Weekend

Pff, I'm happy it's Saturday, the deadlines were met. Still a lot of work to do (happy with that in these times), but not this weekend.

I received the book Bra makers manual on Wednesday. I ordered it last Saturday from Elingeria in Germany, very fast shipment! And I'm very happy with this book. The book doesn't have patterns (I knew that) but has a wealth on information on bra making. In general it is written for those sewing for others, she often writes about "your clients". And I do think that if you are making bra's for others, this is a very, very good book. It's not the book to order right away if you never made a bra before, too extensive and too expensive for that.

The language and drawings are clear, the pictures of finished bra's not very inspiring, you'd better look at a few rtw lingerie sites for inspiration. On techniques it is great, and that was what I was looking for. I've read a bit in it and will for sure read it from cover to cover, and have seen a few things that I want to try for myself. I'm not sewing bra's for others, and have no intention to do that, but for me I can find information in this book, that I never got in any class/workshop I took, especially on sewing for larger sizes. And it's the first time I find a size table that tells me I have a DD or E cup. In other size tables I usually find that I have C80 (no way!) and for a check just now I calculated on a site that tells me I have A80 (who are they fooling?).

Enough on that, I'm sewing a blouse. I used a very nice quality cotton, feeling very soft and easy to work with. I also used interfacing from Sew Exciting. Pro woven fusible for outer collar stand, cuffs and button placket, pro tricot fusible for the inner collar stand (which I cut on the bias). It made sewing those parts so easy! It's much better than the Vlieseline fusibles I used till now.

It's from BWOF September 2003, a blouse with princess line seams, back yoke, button placket and cuffs with vent. I did an FBA and changed the point of the collar a bit.

For the collar with stand I used the method I always use, with good results again. The method is described a few times, you can find them here. 

Deadlines met

No sewing deadlines, I do have three projects with deadlines this week for work. That's why I've been sewing so little the last two weeks, and in general are not commenting or reading reviews. The deadline for the first was met tonight, and I feel relieved, as the other two are almost finished too, and probably won't require working in the evenings too. TIme to sew again!

I received a few patterns yesterday. I don't know when I get to  make them, but let me share these: Vogue 1066 and 1087. The suit on the left I bought because of the pants pattern. I wondered about this pattern when it was released, as I liked the pants very much, but had my doubts about the jacket for me. Still doubting, but when I saw Tany's version of the pants, the pattern was high on my list. The dress will be an experiment, I like the style, and the only way to know how it will be on my is to try it. Ann just published her negative review of this dress, but I'll have to give it a try.

The last few stitches on my bra were done.

You can find the review here. I'm very happy with the result. As I said in my review, I should have cut the lycra in the center front a bit smaller than the tule layer underneath, that would have prevented the pleat. But I'm surprised with this first time result for this pattern and new pattern supplier.

On the sew along: I'm still thinking about the number of participants. I've made the blog on blogger, as I've seen that most of you have a blogger account. I will open the blog to participants not before May! Then we can start discussing and sewing along.

Sew along

Wow, there are 30 ladies now who wanting to join the sew along. For Jos, who asked what I would like to do in the sew along: a sew along is not a class, but a couple of ladies (usually) working on the same pattern or type of patterns. Joining the sew along does not mean that we all make the same, but that we all are sewing lingerie, and share the process, difficulties that we encounter in construction or fit (or possibly translation of instructions), and very important to me: help each other by sharing our knowledge. To set it up in a private blog gives everyone the opportunity to write posts and add picturres in that blog and give access only to the participants.

In this particular sew along I'll be the "administrator" of the blog and will try to help participants where I can, that's one of the reasons that I think a limited number of participants is good. Some of the participants will be fairly new to this type of sewing, others with more experience, will be able to help with fitting or technical questions and join more for fun but will learn from others too. I probably will add a few tutorials to the blog and write instructions to make a pattern for a panty to your own measurements and show different options using lace.

And where you are in the world is not important (Kelley wondered about that), that's the great fun of it, that we can share this with people all over the world as long as you have internet access, pattern and fabric and notions.

Let me say that I certainly don't know everything there is to know about lingerie making, which gave me a great excuse to finally buy the book "The bra makers manual" by Beverly Johnson. I ordered it today, it's been on my wishlist for a very, very long time.

Sew along

How nice to see so much interest in a lingerie sew along. Like I said, I'm thinking of May/June. As my blog is on blogger, that's what I thought of as platform for the sew-along. But it could be Wordpress too. Any preferences? Those of you who use/used both, what are the differences? Is Wordpress easier to work with? I set up a testblog there some time ago, but didn't have enough time to explore the possibilities fully.

ETA: I'd like to restrict the number of particpants to 30. That means that all of you who have showed an interest till now can join the sew along when it starts, and there are a few places left.
It's not a class, but somehow it feels better that the number of participants is not too large.

If you're interested in sources for fabric and notions, please read the comments on my previous post, some interesting links there, and a free bra pattern mentioned, for which this is the link: Burdastyle. I never downloaded a pattern, as I don't like the print and taping together part of it, but I will download this pattern and perhaps try it in May. It can't be too many pages for a bra.

At the moment I'm not sewing a stitch, only working very hard. Will last a week or two probably. I won't tell you all the great plans I had, publishing what I intend to make seems the surest way not to be doing it.

So, after too many hours at the computerscreen today, I'm going to close my laptop, take the May issue of BWOF to bed to check what's in it (unopened for two days!). Very unusual for me not to open it right away.

New fabrics

My new lycra fabrics and lace that I bought at Kantje boord last week. The grey on the right has silver threads through it whith a little shine, the lace is perfect with it, though the picture does not reflect that.

 

And this is the bra I'm making, still not completely finished. I gave my garden priority this weekend. And there were some other priorities too.

 

Not my usual fabric/lace combination, but I've seen something like that (really don't remember where and when) and just wanted to try. The plaid is lycra!

 

Kat was very kind in her comments, suggesting that I should give a class. Well, that's not exactly on my mind, as I'm not a sewing teacher, and more important, I'm not a fit-expert. But it brought back an idea that I have since quite a while: how about a lingerie sew-along, for example in May/June? What I'm thinking of is the kind of sew along that Marji organized last year for a coat. In a separate blog, only to be viewed by participants? Making a panty and a bra? Perhaps draw the panty I showed in my post of last week to your own measurements? I think the number of participants must be limited, to keep the feeling of a sew-along and for me to be able to follow and help along the way.

A difficult point is that fabrics and notions are so difficult to get for a lot of you. There I could perhaps help too, but shipping costs for a package outside Europe is at least 11 Euro (for a standard, untrackable package).

What are your thoughts on this? Would you be interested in such a sew-along? What would you expect it to cover and do you have any other suggestions? 

On lingerie fabric and notions

Regularly I'm asked where I buy my fabrics and notions for lingerie sewing.I'll repeat the information that I wrote before.

Kantje-Boord in Amsterdam. Their site has recently been changed, and partly still under construction. Their pictures take a long time to show, which makes navigating a bit difficult. The site is in Dutch only. As I don't live too far away, I go there myself and find combinations of lace/lycra and notions that I like. I went today and bought some great stuff.

If you want to order from outside the Netherlands, best write an e-mail I think. They sell packages with lycra, lace and all notions (except underwires) you need for 1 bra and two panties. It's a small shop, but I've never seen so much lingerie fabrics and notions in one place.

Further I regularly buy at a local store in my hometown, from the lady who owns it I learned the basics of sewing lingerie. Beautiful stuff, but expensive. And no online shopping.

Real online stores:

Elingeria: a German store, I had good experience buying Sewy patterns from them, and some other bloggers (Melissa and LauraLo) have bought their fabrics and notions there and were positive about it.

Merckwaerdigh: an e-bay store of a Dutch lady who sells her own patterns and some fabrics/notions. She writes the description also in English. (Don't know her personally, but she is a reliable vendor)

Exclusive Stoffe, look for the heading "Alles für Dessous". It's been a while since I ordered there, but what I got was very nice.

Wien 2002: a new find in Austria, I have not yet ordered there, as the site shows relatively a lot that is not in stock any more/at the moment. But they do show nice things, and I might try it in the near future.

Danglez: a Dutch lady who started selling packages and her own patterns and will be adding English and German translations. I'm trying one of her patterns at the moment.

I've said it before, I don't have any information on stores outside Europe. With so many local and European possibilities, no reason to pay the high shipping costs. In the past I did look around, but never found any store with a good choice of fabrics/notions, combined with a clear presentation. If anyone of you knows good sources, please post in the comments.

New blog

After so many links one new blog to discover: Nancy K sews. Nancy is a regular commenter on my blog, and we have e-mailed each other regularly the past year. I regard her as one of the sewing friends I made on the internet, and are happy to see she's taken the plunge, as she said herself. I'll love to follow her projects.

Answers

Lena asked a question in German. I'll answer in English, as I find writing in German difficult. She asked why my bra's always fit so good. The real answer is that is the case because I made a lot of less good fitting bra's when I started. With each bra it became better, and now I know how to tweak my patterns. In that lingerie sewing is no different from any other type of garments: it takes time to reach good fit, the only difference is that you only know the fit after the bra is finished almost completely. And I know the frustration of a lot of work with the result something I can't wear!

Most of my bra's are variations on a self drafted pattern. But I've tried Sewy and Merckwaerdigh patterns too, but usual it takes at least two bra's to have good fit. I've no experience with the Marinique patterns, and didn't know them till my google search after your comment. One of the panty patterns looks very similar to my last one!

Vicky asked for the time I spent: it was only for the panty! My goodness, if I could sew a set within an hour I'd start a business :) It takes me about 3 hours to sew a bra. That is without cutting, which always takes some time to make it symmetrical.

Addiction?

When you see the pictures below, you know I am.  For the bra I was inspired by a webalbum of another Dutch lady sewing lingerie. I can't link here, because she published the link to her album in a forum that is not open for everyone, but it's beautiful. When I saw how she had used the lace, I decided to try a bit different way of cutting the pieces. The scallop side of the lace is pointing down, instead of forming the top of the upper cup.

The panty is a pattern that I didn't use for quite a while, just forgot about this one I guess, because it's really a nice pattern, self drafted after instructions in a workshop. It can be sewn very quickly, I took me only an hour for the construction. Just what I needed. I had a lot of sewing plans, including a mini wardrobe, but work is coming in between. Not complaining, just a fact. And this is the reason too I'm not commenting or reading reviews a lot at the moment, just too busy (I have over 80 unread items in my blog reader, which is the count since this weekend). But I do try to keep up a bit, and need my sewing for taking away the stress.

If you're interested in lingerie patterns, stay tuned. I'm trying a new pattern from an independent pattern company, which publishes the patterns with both English and German instructions.