Happy New Year!

I think many people share my opinion that 2008 flew by rather quickly. For me, Conner starting preschool escalated time consdiderably! I miss him in the mornings but don't regret our decision one bit. He is a completely changed li'l fella and the speech therapy has been a Godsend.

Anyhoo, we got our New Year off to a rocky start with everyone (except Gene, of course) getting a horrible tummy bug. I even spent an evening in the ER ('cause I fainted and freaked Gene out). Whoo hoo! We're all okay now though! The ER doc did say my blood sugar was too high so I need to follow up with my doctor. I'm not really looking forward to that little bit of business but my MIL has Diabetes so I know not to fool with it.

Christmas was really nice and we got to spend time with lots of family. Gene bought me Beverly Johnson's book on bra making and I'm itching to dive into it. Also got a couple Merckverdigh bra patterns and the Rebecca pattern by Sewy. They're all in German and I just don't remember enough to get me through. I emailed Michaela and she sent me her English translations and even a step-by-step photo tutorial for the Rebecca pattern! She has really been so helpful and friendly, even offering to help me more if I get stuck. I definitely recommend her shop and will be buying some bra kits in the future.

I've sewn about 5 bras so far (Kwik Sew and Ann St Clair's) but still need to work on the sizing for me. I have a rather difficult size (38L or 40J) and finding bra patterns is about as difficult as finding RTW (ready to wear) bras! The patterns I mentioned above come highly recommended and also in larger bust sizes! So we'll see....

Here is the bra set I made my sister for Christmas:

I was very proud of how it turned out and she loved it! And it fit her!!! Yay! Her hubby approved tremendously as well. LOL!!! The bra is Kwik Sew 3594 and the panties are both from Jalie 2568. The fabric is a periwinkle lycra knit that is sooo soft and slinky! I seriously need to make me some panties out of it. It was a real bear to sew because it kept rolling up on me but well worth it (I did line it with 50 denier tricot for support)! The white panties are wide stretch lace and the simplest thing to sew. I swear it takes like a total of 15 minutes to cut them out and sew. Since the lace is finished on both sides there is no finishing! No elastic waistband, no elastic on the legs... awesome!

I've also started sewing some custom lingerie! That has been really fun but I must admit it has made me think about lingerie all the time now! Sounds kinda naughty but really my thoughts run more towards the technical. I find myself daydreaming about how to build a better bra or how to embellish panties and slips with lace, etc. Really, if you have never tried making your own undies or at least buying handmade, you should! They are so much more comfortable than RTW! They're the first thing I reach for in my lingerie drawer.

There will most definitely be more lingerie sewing show-and-tell here on my blog so watch out! I'm really concentrating on that for now and for-who-knows-how-long?!

Wishing you all a healthy and properous 2009!

Heather