Alterations

A Pink and Ivory Rebecca

~ Michelle

In my efforts to decide if I prefer the Sewy Rebecca pattern or the Pin-Up Girls Shelley pattern, I made another Rebecca. I know I love my last Shelley bra, and wanted another comparison with a few more adjustments made to the Rebecca.

This time I used a little bit of lace that was left over from a bra I’d made for a friend. And I mean there was just a little bit of lace. There was just barely enough for the upper cups – no mirroring the lace here, but they’re close – and then I had to get creative with the scraps that were left over to use them to make matching panties.

Here’s my very pretty Pink and Ivory Rebecca:

Front

This is so pretty! I love this lace and have looked for it again, but… I can’t find it anywhere. I’d bought it at Bra-Makers Supply, and I haven’t seen it since. I’m ready to start hoarding lace! This is a lovely pink lace with very distinct ivory or cream in it. And it goes so well with the ivory Duoplex and Power net.

Pretty Side

On the side view, you can see where I added just a thin strip of lace that was left over. It doesn’t take a lot of lace here to make the side look so much prettier.

Back

And a basic back. I’m still using my alternate method of attaching the straps. I use some of the bottom band elastic on the outside of the band and fold that over the top of the band with a slider attached to it. Using the elastic here allows more stretch and movement than the strap elastic, it also conforms to the U-shape more smoothly. I also use two sliders rather than a slider and ring. I find the strap has a little less movement and making it less likely for the strap to fall off my shoulder.

So, what alterations did I do to the Rebecca to make it fit me?

The first changes I made were to the bridge – I know I have to lower it 1/2″, and an adjust for a flat spot on the bridge too. I also changed the cradle to a smaller cradle that normally takes a 36 wire rather than the 42 cradle the cup needs.

I thought about making small darts in the pattern to take out the excess, and although I love that neater look, I’m finding it does compromise the cup’s fit a bit. I need the extra space those darts take away. So, I put in gathers along the wire line.

The photo below shows the excess cup compared to the cradle. I have to make that all fit.

Excess Cup

This photo shows the gathers in the wire line seam. I run a long gathering stitch along the wire line, pull the bottom thread to make small gathers all along the bottom of the cup. Then I sew the cup to the cradle. It works very well, and although there is still the odd little wrinkle where a gather is showing, steaming it well with the iron really does make most of those gathers disappear.

Gathers

I used the Flexible wires again on this bra. They do make a difference in the fit. They are long enough for me, and conform well to the shape of the smaller channeling and cradle. However, they are not the easiest to get into that narrower U-shaped cradle. I had to fight with them a little. I told myself they are worth the effort. And once they are in, I don’t need to take them out again for a long time.

The inside of the bra is so pretty with its enclosed seams. I really do love that aspect of the Rebecca pattern.

Pretty Inside

And one last detail:

Clearer Crystal

I sewed a pretty crystal in the inverted V of the bridge. It has movement and does move a bit. It’s so pretty when it catches the light.

Next week some matchy matchy – matching panties.

Happy creating!

An Image is Worth a Thousand Words

~ Michelle

If you’re reading along, don’t worry. This isn’t going to be a long post. I’m simply going to post a few pictures of the bras I’ve made with the alterations – smaller at underarm and now, smaller wire.

Beige Full Band F Cup D wire front view

I’m using the Classic Pin-Up Girls pattern here. You can see a bit of the ‘easing’ at the bottom of the cup, but nothing that can be seen under clothing.

Beige Full Band F Cup D wire side view

This shows the ‘ease’ much better. As well, a little elastic detail I added to the side band.

As I said in a previous post, I don’t LOVE this. It works, but I don’t like the look of those little gatherings around the cup.  The alteration I prefer is the small darts at seam lines. However, this means I need more seam lines to make those little darts.

I changed my basic Pin-Up Girls pattern to one shown on the Bra-Makers Supply’s web site: the Shelley bra. They have a DVD you can buy that shows how to make the alterations for this pattern. The DVD is called Designer Bras by YOU. Here’s the link for it: DVD

So, here was my first attempt at the Shelley bra:

Shelly Full Band Front view

I LOVE the lace!

Shelly Full Band side view

Again, just to mention it, my dress form and I are not the same size, so any wrinkles on her are not on me. But something I really like are the lack of little gathers all around the cup. I really prefer this look. I think this will be the pattern I use most often now.

And that last little alteration. Well, it’s next. I should have my perfect bra then.

And one last comment: All of the jewelry shown on the dress form is not designed by Noble Jewelry Designs. It is simply being used to dress up the dress form.

Happy creating!

The Dawn of the Alteration Age

~ Michelle ~ 3 Comments

After a few bras, I made a call to Bra-Makers Supply with a question. You see, every bra I wore, whether RTW or one I’d made, all left a line or imprint about an inch or so under the bust line. I was simply wondering what caused this.

Beverly, the owner of Bra-Makers Supply, and author of two manuals on bra-making gave me my answer: the underwires I was using were either too big or too small. She said the best way to check the size of the underwires was by lifting my arm over my head.

I was off to the bedroom to stand in front of the mirror to test this new bit of information. And to my surprise and dismay, my underwires did NOT fit me. They were quite a bit too big. I had been wearing a size 44 wire. It was the same size as had been in the RTW bras I’d bought – I know, I took them apart.

So now I had to find out what size of wire I needed. I ordered a few wires to see what would fit. It turns out there are 4 sizes difference between what fits me and what I was wearing! But the cups were fitting correctly, so what did this mean?

wire difference

This image shows the difference in the wire sizes between what I had been using and what I am using now.

Well, I went back to my very-well-used manuals: The Bra-Makers Manual Vol 1 & 2. Both manuals explain about one particular fitting problem described as an Omega shape. This shape is smaller at the base (hence why a smaller wire is needed). The manual also gives some information on fitting for this. I had to alter things again – but this time it wasn’t the pattern.

I really can’t recommend these manuals enough. After my first attempt at bra-making, I had a fitting issue. I went to the manuals and saw what I needed to change AND how to do just that.

My first alterations were to shorten the underarm area both in the upper and lower cup. That gave me a very good fit.

Upper Cup Alteration

This photo shows how I shortened the underarm area. My cup pattern is on top, the original pattern is on the bottom. I did this both to the upper and lower cups at the under arm.

Now I was going to attempt changing the wire size. This now meant I had to put a larger cup into a smaller wire frame. For this, I’m having to build some ‘ease’ into the cup. To do this, I either run some gathering stitches around the lower outside edge of the cup or put small darts at seam lines – which I like better.

This has given me the best fit yet. But I still have one little area I want to correct. Now that the fit is almost perfect for me, I’m noticing I need to bring in the apex a little bit.

I think that will be the next project.

Happy creating!