April Fool's Day - A Surprise Post...

Hello everyone,

Yes, I have a cheeky smile on my face, because today is April Fool's Day.  And this post looks like it is going to be about a t-shirt, but no, I'm actually doing my first post about lingerie.  I've just completed my first bra, and was not going to post my opening picture showing me in a bathroom selfie,  wearing my first bra attempt:

I've actually change the picture a bit, by using photoshop - this is a water colour rendering of my original photo, which was a little too candid for my liking!

The pattern I used was one I stashed some years ago, with the idea that one day I would be made enough to attempt to make these things!  It's Kwik Sew 3594.

As you can see, it has been drafted by Kerstin Martensson, so it is a nice little make.  Before I made this bra, I watched a Craftsy course called Sewing Bras: Construction and Fit, by Beverly Johnson.  This class really takes you through the materials and steps needed to make a bra.

I had already purchased a few odds and ends a few years ago - elastic, closures, and so on.  I used a cotton lycra knit for the band, and scraps of cotton jersey for the cups and self fabric straps.

Now, I do not always learn things easily, so I had a bit of a practice run with pink scraps:

Now, the stitching across the bust and down the centre of the front is my adaption - I used a stretch stitch here, you are supposed to use a straight stitch.  But as I was playing around, I wanted to see what this stitch would do.  Yes, a poor student of technique I know, but I love the idea of this stitch for use somewhere one day!

I'm glad I did this practice, because I hadn't quite got the gist of what Beverly had shown us. So then I did my first practice run to completion.

Measuring and fitting a bra is quite complex.  I could be a 32A, 32C, 34A,34B or 36A depending on a number of factors - you can use high bust, full bust, underbust and cup depth measurements.  In the end I plumped for 34B as a starting point.  It has come out a little too large, I think too deep in the lower cup, and I could take a tuck out of the centre of the cup.  The band feels right.  So I think I should try an A cup, but stay with the same band size.  However, the bra is quite wearable, and just oh so comfortable, so I think it will be worn in the evening when I want to wear something comfortable.  I also need to test how it wears for a day, and how it stands up to wash and wear.

I'll quickly show you what the bra looked like - and bear in mind that I am a beginner, so this is not my greatest work:

I find that this is very fiddly sort of sewing, but I sort of enjoy it, as I often get what I call fragmented time.  Much of my sewing is done 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, which is not a very enjoyable way of sewing and gets frustrating.  So I think sewing little things like this will actually be good way for me to keep a sewing rhythm.  I think I would also get fed up doing little seams for a long stretch of time, but a small run while having morning coffee will be really nice way to tackle this sort of sewing. And ordinary garments can be done when I have half hour blocks.

So, with this plan in mind, I have purchase bits of similar stretch and weight cotton jerseys in different colours, along with lots of elastics, casings, closures etc from a supplier in Australia called - wait for it - "Booby Traps".    They are the number one in Australia for lingerie supplies, but I have not found this on any of the blogs I have read about bra making.

And next week I will tell you about the striped t-shirt :)

Bye for now,

Sarah Liz