Bra-Makers Supply

Fits Like A Dream

~ Michelle

My newest bra fits like a dream, but she isn’t peaches and cream.

For the better part of the last two years I’ve only worn my own bras. I did purchase a couple of bras too, but to be honest, the ones I made fit better – and they weren’t fitting perfectly. Because I was so used to wearing what I’d made, I thought I’d still wear my not-perfectly-fitting bras, but oh no. Once I had one that fit so well, I found the others just weren’t as comfortable. I have a list of things to sew, but one bra just wasn’t enough. So sewing another bra went to the top of my sewing list.

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Here’s my latest (and perfectly fitting) Pin Up Girls Shelley. And she fits like a dream.

I love that little pop of color on the power bar and bridge. That’s just fun. And I’m all about lace. So this bra is bringing together lace and a bit of fun and I’m thrilled.

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Here’s a better view of the power bar. Oh, I love that. This is such a beautiful pattern. There are so many fun things to do with it. Although the power bar looks like Lycra, it has the support of duoplex under it. I did the same on the bridge. The Lycra and lace are from an older fabric set I bought from Merckwaerdigh‘s store a few years ago. Everything else is from Bra Makers Supply.

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Here you can see the Sewy Rebecca I’d done with this material. You can also see I made the wrong size. I still have this bra in the bra drawer – it’s too pretty to throw away or cut up. Back to the material,  I don’t have a lot left, so I got creative in the placement of what I did use on the bra. I wanted to save some for panties. Yup, now that I have my bra fit down, I’m going to start making matching bra and panty sets.

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And the back of my bra. I did the 3 x 3 hook and eye closure again. I’m getting better at getting it done up and undone, and it really does make it more comfortable. Who knew?

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Here’s part of my stash for panties. That’s some gorgeous cotton/spandex from Bra Makers Supply, and my bit of Lycra left over from the kit from Merckwaerdigh, and some black lace for trim. I also found some pictures online for inspiration. I’m thinking of changing up my panties from the basic pattern I have now. I really love things that are asymmetrical, and love that I found some fun panties with just that look.

One of the best aspects of this journey I’ve been on with trying to find the perfect fit for my bras is the freedom I now feel in altering patterns. I used to feel they were somehow beyond my grasp and I wouldn’t think of altering them. I have no such fear now!

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And lastly, I’m trying to decide what color bows I want on my new bra. I’m leaning towards the red, or maybe red and black together …

I still have some fitting issues to plan for when starting out, but I did the same thing on this bra – I went up a cradle size from my wire size. This takes care of most of my cup alterations as it’s only one size different than the cup size I’m using. Is that clear?

Let me explain that a bit more. The Omega shape needs a larger cup size than wire. Let’s say I need a 38 wire, but my cup corresponds to a 42 wire. I’m meeting the two half way in between. By using the 40 cradle, the 38 wire will still fit, and so will the 42 cup. This one change eliminated a lot of alterations.

However, I still made a few. I thinned the bra under the cup  little more this time, so I ended up trimming my elastic under the channeling. I lowered the bridge 1/2″ again, and on this bra I adjusted for a flat spot I have. And I put in a vertical dart in the underarm area. I don’t think there are any other alterations I would even want to make on this bra.

Ah… a perfectly fitting bra feels so good.

Happy creating!

Making Your Own Bows

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

It was a while ago now, someone asked me if I made my own bows. At the time I didn’t think too much about it. I usually bought kits from Bra Makers Supply, and they always come with a bow. So I didn’t think I needed to make my own.

Then I had a weekend with a professional Bra Maker, Jane, and I took a few things away from that weekend. One of them was how I attach my straps – it’s forever changed since Jane showed me a slightly different way. You can read about that here.

The second thing I took away from that weekend, is when Jane said to attach bows to the center front and also over the seams where the straps join the cups. I LOVE that look. So, I’ve been doing that since then.

Well, that means that one little bow isn’t enough for me now. I do have a small stash of bows, and I do mean small. I probably have a dozen or so. And not many of them are the fancier bows – the ones with little pearls on them. You know that moment when you see someone’s stash and envy it? I experienced that when Jane pulled out a large plastic bag of bows. Oh my!

Since then I’ve been looking for bows. I’ve been looking on eBay, and haven’t been able to find the mini bows with pearls, or in colors I’d like. So I kept looking.

A site I came across, which unfortunately has been taken down. However, I had a screen shot of what you start with:

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To the finished bow:

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She also suggests wrapping ribbon around the elastic or sewing a pearl on.

Another great source is this video. I used both the fork, and my little cardboard template, and I must say I go back to the cardboard. I find it easier.

These were the exact style I was wanting. I went to the fabric store to buy ribbon to start, and the fabric store is not the place to buy ribbon. Michaels was much more economical. They had three out of the four colors I wanted.  I’ve also been looking at some pretty, and probably more-expensive-than-I-need Swarovski pearls to attach to the bows. I haven’t bought those yet, but they’re saved in my ‘want to buy’ folder.

So now I have an option for making my bows. And just in time for making bows, a very generous gift of ribbon and some lovely lace. I’d mentioned to a friend how I couldn’t find one color, and look what she sent me. I don’t think I’ll run out of ribbon any time soon. Thank you, Naomi.

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Happy creating!

‘My’ New Serger

~ Michelle

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to bring home my friend’s serger. And then to be told she wasn’t in any hurry to get it back; that I could just keep it at my house; that she’d never used it even. Thrilled would be a good place to start.

I found a great tutorial with really clear instructions on how to oil your serger, and where to oil it. It was much clearer than the manual’s instructions. You can read it here.

The machine really sounded terrible when I serged that first test swatch. Imagine the sound of metal grinding against metal. That was pretty much how it sounded. Once I oiled it, it did sound better. However, my second test swatch still sounded rough to me.

My plans to finish the scarf for my Mum went out the window, as well as a camisole I wanted to make for my Mum. At least as far as using the serger for those projects went. So the machine was packed up and put in the trunk of my car to make a trip to the repair man.

The trip to the repair man was good news on one hand – there’s nothing wrong with the machine. It is usable. He said it could use a tune up, but the blade is still sharp and it was working as it was. The not great news is he said this model is a noisy model and it vibrates a fair amount. He said it also sometimes skips stitches. Hmm, as I said, not great news. So, it’s back home with me, but also still sitting in the box awaiting its fate. I’m not feeling quite as thrilled.

So to finish one of my projects I decided to use my overlock stitch on my sewing machine to sew up the camisole. It turned out so nice.

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This is a lovely shaped camisole pattern. It’s Kwik Sew 2286. And it actually has shaping to it – it curves in at the waist.

The material I used is a burnout knit. I was wishing I had more of it. I only bought a 1/4 of a meter when I first bought it a couple of years ago, as at that time I was only planning on using it to cover foam bra cups with it.

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Here’s an older photo of a foam cup bra I made when I first started making bras, and I used the burnout knit to cover the cups. This was the burnout knit over beige foam cups from Bra Makers Supply. Such a pretty material! You can read about the bra on my blog here.

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And here’s how the material is over my hand. This will be a fun and flirty camisole, but not likely one to be worn showing. It’s a little too transparent for that I think.

As for the scarf clone? Well, I’m still contemplating doing the hem by hand AND contemplating oiling up the serger again and giving the rolled hem a try. I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to finish that one yet. I’m encouraging myself right now even, that I as I type this; I have the serger here, and it does work… I just might be leaning towards the serger rolled hem.

Happy creating!

A Small Parade of Panties

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been asked why I don’t make panties. The funny thing about that is ever so many years ago when I was first pregnant, I hated the maternity panties that were available, so I made all my own panties, as well as some of my own maternity clothes. Then I don’t know what happened to making panties. I just stopped.

The question stayed with me. I have to admit, one reason I hadn’t made panties yet is because I love my cotton panties. But I also love lace on them and I can’t always find that. As well, I’d looked around for cotton to make panties and just wasn’t sure about so many sources, so I hadn’t ordered any. A quick call to Bra Makers Supply and I found out their Cotton Spandex Double knit is just what I’m wanting. It’s a blend of 94% cotton, 6% Lycra. I’m thinking it will be perfect. You can find it here. It also comes in the same colors as their Power net and Duoplex – I do like things to be matchy matchy.

I have a few panty patterns in my collection, so decided I’d try a couple of them to see which ones I preferred.

Here are the patterns I tried.

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The first one I tried is a throwback – high cut panties. I haven’t worn anything like this for years, but loved them way back in the day.

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I used some knit that was a gift from Naomi. Thank you, Naomi! These are a basic black knit with stretch lace elastic trim. The pattern is Kwik Sew 2075, view D. It was funny, when I was making these I would just start to do something, and then think, oh it’s been a while I better read the instructions. I’d read them, think yup, and keep going. It was amazing how much came back to me so quickly.

This high cut style is very comfortable on, but as I say, it’s been years since I’ve worn anything high cut. I think I now prefer something more of a hipster. So the next pattern I made was more along that style.

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I really like these. These are very comfortable and almost the same as a favorite La Vie En Rose pair I’d saved. I loved the La Vie En Rose ones so much I cloned the pattern. However, this is almost exactly the same. Only very slight differences, so I went with the pattern. This is Kwik Sew 2286. The pattern is mainly for tops, with one pair of panties thrown in. There is no option for a different view or style for the panties, but I really like these, so don’t know that I’ll look elsewhere. These just might become my TNT basic pattern. But then, there are so many pretty options out there from which to choose.

And the last pair I made is a friend’s TNT pattern. It’s similar to the pattern above, but this one is Kwik Sew 2908.

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These are the same black material I used on the first pair I made, but these have a sweet pink trim on them to match the black Fantasie clone I made with black and pink lace. I did change this pattern slightly. For the ‘gusset’ (I don’t like crotch, just as I’ve read some don’t like panties. And I do know it’s not really a gusset), the pattern has the gusset attached at the front with a single seam at the back. I changed this so the gusset has two seams – front and back – and that way I could enclose the seams completely. I’ll show that in another posting.

And I still have a few other patterns I’ve collected I want to try. I’m thinking of making one of Merckwaerdigh’s patterns next. I have E-SH20 and E-SHL 30 of hers. I also have one of Stretch & Sew’s patterns. Not pictured here is Ezi-Sew Ladies’ Knickers pattern and two more Kwik Sew patterns, 2100 and 2868. Seriously, I have a pattern addiction! But it’s way more fun than the OPI nail polish addiction I had. (smile)

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One last panty resource I have is The Make & Fit Panties book from Bra Makers Supply. So now I’ve practiced a bit again, and I’ve found my source for cotton, I see more matching sets ahead.

Happy creating!

One More Fantasie Clone

~ Michelle

I was so close on that last bra. And at this point, I do have a drawer full of bras I can wear that mostly fit. But I must admit, I am like a dog with a bone when I want to figuring something out – and getting that perfect fit is my objective.

I’d recently read something very encouraging from Annele, the founder of MakeBra said:

“An older lady, who was running her own lingerie business only few years ago, told me that you need at least twenty test fitting sessions before the bra pattern is ready to go.”

You can read about it here. Oh, that was such a relief to read. Then I’m not obsessed, or a terrible sewer. Whew!

Thankfully, at one time I’d bought the same Fantasie bra, but one size bigger. I think it was one size bigger. For example, what would be the size difference between a 34D and a 34DD? The only charts I have are from Bra Makers Supply, and they don’t do the double letters.

Back to the bra. I’d cloned it, and then after wearing it for a little while, gave it to a friend because I found it a bit loose in the upper cup. However, I was thinking this size would be perfect  with the firmer Duoplex material. All the materials are from Bra Makers Supply.

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Here it is. I think it shows the cups are a little fuller than the last bra. And just because the cups are fuller, it doesn’t show here how the bridge is really narrow at the top. The channeling and wires completely overlap at the top of the bridge. And the bridge goes all the way back!

As much as I loved the thin ribbon on the original Fantasie Vivienne, I couldn’t find anything in a beige or tan, only white. So I went with some bows I had for this bra.

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Here is a picture from the inside to show the wires and channeling overlapping at the top. It’s a bit tricky to sew this. What I do is sew the first channel down completely, and then the second channel is only sew down completely at the top and on the inside seam.

On the outside seam where the channeling pieces are overlapping, I do not sew it completely. There’s only maybe 2 cm opening where it is not sewn on the outside of the channeling. It has to be left open on the outside there so the wire can slide through that lower channeling.

On the top piece of channeling, I sew up to the outer seam line on the lower channeling, and it makes an attractive inverted V-shape in the stitching on the front of the bridge.

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And here is the back. I reduced this to make it a 2 hooks and eyes set again. This is how the original RTW bra came, so I wanted to do that again. It’s a wonderfully comfortable bra – and the bridge goes all the way back except for a tiny bit at the very top after I’ve been wearing it for a bit. It looks like I’ll be shortening my wires by 1/4″. But at least I’ll still have a full bridge.

Now I have a pattern that really works for me, the next thing I want to do is to take this pattern and use it to figure out what size I’d want to make in all my other patterns – the Sewy Rebecca, and the Pin-Up Girls Shelley and Classic, and the Merckwaerdigh E-BHST2 and E-CUPL 16.

And now I have one more pattern in my collection to try – Norma from Orange Lingerie just released a bra pattern! The Marlborough bra pattern. You can find the pattern at Orange Lingerie’s Etsy shop.

Happy creating!

Fantasie to Reality

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

So, last week I told you how I was altering my cloned Fantasie bra. And now I’m going to tell you how I made it a reality.

I did have a few questions. One was how to adjust for the smaller wire. I thought back to my Craftsy moulage-sloper making class. One of the ways they measure is to turn the measuring tape on its side and follow the line of the pattern that way. I don’t find that the easiest — usually I’ve just moved the measuring tape along by about 1/2-inches. My friend, who also recently made a sloper, said in her class they had a flexible ruler they were using and you just bend it to fit the line. That sounds nice right about now. But what I have is my measuring tape, so that’s what I used.

First, I’ll show you my custom bridge and cradle.

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Here you can see the little bit of the cradle that comes up above the wire line – that’s the flat spot adjustment I make.

Now onto some measuring, and I measured everything!

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This photo shows the easier of the measurements I took. For the photo I had my scissors hold the top of the tape against the top of the wire. Then I carefully followed the curve of the wire without any gaps. Basically, I made a new cradle and compared that to the original cloned one. And I measured everything to see where the changes needed to be made.

To be sure, I double measured everything. And after that, I made up a mock cup and cradle and sewed them together. My main concern here was making sure the cup still fit smoothly into a now smaller cradle.

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And here it is. It all came together quite well. There was one really small adjustment I had to make in the cup, maybe 1/8-inch.

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You can see in the photo above the cup needed just a touch of an adjustment. So, it was all looking good, so onto the good materials. All my materials were from Bra Makers Supply.

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Here’s my Fantasie made a reality. The cups are a full cup, not the modified ones I’d been making. And the bridge is a full bridge. There are black foam cups behind the lace/duoplex cups to fill out the shape, but they are not part of the bra.

There were a couple of changes I made to the bridge.  I narrowed the bridge, because the original was too wide for me. On this one the two pieces of channeling for the wire overlap at the top. And the rest of the bridge is still my custom bridge.

Some of you might remember, I had attempted a Fantasie Vivienne before. The lace can be a bit confusing as to which way it goes on the upper cup. And the last time I attempted it, I got it wrong. As that bra was a clone and didn’t have any of the adjustments, I decided it didn’t fit well enough to bother fixing it and continuing. This time I got the lace in correctly. Whew. Another relief.

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Here you can see that narrow bridge. It’s just the right width for me, and thankfully just enough for the channeling to fit into as well.

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And here you can see where the lace ends before the strap tab. That was a little tricky, but I got it to look neat.

You might have noticed there are no bows on it yet. I want to follow the same style as the original bra. They used two very narrow ribbons of coordinating colors to make the ribbons and I want to find some black and pink and do the same.

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You can see here the beige and white ribbons together, as well, how much wider that bridge is at the top. This style of bow is such a pretty and unique feature, I’d like to add that too, so I’ll have to go shopping for some thinner ribbon than what I have.

And lastly, the back of the bra. Again, on this I simply cloned from the original.

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The only thing I didn’t do the same on this is the original is only two hooks and eyes, and I made this three.

So, does it fit? Perfectly? Almost. It looked great when I put it on, but after wearing it for a little bit, I noticed the bridge does not go all the way back. Almost perfect. My best to date.

I think the difference in fitting is the materials I used. I’ve mentioned before that a lot of RTW manufacturers don’t use duoplex, but rather something more stretchy. I used duoplex for the cups. This gives me more support, but likely took a little of the depth out of the cup too.

There’s another slightly different Fantasie on the horizon.

Happy Creating!

Beige Lace Overlay

~ Michelle

With this Beige Lace Overlay bra, I feel I have my beige bra wardrobe complete. I have enough of a basic color to now branch out. I won’t be able to do that tomorrow, but hopefully soon.

Here’s my latest bra – the Beige Lace Overlay:

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This style is the same as the last beige bra I made. I was so happy with the lace on that bra, I decided I’d do the same again. My thinking was if the lace is different, then it feels completely different – at least to me. (smile)

All the materials are from Bra Makers Supply – including the pattern, but it isn’t the original pattern. What I’ve done is taken the Classic Full band pattern and altered it significantly to fit me. I’ve altered the cradle, the bridge, the upper cups and the lower cups, drew my own band based on a Prima Donna band. Heck I even alter the wires.

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Here’s a close up of the front. You can see here the lace doesn’t go all the way to the top of the upper cup – but lays over the upper cup. It’s a very pretty option for this style. You can also see how the upper cup curves with the style. This style is described in the Bra Makers Manual as a Fake Demi Cup. It still gives the coverage of a full cup.

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And this photo is just because I really love adding bows to cover the strap seam. It is such a pretty feature.

I won’t show the back or sides of this bra as they are the same as what I usually do – so no changes there. However, I do want to show you something else I thought to share with you. I remember when I first started making bras. Knowing where to cut the channeling was always a bit fuzzy for me. It was rather hit and miss for a while. Sometimes it ended up under the upper band elastic, but sometimes not. I would just zigzag over it in those cases. it still worked, but wasn’t quite as pretty as I was wanting. Then I figured out a way to do it.

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You can see here I’ve folded my upper band elastic over to where I will sew it, but it’s not sewn down  yet. It’s not even pinned yet. Then I lay the channeling over that. This gives me a clear visual to use. I’m holding the channeling here for the picture because it just didn’t want to lay flat. Pins come in so handy, don’t they?

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And once I see where I want to cut it – where the top of the channeling will lay under the elastic – then I cut it. I also cut it on a bit of an angle. I follow the slope of the band rather than cutting it straight across the top of the channeling.

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And here you can see how neatly the 3-step zigzag finishes that channeling. I hope this helps.

One last bit here, do you remember this?

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I’m in the hunting-gathering stage for this project. I’m collecting laces to put together to make my own version of this beautiful bra Amy Relf made. I LOVED this, and have the picture beside my sewing desk to remind me to work on this.

Happy creating!

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!

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!

Will It Ever Stop Snowing? And Other Greats!

~ Michelle

I saw a cute video by Rick Mercer, a Canadian comedian, which depicts how I feel so well:

Yes, that is the sad state many Canadians are in right now. We’re just hoping for warmer weather, and … well, it’s snowing right now. Sigh. So much for the calendar saying Spring.

I’ll happily stay indoors today and work on my pattern, right? Sigh, the pattern. Okay, I’m going to focus on the positives and deal with the challenges next.

I got the short wires from Bra Makers Supply. I’m was hoping for the same length on the side, and shorter at the front to accommodate the lower bridge. Great! But nope, those didn’t work the way I wanted them to – too short on the side. I think I still want the Vertical wires, I’ll follow Amy’s suggestions on her blog (Cloth Habit) for shortening them.

With newly shortened Vertical wires in hand, I got out my Bra Makers Manual and drew a new bridge & cradle for these new wires. Another great! But, I’m not done with this topic yet. More to follow…

Then I decided to make sure my custom bridge really was the best fit I could get. An article from Threads that talks about making a Duct Tape Sloper was my inspiration. I decided to follow the same principle and use multiple layers of tape to make a ‘sloper’ for my bridge. That worked well too. And then I checked it against the custom bridge I’d made. It is almost exactly the same as what I’d done when I followed the instructions in Norma’s book, Demystifying Bra Fitting and Construction. So I have my correct bridge shape. Great!

full bridge

Here’s my little tape sloper. I didn’t continue the sloper past the marker – that wasn’t the problem area, so I focused on the middle of the bridge. The rest of the wire was fitting fine. But that area…

Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is the difference between my little tape sloper and the newly drafted cradle pattern. Yes, there is a problem.

cradle issue

Do you see that area at the front of the cradle where the bridge is? It’s nice and round. I don’t match. So, what to do about that?

I have asked that question before, and didn’t get an answer that was satisfactory. I was told by one person there was nothing to be done about that. But that’s an important very supportive area, and it does need to fit. So, I re-drew the cradle with the custom bridge in place of the bridge here.

Back to those shortened wires. Oh my! I will tell you, shortening them is not a problem. However, covering that rough edge is! I read Amy post, and decided to follow her suggestions for using Plasti-Dip. There was no variety of colors, in fact I had my choice of red or black. That was it.

So with red Plasti-Dip in hand, I came home and dipped my newly cut and filed wires. I let them dry overnight even. They looked great! And then came that magical moment when I went to insert them into the bra channel. I should have taken a picture… I inserted the newly rubberized end of the wire into the channel and pushed, and pushed and pushed. Then I did what I’m sure 99% of married women do when they can’t do something physically — I called my husband. ‘Honey can you help me?’ He pushed and pushed. And then looked at me and said that’s not going anywhere.

It seems Plasti-Dip is a rubber coating. Rubbery is not what I was expecting. I’ve been to every hardware store in 3 towns and no one has anything other than the rubber coating-type Plasti-Dip. Well, that didn’t work.

I have read about others using Goop, but I don’t think that is a preferred method. I bought some heat-shrink tubing and will try that. I’ve said this before, and it’s still true… I’m close.

Happy Creating!