More boobage!

I started on another bra while I'm awaiting my custom pattern from Danglez. This one is Merckwaerdigh CUPL16. I got this from ELingeriA quite awhile ago but hadn't tried it yet. Debbie Cook made a gorgeous 3 piece cup bra from Danglez and it got my sewing mojo flowing to where I just could not wait any longer! When I got to lookin' at my Merckwaerdigh patterns I realized that I have a 3 piece cup pattern, too...duh! Good Lord, I have so much crap I don't even know what crap I have! (Um...not that these patterns are crap, they're actually very good! :-D) I made up a Q&D (quick & dirty) muslin of view B the other day and well.... I'm not to sure if it's going to work. Here it is on Gertie:

As you can see it looks like shit. I tried it on as well as I could and it's just a hot mess. BUT, I think it gives me a good enough idea on how it'll fit. I think. The right cup is the only one I put a wire in and it seems to contain everything. My left breast is bigger though so the cup is a little on the small side. The kicker here is that the pattern calls for a lingerie lycra. The fabric I used for this muslin only has about 18-20% stretch. Below I've used some lycra that I got from ELingeriA in a grab bag. It is like the nicest fabric I've seen in a long time! It's more like a heavyweight swimsuit lycra with about 60% stretch but I'm going to try it and hopefully the extra stretch will help with the fit.



This is how far I got last night. I still need to cut out the band. I'm seriously thinking about using the band from my Dangelz bra since it fits so well and these cups will fit into it.

I had to take a bit of a break since my MIL called this morning and said she knocked her bathroom door off the hinges with her motorized chair. *!* Good gravy! It was no big deal and I was able to fix it quickly. All we had were 3" wood screws so that baby better not fall off again! LOL! I told her if she bangs it again the door will probably splinter where those humungo screws are!! She said she wouldn't take the chair to the bathroom anymore....

Okie dokie, the little kid fell asleep so I'm off to sew some more! Whoo hoo!

Bra update and a tiny tutorial

I just wanted to post my bra after I made some adjustments.

As you can see (maybe), I made three tucks in each upper cup. It allowed me to salvage the bra even though it might be a little clumsy. I've worn it several times and must say it gives me the best support EVER!!!

Are you ready for the best part??? I posted my issues on Pattern Review to get some advice from the ladies over there. Shortly after that I got an email from the owner/designer of Danglez, Dini! She saw where I had problems and offered to draft a pattern just for me! I sent all the pertinent measurements and am awaiting my personalized pattern. Whoohoo! Seriously, how cool is that?! I mean, that is some awesome customer sevice. Dini also offers some really lovely bra making kits (look under Lingeriepakket) and I'll probably pick up a couple of those soon, too.

I'm sewing along with the Great Panty/Underwear Sew Along also on PR. I had a question from Arline and thought I'd post the pictures I sent her here, too in case someone else can benefit. She had a quesion about how to apply elastic to panties so the elastic won't touch the skin. Here's my method. I hope it makes sense. If you click on the pictures it will make them larger so you can read the text easier. Enjoy!

It's been rainin'

I think our apple tree will be most pleased with this and hopefully she'll give us some apples this fall! They are soooo good, let me tell ya! They're the sweet/tart kind htat are perfect for baking....mmmmm yummy!

I've still been sewing a lot ince my last post. I bought a bra pattern from the Netherlands recently and sewed it up the other day. For some reason it turned out incredibly huge! See all that extra fabric on top? Good gravy...

It doesn't look half as bad on Gertie there as it does on me. Of course Gert still has perky breasts. Bitch. Anyhoo, I'm trying to devise a way to save this bra. I really like the fabric and with all the work that goes into it, I just can't bear to scrap it. I'm going to try to take some tucks in the top cup and I unpicked the cup seam to take out a little fullness there, too. I think I might email the woman I bought it from too, who is also the designer, and see what she thinks about the crazy sizing. The band fits beautifully though! In fact, I've never had a band fit so well with absolutely NO adjustments! So, I'm going to trudge on a bit longer and we'll see what's what.

I've also been working on swimwear! That's something new for me. I swim 4 days a week now with my husband and my old suits are quite literally disentigrating. I've tried Jalie 2317 and McCall's 4848 so far with mixed results. I chose the "sporty" version of the Jalie with the legs and it just didn't work. The legs kept crawling up while I swam and it was super uncomfortable and the McCall's was okay except the top wanted to float up all the time. Neither one gave me the needed bust support I so deparately need. A lot of these issues are probably due to the fabric, though. I found it at a thrift shop, for cryin' out loud, so who knows where it really came from. I think with a higher quality fabric I wouldn't have most of those problems. I do want to try the Jalie again and just use the "regular" suit version and try to add an underwire bra inside. In the meantime I ordered a couple of Speedo suits.... yeah, I caved.

I want to leave you all with this video. Have you seen it? AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY