Saturday, December 20, 2008

Another set

Below a little detail of the second set. If you click on it and browse further there are a few more details. A picture on my dressform is the best I could do.

I had wanted little red bows as embellishment, but they were not available at the moment, so I decided to finish with black bows.

In the comments I was asked where I did learn to sew ling.erie. I did take a few courses and workshops and learned most of it there. Later I started sewing a couple of commercial available patterns and as with other patterns too, I learned from the instructions in these patterns too. And as I've said before (but not all of you will have read my posts on this), sewing this is not as difficult as it perhaps seems. You have to be accurate, and you need a lot of different notions, but sewing is not that difficult.

Fitting is another matter, don't be disappointed if your first bra doesn't have the perfect fit. The problem is that you can only try on a bra when it's nearly finished. And I assure you, my first bra's weren't perfect either. But I'm glad I persisted and can wear this more luxury style in different variations and not too expensive. 

Some background to my history: when I started buying bra's myself there hardly was any choice (D75 in European size). Having a D-cup at the time (late 70's) was having a choice in white or flesh color, with very wide straps in a style you don't want to wear when you're 18. There wasn't anything nice in a "normal" store (at least in my memory), and the possibility to go a specialized store was something I wasn't aware of for some time.

When I first got to such a specialized store a new world opened for me, there really was something else. I remember vividly the French Lou, and American Warner being the two companies that had bra's that fit me. I got addicted to these and even remember going to stores in France when on holiday there. But as a student I could never afford to buy a lot and wore them till the very end. Just too expensive and I remember friends who couldn't understand the amount of money I paid for a good bra. And later, when money wasn't that short any more, I kept to those brands for most of the time.

Fast forward to about 2001-02, when I learned to make my own sets. Since then I made a lot of sets for myself, and last year some for my daughter. It's fun to do, but as with other garments too: it's difficult to buy something RTW now I know how to make them.
But I'm very happy for DD that she has ample choice in the shops (and not a difficult size). A lot has changed.

13 comments:

  1. You have done such a beautiful job on your lingerie sets!

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  2. What a cute detail - the motifs form a heart at center front! Did you plan that or did it just happen? I know that there are some unexpected surprises when matching prints.

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  3. Sigrid, your bras are awesome!! I need to dig in your archives for all the related posts.

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  4. I am just sooooo jealous of the lingerie making! And I do like the lace and bow on this amazing bra too!

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  5. Beautiful! I think this set is one of my favourites.

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  6. Just beautiful, as usual. I know what you mean about beautiful lingerie in larger cup sizes! My dd also has a large bust, a 30D in us sizes, the small band size makes it particularly difficult. She spent $82 this summer on a strapless bra for that bridesmaid dress I made her. When she was in Paris she bought some bras at ridiculous prices, and even then they weren't as lovely as yours. At 22 she wants pretty too. Now she is in Korea and I made sure that she has enough bras because she will never find any there! She is a size small here and a large in Korea. She can't find a belt to fit her low rider jeans because she has curves. Korean girls have none! Anyways, sorry for the rant. Enjoy your undies.

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  7. You're bras are SO beautiful! I think it's great how some bloggers like yourself have a real specialty in specific areas. The info is so helpful and great with troubleshooting and construction. I almost bought my first bra pattern from fabric.com when they were having their lingerie pattern sale (because of your blog posts) but I waited until evening to order it and they were sold out. That's okay. Jan Bones has her website and I can order it from there when ready.

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  8. You make beautiful lingerie-- very inspiring! I'm kind of afraid to try that, but it would be a useful thing to know how to do (especially since I like stuff that's funky and not too lacey and my bra size number and cup size can be a tricky one to match up!) If I ever get brave enough to try, yours is the first blog I'm hitting for advice.

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  9. What a lovely set. The heart in the middle is pretty - did you do that or was it there in the lace?

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  10. Thanks for sharing the info Sigrid.
    Where do you purchase your Zutaten/bra making material?

    I would love to give this a try. At present I wait until I go to London and then purchase many bras to last me a long time 'til my next trip. I stick to M & S bras, the best fit for me at present. As you may imagine, it is an experience undertaking, so making my own would be so cost efficient!

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  11. Such a beautiful set! You do such an amazing job with your lingerie!

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  12. Can you tell us where you find your patterns for bras? Yours are really beautiful!

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