Sigrid - sewing projects

Van Burda 02 2013 106This is the jacket I’ve sewn last week. It’s from BurdaStyle’s February issue.  A full review of it can be found on Pattern Review.It’s also the last post on this blog for a (little?) while. After almost 6 year of blogging I find it difficult to write something new. Í don’t think it’s interesting to read about the way I construct a jacket for the third, fourth.. time, see yet another bra or t-shirt. Perhaps it’s winter-blues and am I in need of some sunshine and higher temperatures. We’ll see.Edited to add: Thank you for all your kind words. I’ll be back. Just need a break.For now happy Easter everyone and till next time.

O dear, is she again saying she’s entering a contest and not meeting the deadline by weeks (or even months)? No, this time I’m managing a contest. A first time for me. On April 1 a new contest "2013SpringPantonecolors" will start. This week the discussion started about ideas and the interpretation of the rules. I’m sure it will be a fun contest. And though I can’t enter the contest for real, I will try to sew an outfit in one or more of these colors (hope to find them, I might have some Monaco blue but the others are not in my stash probably).If you like the idea be inspired or join the fun! These are the colors, numbers and names for the colors for women (the palet for men is a bit different)..>

Sometimes I work with lycra that is thin and has a lot of stretch. Not a good fabric for my bra’s, as I need support both in the cups and the band. Often the nice lycra’s (and besides beautiful lace I do love a lycra with a beautiful print) are too thin to use as they are. The solution: interfacing. The downside of using an interfacing: risk of shifting layers with pleats as result. This is what happened in the center of this bra that I made a couple of years ago, look at the bottom of the bridge:This is how I tackle this issue now (and I’m sure I’ve written about this before, can’t find the post however):Depending on the result I want I use an interfacing which has no stretch at all or that has a little stretch (but less than the lycra). The bridge is always interfaced with an interfacing without stretch. I’ve used the lycra of this example for an all-lycra bra without lace which is not finished yet, and used an interfacing with a bit of stretch for both the cups and the band in a ve…

There were a few questions and comments on my last posts on bra making that I will try to answer here. DaneMum asked whether the change to accomodate the cup circumference to the band/wire length for the cup is a large change. In this case it was only a matter of overlapping a centimeter of one cup piece. The other pieces were not changed. I always have a bit of extra space in the cup that I work into the band (like a sleeve head) because of the extra volume I need. I’ve always done it like that, and in Beverly Johnson’s book Bra making part two she confirmed that this is the right thing to do for my shape. The shape she calls an omega-shape (narrow chest, full cup).Diana mentioned that it would be nice to have some of the lace in the back of the bra. I think she’s right and it would have been lovely. I like to do that on another bra, this one will remain as it is, but it’s a nice idea to have something attractive at the back too.Amanda asked how the width of the band would refer to a…

In the lingerie sew-along I orgnized a few years ago I’ve published this post on how I sew the elastic to the band. I’m re-posting it here for general information. I’ll try to gather a bit of those posts as a conclusion to my lingerie sewing month.One of the most common problems in bra making is the rolling/flipping of the elastic to the inside. This is often caused because the elastic is sewn too low on the band. In one of the classes I took it was told that the maximum height of the band under the cup is 1.25 cm (0,5 inch). It was said that in a lingerie sewing contest  this was one of the things that got extra attention.
This is the way in which I sew the underband. It’s specially made as a tutorial, so only a partial bra is shown and non-matching colors are used for all parts.Sew cups in the underband.Sew the elastic to the  underband, pluche side up and picots pointing to the cup.On the inside, sew the chanelling to the cup, on the very edge, almost onto the seam where you sewed …

Tonight I have traced a pattern from the March issue of Knip mode. But while tracing it and comparing the line drawing and drawing for the cutting layout, I got confused. Is there a gathering at the back too? The drawing on the cutting layout shows an a-symmetrical pattern piece. The line drawing is not clear, as it hides the back for the most part. I’m almost sure I’ve written on this before and I simply don’t get why Knip Mode always makes line drawings like this. I want to see the back completely too. Is there something special or not in the back. I started reading the instructions for the top and there was nothing on gathering the back, just “sew the side seams”. Then I looked at the dress which is basically the same pattern. The wrap on the front is also on the back. Not or hardly visible in the line drawing. Also no photos of the back in the magazine. In the instructions for the dress there is the instruction to gather the back on the side. They forgot to copy that text in the i…

Thank you ladies for all your very kind comments on my last bra.Lauriana asked how the shoulderstrap and cup were connected. Good question and it was not visible in my photos. Here two close-up photo’s that had too much light from the flash, but with the advantage of showing the details of the black fabric. When sewing the elastic to the side of the cups I carefully check and mark the width of the shoulderstrap and make sure that the picot edge of the elastic is in line with the shoulderstrap when the elastic is turned. The shoulderstrap is sewn to the cup and topstitched to flatten the seam.  This is one of the ways I use regularly. Another way is putting a ring between the shoulderstrap and the cup.

February is a short month and the past week there were family matters to take care of, so again I did less than I hoped to do. But I’m pretty pleased with this bra, which has the cups of Merckwaerdigh BHST2 and the band of my tnt pattern. After making many, many bra’s I know that this band gives me good support, is comfortable and doesn’t ride up. What I did is making sure the cups fitted into the band. It meant taking in the lower cup a tiny bit but I didn’t make any other changes. Through experience I know which cupsize I have in in the Merckwaerdigh line of patterns.As I’ve said before the trouble with bra making is that you can’t judge the fit untill it’s almost finished and I’m happy the fit is very good. The cups have good breast coverage and center front is on my rib cage. My dressform is even a bit too wide and closing there is quite a bit of tension on the back. The reason why the shoulderstraps are not straight up. Tonight I will be making the accompanying panties, there is …