward. Before it broke completely, I decided it was time for a table.  It’s just a folding table, but I’ve got it up on bed risers. I saw this little trick at Emmaline Bags‘ storefront. It works great! And I’m loving the storage underneath.

Having this all set up just made me want to sew something, so I decided to finish the collage quilt I started last year.This is Laura Heine‘s Pasley Bear. I had this great woodland cotton I thought would be the perfect background. It’s like my little Pasley Bear is in the forest. I thought that would be the happiest place for him.

You can see, I’m not quite done. The quilting on this is done, but it’s not backed yet. That will be next.

As always, Happy creating!

If you’ve been following my blog, I want to say, ‘Thank you’. I really appreciate you joining me on my journey.

I’ve decided I need to take a break for the time being. I’ve been dealing with some life-changing events that seemed to happen all at once in 2019. I need to redirect my energy and focus for a season.

But I want you to know, blogging is a wonderful part of my life, and having ‘met’ so many wonderful people through my blog, I know I won’t be gone forever.

I’m looking forward to Happy Creating again soon.