Make Bra

Welcome to Michelle’s Creations for the Canada Cups – Cross Your Heart Relay blog tour, 2016.

I hope you’re enjoying all of our makes and reviews so far. This time around, I’m reviewing Beverly Johnson’s new Panty class and so is Deb, my booty buddy, from Sprouting JubeJube. Make sure after you read my post, you hop on over to read Deb’s thoughts on the class. If you started with Deb’s review, welcome here! I do know Deb has been really busy with all her makes and has them all here in a separate write-up than her class review.

header_11223

Don’t you love Craftsy? It really is the best. They offer online classes that never expire, and in so many different categories (sewing, cooking, gardening, painting…); the instructors they get are the best and they answer your questions; Craftsy offers kits and supplies as well. They really are great!

You’ll see in my sidebar menu, I’m an affiliate with Craftsy. I decided to do this because I can do this without any compromise. I really do think they’re great. You won’t see me stand behind everything. But Craftsy, I do.

Back to Sewing Panties Construction & Fit. I started watching. I watched the class half way through the first night. Then got up the next morning and watched the rest of it. I felt ready and confident to draft my own panties which was something I’d wondered if I could really do before the class.

Beverly assures us that drafting our own panties isn’t hard. It’s just a few simple measurements. Then she proceeds to show us just how to do it. This photo is from Craftsy showing Beverly making her master panty pattern.

She was absolutely right! It’s not hard.

full_2846_373118_DraftingaMasterPattern_1

The drafting of the panty is very reminiscent of Suzy Furrer’s Sloper classes. Once we’ve drafted our pattern, Beverly moves on to show us the three basic styles of panties – Brief, Hipster, and Bikini – and how to make each one from our own master pattern.

From those three styles, Beverly shows some more variations like making your own French cut panties. There is also a style with the seams in the front. I had just been looking at the Make Bra DL21 pattern. I’d read great reviews on them and how the seams didn’t show at all. I’m going to try my hand at drafting my own!

My big question is how will my class-drafted pattern compare to my favorite pattern?

Before I made a pair up, I wanted to compare my class-drafted pattern to my favorites: Kwik Sew 2286.

Here are both back pattern pieces – the black outline is the class-drafted pattern; the white pattern piece is my 2286 pattern:

back 2

The pencil wasn’t showing up very well in the photo, so I redrew the lines in black on my computer. The class-drafted Hipster hits the center back exactly the same as my 2286s. The hip sits a bit higher on the class-drafted pair. As well, the class-drafted back is a bit wider in the hip and gives a little more cheek coverage. I had no idea my 2286s were cheeky!

I was thinking about the size difference, and remembered Beverly does suggest in the class to start with a 20% reduction when drafting the pattern. Clearly, my 2286s have more than 20% reduction, which shows even more on the front piece.

Front

Again, the front is bigger on my class-drafted pair. And the Hipster line sits a little lower. The leg opening on the front of my class-drafted pair (again, outlined in black) is definitely lower, and that would be something I’d want to change.

Gusset

The class-drafted gusset is shorter and although you can’t tell in the photo, it’s a touch narrower as well. I’d even narrowed the gusset pattern piece on my 2286s.

For my panties, I’m going to use my favorite 2286s like I often use my sloper – to help me get the fit I want. I will change the leg opening on the front, lengthen the gusset a tiny bit, and since I haven’t found my 2286s to be too small at all, I will narrow the class-drafted pattern.

It’s time for new panties! New, drafted-to-my-measurements, incorporating-all-the-aspects-of-my-favorite-pattern, and matching-my-new-bra new panties. These are not just any panties!

panties on table

Oh, I like these. I incorporated the lace application on the legs the same as my 2286s, and did a lace front panel to match my bra.

I wanted to show you a few more details. One of the things I’ve learned making my own panties is the side seam is a weak spot when you’re using lace on the front like this. So, for these panties, I used a 1/2″ strip of knit interfacing to reinforce the seam.

reinforement

As well, having a lace front isn’t quite the same without some elastic. It will often be too loose. So a little bit of lingerie elastic behind the lace is hardly visible, but makes a big difference when you’re wearing them.

Elastic behind the lace

I like everything to look as nice inside as out. I pin my lace out of the way and use my Pinking blade to trim away the excess fabric.

Pinking the edges

There’s only one more thing to add. This is one of the bows I made for my bra.

One more thing to add

Here’s my matching set.

Full set on table 2

I love them both!

Set on Catherine 3

I loved making self-drafted panties, but that wasn’t all I made. As well as making these panties, I reviewed a pattern.

Here are the panties I made:

il_570xN.1022408585_jahx

Yes, it’s the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection.

Along with covering Beverly’s newest class, Deb from Sprouting JubeJube and I are both reviewing panty patterns, but not the same pattern. I’m reviewing the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection. Although I know what pattern Deb is making, I’m not going to tell. You’ll have to go to Deb’s blog to see her pattern review and all her makes. She really did make some lovely panties, and we found out we love the same materials. Really. We have the same Cotton Lycra stash. That’s all I’m saying.

Let me show you the Boy Shorts I made.

Front of panty

They look just like Boy Shorts, but they also looked bigger than what I usually wear.

comparison

And they are bigger. To be totally honest here, they looked HUGE to me! It’s mostly the different shape. Boy shorts have material over the leg and what I usually wear doesn’t. Oh my! Here they are being compared to my favorite Kwik Sew 2286s. I know what size not to use so my next pair will fit.

The best part of these panties is the back. I made view 4. They really have a super cute back and I will use this feature in the future.

Back lace detail

Isn’t that a lovely detail?

I want to thank Bra-Makers Supply for providing me with the Pin-Up Girls Boy Short Collection, and Craftsy for providing me with the class Sewing Panties Construction & Fit.

14339952_10210984887124239_819227118_o

Tour Schedule Itinerary

Follow the magical tour to see what we all have under our clothes

♥

Saturday, September 17

Michelle S. returns to talk to Wendy about her bespoke bras. Be what??
Marsha gets a taste of what’s behind Farthingales’ corsets
Meanwhile Booty Buddies Deb and Michelle go bottoms up in panties

♥

bloggers

A big thank you to our wonderful bloggers. They’ve all done such a great job!

Happy creating!

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.

100_2410

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.

100_2424

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.

100_2431

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!