Amy Butler Print Blouse

I have had this piece of fabric a while and I love the print and the colours so I have used little bits in other things.  It is only now that I have decided to commit to the remainder and make a garment with it but it does mean that I will match some of my soft furnishings when I wear it.  A bit weird I know but maybe I will just have to stay out of the house.
Here are my cut out pieces for my blouse (own pattern).

Recognise the fabric from my Japanese pinwheel cushions if not they are here in February Patchwork Challenge  and here in Japanese Pinwheel Patchwork.  You can also see the fabric in use as a runner here in my retro cupboard makeover.  So I am sure this is not the end of it as there are the little bits left from where I cut out the blouse so they will probably be used for something.

The darts were added once I had sewn the shoulders and side seams as I tend to find I end up moving things around anyway, so now it just appears to be easier to do it this way around.

                   I pin it all up on here then have a quick try on to see it is correct and then sew.

I have added a side zip, just a small one to make it easier to pull on and off due to all the fitting,  I also went for the small sleeves with elastic as I did this on my elephant blouse which is a favourite of mine and I like the result.   The neck is faced and then hand sewn as I do feel you get a nicer finish sometimes than topstitching.

          I have let the darts flow out and shaped the sides a little so it is comfortable for when sitting.

          Not really sure which way was up on this fabric so I went for this way, not sure it matters.

Well  another top completed which is great because that is what I am needing,  due to my obsession with always making skirts and dresses my wardrobe ends up lacking in things to go with skirts and jeans.   I have another little piece of fabric that has just arrived today, it was only a fiver but also only half a metre, I want to make a little T-shirt with that too.  That is my next job.

More Bra and Underwear Making

After spending ages on a bra last week only to decide it wasn't happening due to the wrong lace I was keen to make it work this time and have a wearable garment.  I ordered some more lace from ebay last week, nice and budget friendly, I also saved the bits from the previous project, the underwire and so on.  I did buy a pattern from ebay also, but I have not used it as the style looked so deep so I may do a give away with that at some point and a couple of other brand new patterns I have.  

I decided to use the bra that I deconstructed last week as I know that it is a good fit and I always feel you can't beat things you already own for giving you an idea of fit.  If you have well fitting garments that are past their best but can be used as patterns then you have the basics for making all kinds of things.  Here is the finished set, I will go through below what was easier this time.

I  wanted to make matching knickers to go with the bra so I used a pair I own to get an idea of shape and both pieces have a join down the centre because of the width of the lace and looking at ones that I own this seems to be a common thing.  I used the two colours of lace that I bought  as I wanted this set to be a little different.  I have to say that second time around the bra came together really quickly, I didn't use pads inside like the one I made last week, I wanted this bra to be just lace.

So having already had a go at bra making last week I was more confident in how it went together, there is also the fact that I made a lot of mistakes last time and had that feeling where you think it would have been better if I had stitched it the other way around, or done things in a different order so having that in mind helped.  I did find that I should add the channelling for the bone while attaching the cup to the band, I did this separately last week and got in a topstitching mess.  I really love the way the elastic edging changes the look of the bra, almost instantly making it look more professional.

  It just shows that doing things wrong really is useful!   I know this bra is not perfect and I still have a lot to learn but already I feel more confident with this and that is the main thing.  I have to say it fits perfect, while it doesn't have the moulded pads like a lot of my bras it does have boning and it feels supportive, but I don't really need much support anyway.   The straps are a little wide and I hadn't realised this when I ordered the strap material but I will know for next time.

The little bow on the bra front came with the elastics, but the one on the knickers I had to make so it is not quite as neat.  Looking at this image it could maybe do with a little bow where each cup meets the strap, or would this be bow overload?

I have noticed some of my bras have a reinforced little band at the side but I haven't done one, time will tell if this was required.

Here you can see the straps are quite wide.

I just used the stretch lace no additional elastic and they feel secure.

I only had purple soft jersey that was closest in colour so I used that for the gusset.

In all I am very happy with how this all turned out, it has certainly inspired me to make more but I have an eye out for where I can source inexpensive materials.  The different types of elastic can be expensive and I am loath to spend large amounts on little pieces of elastic!  If anyone knows a good source please let me know, I have seen some nice little stores on Etsy but with the postage it can still be pricey when you factor all the little bits.  As ever I like to reuse so this project had bones from the old bra that I used as a pattern and I will not be getting rid of any bras in future without first taking off all the little loops and bones. 

Making a Bra

Well the last two afternoons have seen me kept busy trying to make a bra, not a floppy one but a structured one with bones.  Now rather than go about it  the usual way and make sure I had everything in place and some decent instructions to follow, I dived in a deconstructed an old bra of mine.  Now this in itself took a while and I have to say what a lot of faffy little bits there are.

Here I am part way through unpicking.

Now I had ordered some lace weeks ago (described as lingerie lace) and some of the notions for bra making.  The lace arrived and my husband said what are you making with this green net curtain! Well I am not sure about net curtain, although possibly? But it certainly was not what I had in mind so really I should have held fire on using that straight way.  I didn't in case you are wondering I ploughed ahead and cut out my pieces!

As I didn't have any moulded cups other than the ones from the old bra I had a go at covering these, in some soft jersey. They didn't hold their shape well with something on them and I felt I was constantly giving them a little smooth out to be sure.

There were also other little mishaps with the lace type, it felt like it was snagging on my hands constantly and I don't have rough hands.  Still in the spirit of not letting it win on I went.  From unpicking and restitching I do feel I have learnt quite a bit about how the garment comes together and I am sure there are lots of little tricks out there to save time, improve fit etc. 

Here are the suspicious looking net curtain pieces. Ha ha

Right this is as far as I got before I decided that this is never going to be worn as it is itchy net style fabric grhhh... I have gathered quite a bit of info from working on it though so all is not lost, the cups sit correctly, it has bones and I have had a play around at trying to sus how to make cups fit without the moulding (but I do need a  bit of that).  In the picture above I had not added the elastic, straps or bow as I would only be taking them off again for my next try.  I don't want to waste any bits.

I will source some better lace and try again, I feel it is important to show that not everything always goes well and that I am constantly learning too, the actual act of hand stitching some bits of the bra was very relaxing as I don't mind that so I will push on and try again.