Ruby for the Challenge

August 4, 2018August 3, 2018 ~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

This is a long post. I’ll warn you right up front. But I had a lot to share on the new Pin-up Girls’ Ruby pattern.

I had no time for the June Bra-makers Challenge. I was testing two patterns – you’ve seen the Ingrid pattern. There’s another new pattern coming in just a few days. I’ll post about that in a couple of days.

As well, I had to make the Knotty Pants as soon as that pattern was released, and I’m loving them.

But, I am trying to fit the challenge in again this month. To do that, I’m combining two things for this post – I’m trying the new Ruby pattern, and I’m making Ruby for my Bra-makers Challenge submission.

The Challenge

The July Challenge was Your Birthday Suit, and the challenge was to work with sheer fabrics.This pattern has quite a few options listed. Foam-lined or all fabric. Underwired or wire-free. The bras I’ve seen sewn up are lovely! Here’s one from the BMS website:This is so pretty!

Ruby for the Challenge

Here’s my Ruby/July Challenge. I think she’s she’s lovely!I’ve made this with sheer cup lining, and black elastics. I think it works very well together.

Here’s the side view.Ruby has a lovely shape. It’s definitely a rounder shape to the cups.

The upper cup on this pattern is shorter. A shorter upper cup helps to give more lift.This pattern calls for 1/2-inch elastic for the bottom band, which is a bit of a change for me. I usually use 3/4-inch elastic. However, this is still supportive.

It also uses 3/8-inch elastic for the upper band. Another smaller elastic choice for me.

Here’s the back of the bra.Ruby doesn’t have fabric straps. For mine, because this is a tester to see how it will fit, I only used strap elastic. However, the pattern suggests sewing some ribbon over the elastic at the front for more support.How the straps attach on the Ruby is different too. The strap is attached to the ring at the front, giving it a lovely modern look.

Another feature Ruby has is the fold over elastic along the upper cup.It’s so sleek and modern-looking!

This photo shows just how sheer my Ruby really is. She’s lovely.

Impressions of Ruby

My first impressions of Ruby are it’s a lovely pattern. It went together easily, with no problems at all. It does go together a little differently than Shelley, which I’m so used to making, but then it’s a different pattern. The two patterns have different neckline finishes, different straps, and a different cup shape.

I do think I’m going to enjoy Ruby and make another one soon. In fact, I already have a kit to make one.

Made for Omega?

I’d read somewhere that Ruby had sewing lines for Omega shapes. I quick email to Bra-makers Supply let me know this is not the case. There are seam lines marked on the pattern. However, those seam line could be used as a guide to adjust the pattern for Omega shapes.

This photo below shows a bit of the pattern with the seam lines pointed out. I’ve drawn in a curved red line where one could adjust the pattern if you’re an Omega shape.This adjustment I’m showing would shave off 1/4-inch from the wire line, but leave the fullness of the cup. You could shave off a 1/4-inch from other cup pieces too – as many as you needed.

PSA

Do you read all of the instructions before you start a project? I don’t always read them all, and I should!

I had read through the beginning of the pattern, and traced off the Fabric pattern pieces because I wasn’t using foam cups. Then I altered the front frame, and the cups to fit my shape.

After doing that, I was looking through the pattern for the instructions for sewing fabric only. I found them on page four – there are only four pages of instruction.

Imagine my surprise when I read this:Hello? What’s this? Remember? Remember what? I didn’t read this anywhere!

So I go back to the beginning, and I read all the beginning instructions again. Nothing.

I read it again. I’m still not seeing anything.

All I could think was I’ve spent all this time tracing the pattern, altering the pattern, and cutting it out only for it to be the wrong size?

Well, it is there. It’s in the first paragraph… which I didn’t read.I saw, ‘Thank you…’, and skipped right past that paragraph to get to work.

I’ve highlighted it now so I won’t be able to miss that again. I may mark on the Fabric pattern pieces too so there’s no way I can overlook this vital bit of information again.

As a result of my oversight, my Ruby is a little small for me. All the adjustments I made worked out perfectly though. And this being sheer cup lining, it does have a little more stretch than duoplex. It almost fits. However, I will need that next size up.

I’m off to alter the next cup size…

Happy creating!

A Sports Bra Muslin and a Few More Plans

September 5, 2015December 27, 2017 ~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

I’m starting to work out with a Personal Fitness Trainer. You’d think if your son is a Trainer, you’d get free training, but no. He said part of his education was enforcing repeatedly that they are not to give their services away for free. I do understand that. It’s the same as people wanting me to sew for free. I rarely offer that. My boy is charging both me and his Dad. We do want to support him and we want to get in better shape, so it’s a win-win.

Working out brings a whole new set of challenges for me: sports bras. From my reading in the Bra-Makers Manuals, I need more support than a compression-type of sports bra will offer. Anyone over a C cup does as well, which I bet is a surprise to many women out there. I haven’t seen much in terms of sports bras that aren’t compression, and they never fit me very well, but that’s all I’ve seen in the stores and all I’ve ever been able to buy in the past.

The other type of sports bra mentioned in the manual is the encapsulated style of sports bra. Bra-Makers Supply just happens to have a pattern for one too. The Pin-Up Girls Kerri Sports bra.

Kerri%20Sport%20Bra (2)

BMS advertises this as a ‘no bounce’ bra. That sounds great! They say the design is based on an Indian sari blouse – using darts to give the shape. It’s all sounding good… until I consider my shape and alterations needs.

I bought the pattern and some gorgeous fabrics to make the bra. But before I’m cutting that gorgeous fabric, I made a muslin. Actually, I made two. I made the first one in my normal cup size, but then after re-reading the sizing information again, I realized I could fit into a smaller size and (hopefully) have fewer or less drastic adjustments to make. So I made a second muslin right away after making the first one and made it two sizes smaller.

Front-Size-look-right

I have this tried on over one of my bras that fits, with foam in it to fill it out. Looking at this, the strap looks the right length, the front center looks good, the cup depth looks good.

Slight-Gap-underarm

You can see here there’s a little pucker at the underarm, but I usually need a dart there. Remember, this is as is – no adjustments yet – just so I can see what I’m going to have to change or adjust.

Gap-Under-Bust-from-front

The next thing to do was to try it on me. I tried it on over my bra so I had something to pin it to. The shoulder strap could be shortened 1/4″, and I’ve pinned out the excess on me under the bust, which isn’t quite as drastic as on Catherine my dress form. I’m pretty much straight from my underbust to my waist, but she keeps going in. I was out of material to make another muslin, so a trip to the fabric store was in order.

I won’t buy regular muslin material. It’s $15/meter and never on sale. That’s just too expensive. I look for any non-stretch material, so if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you’ve seen many patterned muslins on my posts. This time it was just some basic black cotton. I got a great deal – buy one get two for free. They actually gave me a choice – the material was 60% off, so I could chose to pay for three meters at that price, or pay full price for one meter and get two meters for free. The first way it would have been $28.80 for the 3 meters, the second way I paid $16. I love deals! Guess which one I chose?

While I was there, I also picked up material for my next sewing project (after I get my sports bra done) – The Conference Tote Bag. There’s a sew-along that’s happened already, but all the information is still on the web site right now. The video on the web page shows many of the beautiful bags people have made. I heard so many great things about it and I’ve wanted to make a bag for a long time now. It became my next project.

Here’s the material I chose for my Conference Tote Bag.

material for conference tote

I knew I wanted black and gold, and I looked at a lot of options for my second color. Then I saw the material on top. Everything is outlined in gold as well. I love them together. They look better in person than the photo shows even. Going into fall, I didn’t want anything bright. I’ll save that for spring. The rest of what I need for my bag isn’t on sale for another few weeks, so I’ll have to be patient. It will give me lots of time to finish my sports bra and establish my exercise routine.

One last mention, the Bra-A-Week Challenge is back in the hands of the ever-talented Erin. Pop over to Erin’s blog to see all the incredible makes this week!

Happy creating!

Pretty in Pinks Panties and The Bra-A-Week Challenge

July 26, 2015December 27, 2017 ~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

A pretty new bra deserves some matching panties. I went back to my TNT panty pattern, Kwik Sew 2286, and made a few modifications to the original pattern to make my panties.

Making these panties with the horizontal lace is really easy. Here’s what I do.

1. Re-draw the front pattern piece because you’re going to cut it up.

2. Lay your lace over the new front pattern piece. My pink lace was packed away, so I used the lace I had out for this photo. Your laces may be different heights, 5″ or 6″ or less even.

3. Because they can be different heights, do this step for each lace you use. Draw a line where the lace ends. Cut your lace the width of the front pattern.

4. Re-draw the lower front piece now – adding 1/4″ seam allowance.

Here it is. This is now your new front pattern.

I fold the lace to find the center front, and fold the bottom front material as well. Mark them both with a pin and match them up overlapping by that 1/4″. You can see at the top of my pattern in the photo above, I use a Zigzag stitch to attach them together. It’s not hard at all to hack your favorite panties and made new styles and still get your favorite fit.

I put these new pattern pieces in a new envelope just for themselves, so I can pull them out and re-use them when I want to make that style again, being careful to make sure the lace is the same height.

One last bit from me before we move onto the Bra-A-Week Challenge. Remember my bridge from last week, and how I felt it needed some bling?

I added a few crystals with my Hotfix tool. They may not cover up that little pucker, but they do make the bridge look much prettier. I didn’t stop there though.

I added a crystal to each strap. Can there ever be too much bling or lace?

Now onto the challenge. We’re on week 28 of the Bra-A-Week Challenge.

Our first submission comes from Andie.

Andie made a beautiful bra she’s called her Sailor Mercury bra.

Isn’t that lovely? It’s made from teal duoplex, white findings kit, white power net, and white power mesh lining the lace from Bra-Maker’s Supply. The white lace is re-purposed from a nightgown Andie had used for a cosplay project last year.

I love re-purposing things. It’s so creative and it’s also so very pretty.

Andie also embroidered Sailor Mercury’s symbol on the right back strap to really make it her Sailor Mercury bra.

I love that! I hadn’t thought of using embroidery stitches on my bra to make it even more unique. What a great idea, Andie!

You can read more about Andie Sailor Mercury bra on her blog: Sew Pretty In Pink.

Our next submission comes from Erin.

This is a full band bra, full coverage with extra long wires. It has horizontal seaming, with a split lower cup. Erin made it using a lightweight stable knit, power net for the back band and 15 denier to line the bridge for stability.

Erin, that looks like such a fabulous fit and it looks so soft and comfortable.

I love the bow. You can read more about Erin’s bra on her blog: The Sewing and Life Adventures of Emerald Erin.

Our next submission is from David. Here David made a foam cup bra.

Wow. That is really beautiful. It definitely has the Va-Va-Voom factor.

It’s so beautiful. David is a freelance lingerie designer.

What wonderful submissions this week! If you haven’t looked at the Pinterest board for the Bra-A-Week Challenge, you can see many of the past weeks’ submissions all at once and get lots of inspiration.

Happy creating!

Matching Panties for A Modern Floral Shelley and The Bra-A-Week Challenge

July 12, 2015December 27, 2017 ~ Michelle ~ 16 Comments

This week I have a couple of pair of panties I made to co-ordinate with my Modern Floral Shelley.

I love cotton, and this Indigo cotton spandex is from Bra-Makers Supply. The lace is from the Merckwaerdigh kit I used for the bra, and the elastics are from Frog Feathers on Etsy.

2 panties

On the first pair I made I used a bit of the lace I used from the bra and then some Ivory lace elastics – Ivory also being a color also in the Lycra. I’d wondered if maybe there was too much lace, but then decided there can never be too much lace. I love them. They’re so comfortable.

Too much lace

The second pair, which is my favorite style to make, uses the same lace from the kit for the whole front panel. On this pair I used Navy lace elastics.

Fav style of panties

Both pairs of panties are from my TNT panty pattern – Kwik Sew 2286, which I have fun with by changing the lines or style, but using the pattern as a base or starting point.

I also picked up a couple of pair of panties in some coordinating colors, not so much because I wanted or needed the panties, but to clone them for patterns. I really like the top pair – how the back part of the panty wraps right around the front in a little V across the hip, and the lace elastic in the design. Very pretty. The bottom pair is simply a high cut style, but still fun.

RTW

Now our Bra-A-Week Challenge. We’re on week 26 of the Challenge! It is so very inspiring to see everyone’s submissions.

This week we have a beautiful bikini from Diana.

WK26Diana

That is so lovely. Diana wrote about this on her blog poetsie.blogspot.nl. If you don’t read Dutch, it helps to open it in Google Translate. You can read it that way in your own language. Check it out here for English.

This is so colorful and fun. It’s really lovely, Diana.

Our next submission comes from Maddy.

Maddy made the Marlborough bra. This is her second time making the Marlborough; she made a few modification to the pattern and got an almost perfect fit. That perfect fit (or almost perfect) feels so good!

Maddy also mad a matching pair of Ohhh Lulu Grace panties.

img_1581-e1435650089567

This was Maddy’s first time making the Grace panties, and she really loves the style and fit! That is so good to know because the Grace panties are on my to-buy list. Thanks for recommending them, Maddy!

You can read all about Maddy’s Marlborough and Grace panties, with more pictures and details about the alterations on her blog: https://missmaddysews.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/something-wicked-this-way-comes/

Our next submission comes from Monserratt. Monserratt is a Pin-Up Girl like me, and made her bra from the Classic pattern.

stardust front

I love these colors! So gorgeous! You really need to see take a look at Monserratt’s blog: https://monserrattlopez.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/we-are-stardust-bra/ – she has a lot of information on there as to what she’s done in the way of alterations, but also a lot of photos. You can see her lovely makes, and her great photos!

Love that blue and gold! So very pretty.

Our next submission comes from David.

David’s bra features black lace across the front overlaid with the straps. This is something like a short corset, bandeau, sport bra and strappy.

But there are two different laces used here. You can see the second lace on the back.

Isn’t that stunning? Just gorgeous. David is a freelance lingerie designer, his label is: Bonnet Bleu

Our last submission is from Erin!

Erin made this is a bikini for her sister’s birthday.

Erin’s sister picked out this fabric and wanted a cute itsy-bitsy bikini, but with a little more structure (underwires & foam). It’s a vertical seam cup, low cut with short wires. (Erin thinks she’s the equivalent of a 34C although she drafted this pattern off her measurements).

The details are a cute tie in the front and on the sides of the bottoms and nice double stitching on the outer fabric for the cups, gold rings and G-hooks. Erin said it was lots of fun to make – and hopes it fits her sister perfectly!!

What a nice birthday gift! You can read more on Erin’s blog: http://emeralderin.blogspot.ca.

I’m loving summer hosting the challenge – it is so exciting and fun to see all the makes coming in!

Happy creating!

A Modern Floral Shelley and The Bra-A-Week Challenge

July 5, 2015December 27, 2017 ~ Michelle ~ 16 Comments

My most recent Shelley is a bit of an experiment for me. My experiment was in the materials I used. I usually use Duoplex for my bra cups. On this bra, I used the Lycra that came in the Merckwaerdigh kit and then lined it with Sheer Cup Lining. Seeing as there’s no stretch in the lining, I thought it would work.

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Isn’t that pretty? I loved it the moment I saw it. And I’ve learned, when I see something in Margreet’s Etsy store that I love, I buy it right away. I’ve found if I wait, it’s gone. My challenge with using kits from Merckwaerdigh is I need the support of Duoplex or something non-stretch. If I use Duoplex underneath the Lycra, it’s getting to be the cost of two bras. I wanted to try something different.

I had a little more trouble sewing Lycra than I do Duoplex. I’m not used to sewing stretch when sewing my cups. Here you can see where I made a little mistake in my sewing.

Mod Blue Shelley

Look at that wrinkle. I decided it was a small cosmetic error, I’m going to give it a cosmetic treatment – cover it up.

I love this material, but there was one big downside to it – all the shades of blue in it. I planned on using a Navy findings kit from Bra-Makers Supply, as well as Navy Power Net from them. So, I needed Navy thread. Fine. I got Navy thread. When I sewed the elastic on the back of the lace though, the Navy looked terrible. So, off to the store to match some thread to the lace. The thread that matches the lace, doesn’t look great on the Lycra. Sigh. I wasn’t going to buy a third spool of thread for the bra, so the Navy thread is now a design element on this bra.

front

Here’s the bra from the front. I love those three little bows at the front. And those little bows … they’re all me-made. The Merckwaerdigh kits don’t come with bows. The only bows I had really didn’t go with the colors of the bra, so I looked at my ribbon stash. This golden ribbon was the only one that went well. It’s really fun to make ribbons, and easy. I shared how in this post. I used the cardboard method, but the fork method looks like it produces a lovely bow as well.

three bows

Here are the bows all finished and sewn on with a blue bead in the center. It hides that little wrinkle pretty well.

back

Here’s the back of the bra. I did over-calculate how much I had to add to the band using the new, stronger elastics from Bra-Makers Supply. You can read about those elastics here. I had to cut a bit off both sides to make it perfect for me, and next I’ll adjust my band pattern.

So, how did my experiment go? The bra fits a touch looser than when I make it from Duoplex. The only place I noticed any wrinkles at all were under the arm where I already have to make an adjustment. Now, if I could only sew Lycra more neatly and without wrinkles!

Now onto the Bra-a Week Challenge submissions!

This is week 25 of the Bra-A-Week Challenge, and this week we have some very beautiful submissions along with my own.

The first bra is from Sofia. It is such a delicate work of art inspired by a one of her favorite lingerie brands.

Little-Black-Bra

Here’s Sofia’s Little Black Bra. Isn’t that gorgeous? Sofia used Eyelash lace backed with nude Power Net to achieve the look on the front of the bra. As well, she took careful attention to match the lace on the cups. All that extra attention does show. She finished her bra with black Power Net for the band and a 3 Hook and Eye set. Stunning!

You can read more about Sofia’s inspiration and Black Lace Bra on her blog Silver Lining. So very lovely!

Our second bra this week is from France and it’s actually a set of bras, not just one.

I can’t even imagine how wonderful it would be to have someone make custom-fitting bras for me. France is making them for her Mom. What a wonderful thing!

Look at all these beautiful bras! This is what you can do once you have that perfect pattern.

This photo shows the back of the bra. Look at how perfectly the whole bra fits! And it looks really comfortable too with that full back. That’s just so great!

Our next submission is from David of Bonnet Bleu. It’s another lovely delicate looking bra. David made this bra using Black tulle and white lace for his triangle lace cup bra with nude bra cup foams.

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The black is more visible here from the side. The wings are black. So very lovely and delicate looking.

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David is a freelance lingerie designer, label: Bonnet Bleu.

Happy creating!

A Few Thoughts From Other Blogs

June 20, 2015December 27, 2017 ~ Michelle ~ 10 Comments

This week I want to share a few thoughts I’ve had from reading other blogs.

The first one is from Erin. Do you follow The Sewing and Life Adventures of Emerald Erin? On her June 11th post Erin made an announcement:

“A Special Summer for the Bra-A-Week Challenge!

Hi All! I said earlier this week that I would announce the summer host for the Bra-A-Week Challenge – and here is the announcement!

I am delighted to announce that the Bra-A-Week Challenge will be hosted by the lovely….

Michelle!

Of Michelle’s Creations

“Michelle is such a wonderful fellow bra-maker, and I’m sure you’ve all admired her work over the last 21 weeks like I have, and she most generously offered to host the challenge for the months of July and August for me!!”

Thanks, Erin! I’m pretty excited about hosting the challenge, and hoping some of my bra-making friends will join me and sew up a bra or two (or more) along with all the other wonderfully creative sewists who have contributed. There’s more information on Erin’s blog if you’ve been participating in the challenge already and want to continue. You’ll still send your submissions to Erin. I’ll just be doing the write-up and posting it.

It’s great that the challenge will continue over the summer months!

This next blog comment I want to make really has nothing whatsoever to do with sewing – or does it? My good friend, Valerie over at Intricate Knits has been blogging about and telling me about her favorite author for years now. She just recently posted some scarves she designed that were inspired by Susanna Kearsley’s novel A Desperate Fortune. You can see Valerie’s designs here. After seeing the scarves, and having heard so much about Susanna, I decided I’d get A Desperate Fortune and read it myself.

This photo is from Valerie’s blog and shows a couple of the designs Susanna’s book has inspired. Valerie does such beautiful work. Check out her blog, and if you see something you love, she sells her beautiful creations on Etsy.

Aren’t these lovely? This morning as I came into my sewing room, I didn’t even want to sew! I wanted to get back into A Desperate Fortune. So far, I have to say, I can recommend Valerie’s favorite author as well.

Happy creating!