Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Pink Vertical Stripe & Coordinates



Well, the gals at PR thought that the drape-neck top was just fine, so now I'm going on with the coordinates. The center fabric is a pink vertical stripe 100% cotton jersey that when washed and dried yelled BROOMSTICK SKIRT so loudly that even my husband heard it! Seriously, he did! The other three fabrics are coordinating bamboo/cotton jersey from fabric.com in pink, fuschia, and lavender. The color didn't come out quite right, but trust me, that's fuschia, not red (as are the stripes in the skirt).

I'm planning to at least make a skirt out of the stripe, and simple tops out of the solids, but I'm working on the skirt first. I'm planning to use Simplicity 4138 View C (3 tiers) if I can make it without having a mountain of fabric around my waist. Skirts are pretty quick for me to make - not nearly as many fitting issues as TOPS! LOL!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

First review posted on patternreview.com

Hey, I just posted my very first review on patternreview.com...

but don't get too excited, it was just for my 11 month old sewing machine, Janome 6600P. Let me know if it's helpful - so far, some people have apparently found it helpful, which surprised me since there were already 35 other reviews of the same machine...

KS 2756 in Pink Bamboo/Cotton Jersey



Hey everyone! I finished this top but am not completely happy with the fit, so Anne St. Clair has offered to draft a Master T-shirt pattern for me, and I've taken her up on it! But this is at least close (and completed!!), so I thought I'd post it anyway.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Tips on fitting bras

Ok, I promised some bra fitting tips, so let's start with "how to tell if it DOESN'T fit right" - I'm only going to talk about things I've encountered myself:

Issue: The center front of the bra is not laying flat against my chest.
Answer: Either the cups are too small OR the bra is not curving back in toward your chest enough as it approaches center front. To tell which is the problem:

1. Is the bra leaving an impression, particularly from the seamline, on you after wearing it for 15 minutes to 1 hour? Or is it causing your girls to hurt (because they're being squashed!)? If so, the cups are too small and you need to make them larger. Measure the gap between the bra and your chest at center front, and for every 1/2" of gap, go up a cup size in the bra pattern you have and try that size.

2. If the bra is not leaving an indentation on you (or hurting your girls), then most likely both the upper cup and the lower cup need to have a tighter curve back toward you as they approach center front. Think of where the two pieces meet as a dart - the dart is not large enough to cup back inward toward center front. To determine how much to curve these, undo only the center cup seam from center front toward the apex, stopping before reaching the apex. Also undo the seam between center front and the upper cup. Now with the bra on, pull the upper cup down toward the lower cup so that they overlap. When the cup conforms to your curve from apex to center front, you have pulled the upper cup down enough. Pin in place and then draw with a fabric marker where you want the seam to lie on the pieces. Change your pattern accordingly, sew this, and see if the problem is corrected. If so, then try wearing it for a day before changing anything else.

I will add more tips later. Gotta go sew for now!

What I'm working on now

I'm currently working on three different projects: a pink bamboo/cotton jersey bra and 2 different top/skirt combinations, Butterick B4127 and New Look 6470. I'm actually cutting out and sewing the bra, but I'm working on getting all of the materials together and altering the other two patterns while I'm waiting for the material to arrive for them :-). I'm hoping to get at least one of these completed this weekend so that I can finally post a review on patternreview.com.

If I make good progress this weekend, then I will share some tips on bra-making from what I've learned over the past three years. Stay tuned!

Butterick B4127:



New Look 6470:


I really need some summer tops quickly, so I decided to stop making blouses (which I can do in my sleep, but I don't have time to make all of them!) and try making something that's faster. I will most likely make the drape-neck top from New Look and matching bras out of the many colors of bamboo/cotton jersey I have now yum-yum! Soft, silky, flowy, breathable, wick-away - I love this fabric!!! Bye for now!