Bra band tutorial!

Finally, huh?
This tutorial is how I make the lower bottom edge fit a bit better under the cups. It also gives the illusion of a partial band bra. Okay, I have a combination of large heavy breasts and a protruding belly. Nice. This can make wearing bras pretty uncomfortable when the band is too wide under the cups. The tummy pushes up against the breasts and underwires and it can rub somethin' awful. When the band is too wide it flips out or sometimes in and is often really painful, causing rashing and other yuckies. I have found using this method relieves a lot of it. There are also several women out there that like the look of a partial band bra but hate wearing wires and wires aren't necessary in a full band bra. I suggest using a really good channeling, though. The stuff I'm using for this bra is from Sew Sassy and it's friggin' awesome! It's the #922.

Okay, seriously, I'm not the greatest tutorial maker. I've only done one other. If you ever have any questions regarding this or bra-making in general please leave me a comment and I'll get back with you.

On to the good stuff!

First things first: Trace your pattern on to tissue or whatever you use. Now, I mostly use European bra patterns and they do not include seam allowances (I'm using my custom Danglez DB3) . If this is the case for you too add your normal seam allowance to all edges except the lower edge on your band. If you're using a Kwik Sew pattern or another company that includes seam allowances you might find it beneficial to just draw them in real quick for future reference.

Normally, I place my elastic on the bottom of my tracing to find my seam allowance:

So, pretending that my pattern below is the fabric, when sewn it will look like this:

With the picot edge peaking out and a nice wide band.

Instead, we want it to look a bit more like this when finished:

With the picot edge essentially peeking out from the bottom of the cup.

My band pattern is in 2 pieces. To get my tracing I butt them together.

I want my elastic to finish where my finger is pointing in the picture above.

I lay my elastic on the pattern, flipping it over and lining it up to that point:

Below, I made a mark where the elastic ended. I moved it up a little so you can see better.

Usually, I use my handy dandy attachment on my rotary cutter to make my seam allowances:

As you can see, the narrowest I can get it is too wide so I can't do that this time.
I measure the mark and get about a 1/4" (6 mm) seam allowance.

Using my ruler I mark my seam allowance all along the bottom.

Now, cut!

Here's the finished band pattern:

Now it's time to cut out your fabric and sew the cups and band together following the pattern's instructions:

Place your elastic along the bottom, lining up the edges.

Line the fabric and elastic up so the needle enters just outside the left edge. When you start sewing grasp the threads and gently pull them while you start stitching. This will help get everything moving along smoothy. (shown above)

sew, sew, sew

Your elastic should look something like this:

I trim my seam allowances. Not absolutely necessary.

Measure down about 3/8" from the top of the band and start sewing on the channeling:

Trim seam allowance.


Lay the bra right side down on your table and flip the elastic to the inside. I pin the elastic down close to the cup/band seam allowance and use my fingers to feel the seam.

Now for the part that sort of gave me a heart attack the first time I did it. Grab your scissors and *GASP* cut the elastic (!) trimming it to fit along the seam. Do this for both sides.
Below, you can see my trimmed elastic and on the table the little piece I cut out:

Move everything over to your machine and start stitching down the elastic as you normally would. I use a 3-step zig-zag.

When you get to the elastic under the cup narrow your stitches to fit and be sure you don't catch the cup or channeling :

Begin stitching down the channeling with a straight stitch:

When you get to the bottom of the cups just stitch right over the elastic. This encloses the raw edge so your elastic will not ravel. Now go sew the channeling down on the other side.

Oooo... that looks nice!

You can see how the elastic/channeling just barely peeks out from underneath the cup. Stitching the channeling down over the elastic it helps it to not flip up, too.

Below is the oustside with wires inside the channeling:

Here's the inside view:

Finish up your bra per the instructions and VOILA! You have a GOR.GE.OUS new bra!

Sewing along

I finished up the danglez DB3 custom bra the other day and here it is on me:

It's really droopy because I didn't add any support or lining. It's just one layer of fabric all over. BUT, the fit is much better! The top cup is a bit large but I think it's due to the lace being a little too stretchy and the bottom cups need about 1/2" shaved off the bottom. I sent some pictures to Dini and she sent back a PDF with the alterations to make to the cups. Groovy! So, that'll be my next project. Also, in bra making news, I joined Sigrid's Lingerie Sew-Along. It should be fun and hopefully I'll learn some more. I'm hoping to get that dang tutorial done too. I've been trying to organize it in my head but I've never done a big tut so I hope I do it right and don't ramble on like I usually do!

I'm currently working on my Beignet skirt from Colette Patterns and I'm so excited about it! I got the pattern cut out and will try to get the fabric cut today. With babysitting and all I just don't get into the sewing room much. Today is the last day though so I should start crankin' more stuff out soon. There won't be any sewing this weekend though because my hubby's band has a gig in Borger, TX tomorrow and I'm an unofficial roadie. Yep, I help load/unload/tear down all their equipment. It's tiring for sure but I enjoy watching them play so it's okay. :-D I also have fun drawing logos for them. The pin-up on the website is mine and I drew the original pin-up that they use on their t-shirts. (Wow, that was a shameless plug, huh?! LOL!) Anyhoo, we won't get back home until early Sunday and we'll be totally exhausted.

I never did get pictures of my new vintage lingerie! Oh well, it'll have to wait till next week. I hope you all have a rockin' wekend!
xoxo,
Heather

New bra!

I got busy yestersay and finished up the Danglez bra from my custom drafted pattern.

I just need to shorten the straps a little and then it will be done. The cups are still a bit big but I think it'll be okay to wear. I'm sort of afraid to make anymore bras since I've started losing weight (3 lbs so far! wOOt!!!). I always lose boobage so I dunno what to do. Anyhoo, I think I will shave off a bit from the bottom cups next time and see how that works. The cups should fit into the band better too since I seem to have to stretch the band to fit the cup. I'm not really sure if that's the way it should be.

I recently found a new independant patternmaker! They are Colette Patterns. They are gorgeous! I purchased three so far and I'm thinking I need the other two!

These are the three I got. I'm thinking about making up the skirt first. From the people that have made up her patterns so far they are drafted tremendously well and the garments fit like a glove. Plus, the pattern sizing is more like RTW and they all go from size 0 up to an 18. So I'm talkin' 46" bust, 38" waist, 48" hip for the size 18! Cool! I personally think that's awesome. Also, the packaging is sooo pretty. Each one is a little booklet with stitched bindings. The instructions are very thorough and include several well drawn diagrams. Yay!

I didn't get the pictures of the vintage lingerie since I was sewing ALL DAY yesterday. I'll try to get that done during naptime this afternoon (maybe). I also took pictures as I was going along so I'll have the tutoral for making a full bra band look like a partial.

I better get going for now. Gotta take the little ones outside for some playtime!

Whew!

Well, I just got back from the eye doctor and had some good news to share. Last time, my eye pressures were up really high but when she checked them today they were normal! Whoo hoo!! I still have some nerve stuff going on that we have to keep a close eye on. It's basically the very beginning stages of Glaucoma. With me being an artist and fanatical sewist it really made me nervous and well, downright scared! I mean seiously, I just can't go blind. I feel relieved and all the more determined to eat well, exercise, and be healthy.


I want to wish all the fellow Mommas out there a belated Happy Mother's Day! I hop you all had a loverly day! I had a nice day of sleeping in, lounging around, and I even took a nap! Gene cleaned the kitchen for me, too! Now that's a major gift. For my present, I'm getting some Le Creuset cookware. YES! I fell in love with it when I was a bridal consultant some years ago and have been wanting some for, like, EVER!! If you can't tell, I'm most excited about this.

Oh! Look what I found this morning!!! Yep, those are baby apples! The tree is covered with them this year so I'm really hoping for some delish apples this fall. I've mentioned before how wonderful these little guys are so I'm pretty stoked.

I've been at a bit of a dead end with sewing. I did work on a special order for panties and got them done Saturday. I made about 4-5 muslins for the bodice of Butterick 5181 and it's just not workin'. I think I'm going to scrap the bust dart and just do gathers. I'd like to squeeze a little bra sewing in today since the rest of the week I'm babysitting for some friends of ours. Their little girl, who is about 21 months, is good as gold and I love watching her. I'm kinda thinking about breaking out my Portabello Pixie patterns and making her something. I haven't tried them yet and they are so darn adorable!!!

I totally scored the other day at the thrift shop and I want to show you what I got. I'll try to get some pictures taken and post tomorrow or later today. Anyhoo, I absolutely love vintage lingerie (who could have guessed that?!) and so if I find some I like to add to my collection. I picked up some frothy peignoirs and an orange, yes orange, nightie! It's so cute. I hope someday to fit into it! I also added to my vintage pattern stash. Surprise, surprise!

Until then, have a lovely Monday!

Whoo hoo

Yippee! I got my custom bra pattern from Danglez yesterday! I held up my original tracing to the new pattern and it is considerably smaller. In a good way I think. Dini was also very generous in that she included a patterns for a diagonal seam and vertical seam cup! Cool huh?

I am working on Butterick 5181 view B right now, though. I think I've got the bodice fitted. Well I tissue fitted it and today I want to get a muslin made up to make sure it fits in fabric! I had to do a 3" FBA so we'll see. It's a cute dress and as I've mentioned before I really like this maxi style so I hope it works on me. I'm thinking about wearing it with a little cardigan or something to cover my heavy upper arms. Of course when it's super hot this summer I'm not going to give a crap about my arms! But for now....

I'm totally exhausted this morning. Gene and I started up our swimming again after being off for 3 weeks. We were all sick with coughs and crap but all better now. It's amazing how much strength is lost in 3 weeks! I've also started reading Jillian Michaels' new book Master Your Metabolism. I just started and am only about 1/4 of the way through but so far it's a good read. She talks about all the chemicals and crap that are in our food and environment that are messing up our bodies and how it in turn makes us fat. Very interesting and kinda scary!

Well, I think that's all I have for this post. Will get some pictures up when I have more done on the dress. Also I know some of you are waiting for that tutorial on how to make the front bra band narrower. I have not forgotten! I will get to that ASAP! ;-D

Until then, have a good one!

How to avoid Swine Flu

Don't do this:

My sister e-mailed me this. It was a forward from somewhere so I don't know who's baby this is. Seriously, how cute is this?! And kinda gross....

Merckwaerdigh finished

I finished the Merckwaerdigh CUPL16 bra up yesterday. Here she is:

Here's the cool strap detail:

It threw me for a loop for a little bit. The English translation of the instructions were slightly vague on how to do the whole thing so I just storta went for it and I think I did it right! It looks like the picture....so I say screw it if I did it wrong 'cause this worked and that's what matters!

I do think the fabric is a bit too stretchy. A ridge formed over the seam allowances as seen here:

It shows through clothing and my husband so lovingly pointed out that I look like I'm nippin' all time. Nice. Thanks honey, just want a girl wants. Anyhoo, I'll try it again in a slightly firmer fabric. Maybe 30-40% stretch (this has about 60%). Some other adjustments I'll need to make are:

1. Alter the top cup to bring the straps in by about an inch. As it is they are spaced too far apart so the straps slip off my shoulders occasionaly. Not as bad as my RTW bras but enough to be an annoyance.

2. The band under the cups is too wide so it folds up under my breasts especially when I sit. I'll simply trim the seam allowance so the band elastic is barely visible from the outside. The front band folding up is a common problem for us curvy girls since we tend to have a "shelf" under the breast. The shelf being our tummies.

I'll take pictures as I go along so ya'll can see what I've done. I know several of you out there are making bras for the first time so hopefully this advice will help you along!

My custom pattern from Danglez should be here in the next few days and I'm really looking forward to testing it! I've been stalking our mail woman and all she brings are bills and crap. Well, yesterday she brought me these:

So, I guess I'll forgive her. For now. The two on the top left will be maxi dresses. I'm all about maxi dresses this summer! I LOVE 'em! The pattern on the bottom left is for some very pretty head wraps. A group of us on PR are making caps for people who are undergoing chemo. I haven't had an opportunity to make any up yet since I've been concentrating on bras. I haven't even mentioned it here yet but will go into more detail later. These caps will be donated to my local cancer center. Here's a link to a free pattern if anyone is so inclined to make some up or donation. If you make any up send me link to your pics. I'd love to see them!

xoxo,

Heather

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

Quickie

Just a quickie note to let everyone know we are still alive. I have been sewing. Quite a bit actually! I've made Conner about 4 pairs of pants from the 1/2009 Ottobre issue. They turned out so well and fit perfectly.

I've also been working on a bra for me that actually fits. I made up a Sewy Rebecca and L.O.V.E. it. I just need to make some adjustments to the apex. It has a little East/West action going on since I have to use a pattern that is intended for a woman with a larger ribcage. I discovered that I have a "narrow" ribcage, btw. At least part of me is narrow! LOL!! I tried the Queen Elite again and used the 46H and the cups fit pretty well. I had to take out about 2" from the back band pattern which is a total of 4". Whew! I wore it yesterday and was comfortable all day. I didn't have any wires for that size so it was just a soft cup. I really need wires for shape though. This was a sort of "muslin" though and I think I can cut into my better bra fabrics now. I just need to call Needle Nook and order the wires needed for that size. I also need to stabilize the lower cup which I haven't been doing on any of the bras. I've also been reading Beverly Johnson's book and it has a wealth of information! It's expensive but worth every penny, IMHO.

I'll try to get some pictures up. I've been very lazy in that department and I haven't done a review for Patternreview in forever. I started cleaning up my sewing area yesterday and I seriously need to find a way to organize all my patterns. I found two Simplicity 3503's for cryin' out loud. It's a pretty dress but geez...I don't need two! One idea that I have, which will be rather labor intensive, is to scan them all, print the pictures, and put them all in a 3-ring binder in numerical order. Then organize all the patterns themselves in numerical order and maybe by company too. SO, all I'll have to do is flip through a book to see what I want. Eeeek...that sounds like an awful lot of work.... but it would be totally awesome.

A little experiment...or, the fun things you can do with Kool-aid!

A little experiment
Originally uploaded by li'l miss muffett

I love to dye things. It's just so darn fun...

So, I did a little experiment the other day. Now, dyeing with Kool-aid is way cool because you don't have to worry about wearing layers of protective gear or worry that your childrens' hair will fall out or their fingers will fall off.

I've dyed wool yarn with Kool-aid and it really comes out beautiful! Nylon can be dyed in this way also and I've seen several Etsy sellers that dye vintage slips or girdles, etc. and it looks soooo GOOD!

Anyhoo, I pulled out a scrap of white nylon tricot (the kind used for slips, panties and bras) that was about the size of an average pair of panties and cut about a yard of white stretch lace. This will kinda give you a reference for how much dye is needed for your fabric/lace/undies.

Here's how it went if you want to try it:

The first go around, I filled a large saucepan with water and brought it to a boil. I dunked in the nylon and lace and then sprinkled the Kool-aid on top (my mistake, apparently) and stirred and squished it with a potato masher until the water started to look clear, water simmering all the while. Then I removed the fabric and lace, rinsed till the water ran clear, and hung them up to dry. By doing it this way I came up with a really groovy tie-dyed effect. Although it was really pretty, it wasn't quite what I was going for. So I started another pot of water and this time added the Kool-aid first. This produced a much more uniform spread of color but still a little tie-dyeish. This could be due to the fact that it was swirly to begin with.

The color is really hard for the camera to pick up but it's a really pretty pinky-purple with swirls of blue. The lace picked up the colors differently as you can see in the picture. Some parts took more of the Kool-aid's blue dye and others took more of the pink.

My next color was going to be cherry red but a certain munchkin living in my house made it in to an actual drink. Dammit!

This is a very "KOOL" experiment to do with you kids too!
Have fun!

EDIT: After posting this I found out that you don't have to boil the fabric and in fact it's not too nice on the elastic in the lace. Instead bring your water to a simmer and then turn off the heat. Add the kool aid, stir, then add the fabric. Continue to stir/mash until the water is clear or you get the color desired!

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