Tag: Lingerie

Lace underwire bra

On By SharonLeave a comment

I have attended a number of classes over the years to try and solve my fitting issues with an underwire bar and finally found the time to join Michelle from Love_yiayia for a 3 day intensive workshop.

We all start with the Afi Atelier Elegance bra and after customising it in class to fit the Australian Standard Underwires we make a fit bra.

Laying out the pieces so I don’t get as confused.

The finished fit bra looks like this

From here Michelle took a wedge across the cup seam on the left side.

After pattern adjustments we cut out another bra with the same fabrics but this time with all the bits, e.g a full bra with power mesh, underwires, hooks and eyes and straps.

This was when it was obvious I need a 2.5cm wedge added to the top of the right cup taking it down to zero at the bottom of the cup.

Now I have separate patterns pieces for both cups.

The kit I chose was with the Danielle Floral Embroidered Lace.

One of the other attendees had this perfect label for me to use.

This was back in June 2013 and I have made a few more since then,

Using the left over lace for another bra.

I wanted a light coloured bra and this cream with gold lace that had been in the stash for a while was perfect.

There have been other classes with Michelle and after the above two bras a further fine tune of the cups has been done.

Delicate Nothings

On By Sharon12 Comments

One of the classes I attended at the Australian Sewing Guild Convention in Melbourne last year was a class with Tatyana Anderson, called Silk Camisoles that was a 1/2 day course.

Thankfully Tatyana and her staff had cut out our silk and stablised it so we could get started on the placement of our lace straight away.

At the end of the 1/2 day I did have my lace sewn in place, the side seams french seamed and the elastic pinned in place along one edge of the front armhole.

During a couple of ASG group meetings I worked on this to finish the elastic and also to hand roll the hem,

as I couldn’t get a nice finish by machine and then finished the straps.

This is where it was up to when I found out that Tatyana was holding a 2 day workshop in Sydney.  I jumped at the chance to do this, as we hadn’t really dealt with the initial preparation and cutting out of the silk and this is skill I want to work more on.

During the workshop Tatyana pinned my cream straps in place and I was able to sew these in place during the class as well.

Surprisingly to my fellow attendees I had chosen a black silk with a black and gold lace kit.

We set about laying out our pattern pieces on the silk and cutting it out before we started playing with the lace placement.

Seeing I had made a “v” neck for the cream camisole, Tatyana suggested I make this one a round neck which worked perfectly with my lace.

French seams are used and this time I was successful in getting a lovely machine rolled hem.

I was very pleased to get this finished within the 2 days of the workshop.

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Oh Watson, what have I done

On By Sharon13 Comments

but succumbed to the purchase of the Watson Bra and Bikini pattern by Cloth Habit.

The pattern is for a bra with no underwires, has a long line or regular band and also a bikini brief and is for knit fabrics.

The pattern instructions do clearly show you how to take your measurements and Amy does provide a bit more information about breathing when taking your Band measurement as well as holding a Sew Along to help us new to bra sewing.

I normally wear an underwire bra but thought this pattern could be useful for those days that I didn’t want to wear an underwire and also this is the style of bra my sister likes.

Taking my measurements I have a Band size of 30 and a C cup.

Sue, from fadanista pointed out that you don’t have to print all of the pattern out which can save you a quite a bit of paper.

I found some suitable sized pieces of the Cream Mercury Jersey left over from this top in my scrap bag for the cup, cradle and band.

The Straps are the first thing you finish and luckily I had purchased a few metres of Bra strap from Metro Fabrics at Tempe.  As I was making the long line bra I needed a 3-row hook & eye which I purchased from Booby Traps along with some 12mm and 6mm plush back elastic.

The cradle is interfaced or lined and I used some Lisa Ho Power Net for this.

As I wasn’t sure how this would wear I didn’t try and line the bra cups but Carolyn from Handmade by Carolyn has very kindly set out the steps to do this.

I will be trying this out for the next version as their will be a next time as I found this bra very comfortable and supportive to wear.

The only change I will make is reduce the width of the long line band by no more than the width of the elastic as it is just a tad too long for me and keeps folding up.

I will be trying the Bikini brief soon, however elastic and I haven’t had a good experience to date.

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2015 Stash Out: 4.45 m
2015 Stash In: 13,5 m

Bra sew-along

On By Sharon9 Comments

I have finally succumbed to the inspirational posts from Carolyn showing us her gorgeous bras and have signed up with Amy from Cloth Habit for the Bra Sew-along.

Back in 2005, I did try and make a bra at the first ASG Convention I went to in Adelaide, and I still have the partly made bra and the adjusted Booby Traps B003 pattern.

I will start with the Booby Traps pattern and with Spotlight having half price patterns at present I have also purchased KS 3300 which is another style I like.

On the way to work last Thursday I called into Metro Fabrics at Tempe to purchase some underwires and check out what other goodies he had, major overload of all sorts of goodies!

So I have taken my measurements and worked out what size I should make and next up is to make a test bra to see how it fits and of course what adjustments I need to do.

I am wondering what I have got myself into!