Summer Buttericks

I am on to the next thing this morning. Two more weeks and we leave to go home. I spent most of last week resting from bra-making and working on generic blouse patterns for me. More on that later. I am in DC in two weeks and I realized and had promised my son there a shirt (which I have been putting off because I want it to be perfect and to read David Coffin's book first) and he gave me a bolt he would like me to make some curtain things for over his closet with, with those rings. I have never used the rings and the thing is that the wonderful fabric he gave me is burlap.

Yes burlap. This should be an adventure. Remain posted.

I said a while back that I was beginning to despair over Butterick's shrinking offerings and here this morning they have posted some cool patterns for knit tops, very wearable, and an easy dress that would be perfect for some rayon Batik I have a home. Of course now I have to find a pattern sale, there is a Jo Ann's here but the patterns never seem to be on sale. Maybe BVM club will do me a favour soon.

So here are my pattern potentials for some fast summer sewing.

Unqualfied thoughts on bra-fitting

Disclaimer is that this is just how it seems to me.

First I would forget that weird measure above you bust and add 5" nonsense. If that was true we would all be a 42 A and we are not. Ask any professional bra fitter and she will tell you that most women wear a band size that is too large and a cup size that is too small.

Interesting fact one: If your bra is uncomfortable and you always feel you have to haul the band down, you band is not too tight, it is actually too loose. A smaller band size will stay put and therefore be more comfortable. In my own experience after my very expensive bra fitting experience the band size that fit me in the end was very close to the actual measurement of my chest under my breasts, in fact the band measure was the measurement of my body where the band would be, funny thing.

Interesting fact two: the size of the cup goes down as the band size increases. This means that a 34D has the same actual cup size (and of course underwire size) as a 36B and a 38A. Just pause and think that one through. So if you feel your cups are sort of baggy in a current bra, you might be better to go down a band size with the same cup size than keep the same band and a smaller cup.

So maybe your "fitting" issues are wrong size, lack of information, issues.

Interesting isn't it?

Stuff to make bras

As my friend Robin commented on the last post, bra-making has the potential to deliver some returns to our frugal natures. Meaning, yes, you can save money doing this.

This makes bra-making unique in my sewing world where I am sure I am spending far, far more to make my own than buy it. In fact I know I am.

When you consider bra-making one of the things that is really intimidating is the number of supplies you need and all the weird little findings. There are some great kits out there but if you want to try this out on your own here is a list of things you can collect or access from your collection to get you started.

I want to emphasize that a lot of this stuff can be collected along the way for very little in a random sort of way, often as discount or weird left-overs in those funny stores that seem to buy a lot of discount lots of job ends - you know the kind of places that have tin roofs. So here is what you need to keep on the look-out for. In short this is kind of a basic supply list for a bra without underwires, if you want an underwire bra, you will need those of course and a casing, called channeling to contain the wires:

1. Fabric, this is easy, anything a little but not too stretchy for the cups (tricot, firm and stretchy cotton lycra, or even bathing suit stuff) You will only need a tiny bit, a couple of handkerchief's worth really. Save your scraps.

2. Power knit, no substitute for this for the sides and if you make a version like mine the front piece under and around the cup. You can online this from anywhere, but I got mine from a discount fabric store in Winnipeg, $5 a meter, excellent quality 60" wide. I have enough to make bras for the rest of my life. Trick is to find a place that doesn't understand what they have.

3. Wider plush elastic to go around your body, the worst and most wasteful way to buy this is in packages, see if you can grab some somewhere by the yard.

4. Skinny but hopefully fancy lingerie elastic for the neckline and around the top/underarm/back. You will use up yards of this stuff so grab what you can. I have a picture here of some really nice lingerie elastic (this was from Bra maker's supply the rest on the other bras was from a discount bin) so you can see how professional a good edging elastic can make it all look. I would definitely try to find the nicest you can for this. Look too for little bows or things to dress it up if you want too.

5. Strap elastic, this looks like shiny tape and stretches only a little - often great deals on this, because it looks like pretty useless elastic to most people. You might also as an alternative be able to buy lingerie straps pre-made.

6. Little sliders and rings made usually of plastic. I found these the hardest to source and then there is the colour issue. I was finally lucky enough to get a bag of clear plastic slides and a bag of clear plastic rings for 49 cents each, 50 in bag on the wall of an old fabric store. You will need these to make your own straps with the strap elastic.

7. Hooks for the back, most fabric stores carry these.

Bra report in stages: the pattern, adjustments and thoughts

OK, it has been a flat out week with all my projects but here is the bra report. I am going to post this in stages with different headlines to get my thoughts in order.

I have made two cotton/lycra bras, (one with cotton eyelet overlay in the upper cup, one with stretch lace as a second layer in the upper cup),  one with one shiny tricot with woven lace layer in the upper cup, and one sort of matte heavy weight knit with stretch eyelet over lay in upper cup.

None of these bras are as fancy as those I have seen other sewers make, but they fit me well, are comfortable (the cotton interlock are of course my favourite), and have got me to the point where I am construction confident enough to get more creative. I have four more cut out in black.

First of all this is a really well drafted pattern. Things that need to be the same size so they fit together later in construction actually are and actually do. This hardly ever happens so I am pleased. I also really like that the straps are made of fabric to match the fronts well over the shoulders.

My first bra was so weird even Rascal laughed, it looked like something that a 90 year old would have worn in 1922 if you can picture that, but I quickly realized that I had the same problem Robin reported when she used this pattern and that was that the pieces under the arm were too large, that explained why it was falling forward on my front. Robin solved this with an underarm dart and I did essentially the same thing by changing the angle (straightening them really) on the front and back pieces that met in the side seam to eliminate that extra. Worked great and my fitting issues were 90% solved. The final 10% was achieved by taking in the cup seam a little as it neared the underarm.

The bad thing about fitting a bra is that you have to actually complete the whole thing before you can access fit (make you first one with your worst stuff) the good thing is that there are so few seams that there are really a limited number of places where you have to adjust and small adjustments make a big difference.

If you can face making one or two bras to perfect your fit (about an afternoon each if you are just learning) you will have a reliable pattern to make something for next to nothing that can cost a fortune in the stores. Next to nothing if you are working with leftovers or have collected the materials along the way. More on supplies later.

As I wanted to make a wireless bra I did these things for extra support:

1. The pattern calls for one layer of lingerie type tricot for the under and between the breasts part on the front. I substituted a layer of Powernet which I think worked quite well.

2. All sewn bras have at least one seam, as this one does across the cup. This has some disadvantages for T shirt wear (and I have posted a picture of one bra in a too tight T shirt so you both see what I mean and so you can see the kind of non-wireless support I got). The instructions tell you to use a single layer for each and to top stitch the seam allowances open. I don't do that all that well with 1/4" seams in tricot and in some cases (like the one shown here) did a triple zig zag instead. I am not happy with this as of course it articulates this seam even more, so in later versions ( I made four successive bras) I cut the bottom cup twice and sandwiched the upper cup between the two and flipped it up, encasing the seam, which was much nicer.

3. On the subject of cups I did all the lower cups double (see above) and I would advise that.

Finally how supportive are these wireless bras? Pretty good I would say and enormously comfortable. I have some wires and will do another version soon with those to see, but putting them up to my bras I would say they do add shape to the cup and definitely move the cup in at centre front right up to your sternum that extra little bit.

My analysis: if bra less is 0% support, these wireless are about an 87% and I figure the same bra with wires would be about 93-94%. 100% would be my expensive bra that holds me up and completely rigid and leaves bright red marks in my chest bone and all around my body.

I also calculate that my wireless version is about 11-13% more comfortable than the same version would be with wires. But that needs to be field tested.

You do the math.

OK why I tried to sew bras

First, well this month I have the time and in bursts of buying enthusiasm acquired the supplies and patterns to do it. All that stuff has been making me feel guilty and as I explained to Rascal this week we were going to allow ourselves three tries at bra-making and if that didn't work we were going to take all our bra stuff down to the dumpster and throw it in and put it all behind us for life. We have other projects. This is our moving on vacation as expressed in our sewing.

Also I have had another idea in the back of my mind ever since my daughter was pregnant. 

I had an odd moment when maternity shopping with 

my daughter when the sales person told us why a non-maternity bra couldn't be worn when nursing. She showed us some underwires and said " They put the wires forward to push your breast tissue out to the front to add to the cleavage and of course that cuts off the ducts and will make you engorge." Her maternity wired bras had the wires set way back. 

That got me thinking though that all this underwiring might not be all that good for you. When you think about it your poor old breasts are just mammary tissue and we are applying all this wire and foam and stuff to them to change them around and maybe we are not doing that with a lot of respect. I mean I am as appalled as the next fashion conscious woman by sagging boobs, and personally consider a good well-supported bustline  essential to looking good, but as I had read that the real support was in the band and that the wires were just to keep the cup in shape, I decided I wanted to see if it was possible to make a non-wired, supportive bra, that was just well more sympathetic.

I wondered if it would be possible to make something just as pretty and interesting that would support a D cup without the wiring.  

THis is the pattern I used from Bra-maker's Supply:

Sewing bras- why bother? And why bother not

OK this is going to take several posts so bear with me.

We will start with the reasons to sew your own bras:

1. Other sewers are doing it and the results are impressive. No one has said it was too hard to do. There are some great photos on the now closed Pattern Review Lingerie contest.

2. This is one area where you can actually save money sewing and there aren't many left. In a moment of trance-like madness I got a proper bra-fitting last year (worth every penny because I have been two band and cup sized wrong my whole life) and walked out with a $250 bra. Am I insane? Apparently that day yes. Well this bra is now the only one I have that really fits and I'm not paying that again, obviously.  Cheaper right size bras haven't fitted well at all and they are just too structured with too much gear for me.

3. You can get exactly what you want. I often wish I had a supportive cotton stretch bra that had support but didn't look like a runners bra. I don't run except to the fabric sales.

4. These are small things and there is the possibility to get creative and make matching sets with scraps of fabric.

5. You might get more comfort. 

Reasons not to sew bras:

1. As Robin points out you don't know if this thing is going to fit until you are done. So by definition these projects have the potential for considerable sewer's rage, throwing wadders across the room, doubting yourself as a capable seamstress, and buyer's remorse over all that cash you spent on supplies for such a Stupid Idea. (I didn't actually experience this, much, but could visualize it as I understand my sewing personality).

2. It would look homemade, like something that got put together in the Depression from feedsacks.

3. Come on you can't make everything and sewers every where need to be careful of exposing themselves too often to those moments where you actually go inside a store and find that the thing you spent so much time and money perfecting with online fabric purchases, plus shipping, 400 hours on online pre-sewing education to fine-tune fit and technique, and 4 different patterns, is on sale in the discount store in exactly the right colour, size and fabric for $15.

On your own style

Won't you be glad when I am back at work and don't have all this posting time?

One of the housecleaning jobs I have done is to clean up my bookmarks on my computer. You know every time you come across a cool sewing site you click "add bookmark" and soon you have hundreds and hundreds. I have decided to do an edit and in doing so have divided those that reflect who I am from those that represent what I feel I should be.

So I am sorry but all those "how French women dress" blogs and sites are gone now. Along with all the ideal wardrobe advice. 

I think I need a real wardrobe before I need an ideal one. 

Why? Well because I am what I am and although I admire and learn some things from French style it would be pushing it to say that I would be comfortable in another skin. To tell you the truth too I find all those "what French women do" books and articles a little annoying. For a start I have lived in Montreal for quite a while and my dear husband's mother is French as in Acadienne. Now before anyone thinks that drinking red wine is going to make you French size I have to tell you that a lot of it is genetics not lifestyle. I mean my very wonderful mother-in-law and sisters-in-law love to eat, but those girls, well they are built like birds and nothing is going to change that or change me into that.

It's about coming to terms with who you are and where you came from and working on expressing that. Now I am not saying that if your background runs towards sweatshirts and running shoes with mom jeans at the supermarket that you should just stay there and not step up your game, I mean even my own mother knows what cilantro is for goodness sake, which she sure didn't when we were growing up, but it's like cooking, you integrate in new ideas if they are smart and suit you - you enjoy who you are and enjoy new ways of being that, and when you get dressed aim for some style and don't ever decide that the occasion, the day, or yourself isn't worth that effort.

Which brings me to healthy weight and living. I remember when I was a kid there was a pathologist who lived next door in our small town and when the hockey coach died in his early 40's, much to everyone's amazement because he was the fittest guy we knew, the doctor friend when quizzed about this man's arteries couldn't say much, but did say "you know sometimes it's not just what you eat, but what's eating you."

Doctors used to talk like that.

If you're traditionally built go with it and the way I look at weight is just to ask yourself if any of those pounds are there because you are not happy with who you are, and if they are, then that's what you have to lose first.  Eat just one serving most meals if you can and remember the foods that working people ate where you came from. Trouble is we all eat now as if every day was Sunday. Keep your body moving even if it is washing the floor. Don't make it harder than it has to be.

You have to like your own skin before you worry about what you put on it. So I have cut out all the self-improvement bookmarks and kept all the being myself ones. The blog sites on my sidebar are those I love and belong to sewers who make clothes I would wear myself and have the kind of style I aspire to. 

Cutting out the clutter.