Bra Making

Before I went to bed last night, I forgot to ask Fiona & Maurice, the B & B owners, for the access code so while I was up and ready to write, it wasn't possible. Nor was checking my email. LOL - I tried but this posting is late and will have to do double duty for Monday and Tuesday.

I got to my friend Barb's around 4:00 pm on Friday. We had a bit of time to visit and then headed off for dinner with another friend and then to breakfast the following morning with yet still another friend who is taking my piece Evolving Sampler to Washington, USA to be in a exhibit at The Penn Cove Gallery from October 10th to the end of November. The rest of Saturday and Sunday morning we spent in Barb's studio.




It's a large, sunny room - actually two rooms because there is a kitchenette and storage area attached - with an amazing view of the ocean. Can you imagine trying to actually accomplish something with this view?

And here is the gorgeous rock path leading to the yard. I took this picture because I want to do something similar in our back yard next spring.

I started working on a purse using some of the left over fabrics from the Chanel-ish jacket. I bought a black, chenille-like, upholstery fabric for the base, layered it with batting and the grey from the bias, and placed quilted squares all over.

These were stitched down with a straight stitch and then the background was stipple stitched before some scribble stitching was added to the squares. I'm about two thirds through the one side. I would like to have made more progress but this is good and enough. The visiting was more important.

The back looks really pretty especially with the wrinkled grey, dupioni-like fabric. It could - almost - be reversible.

Today was Day 1 of the Bra Making course. FUN FUN FUN! There are nine of us in the group and everyone is a fairly well accomplished seamstress and - as I assumed - has a great sense of humour. Linda, the instructor, is a hoot. I'll give you more details next time I post. She used to teach The Boob Camp that I had thought about going to back east. This workshop is so much easier and far less expensive being within driving range.

Above is the sample bra so far. It's a muslin to see how things are working out. You get almost finished before you can try it on which could be a bit discouraging. Mine fit quite well. I only made a few small adjustments. We used disappearing, purple ink to draw on the fabric. You can see this below. I have no idea how long it takes for the marks to disappear. You'd have to be able to read that small print on the back of the package - LOL.

Tomorrow, we'll finish up the sample bra and then make the "real" thing. I'm looking forward to purchasing supplies in more fun colors. Apparently bra fabric is like any other fabric. It includes the fabric factor so for every different type of fabric you want to use, you'd need to do some testing. I think it might be a good idea to find a fabric you like, that has lots of color options, and stick with it. It'll be fun to add lace to a later model. A bra really doesn't take a long time to make considering that I'm almost done and it was a teaching class. More details later.

I've figured out how to make the sound work on my laptop and I'm off to watch a movie and then bed and then breakfast. What a treat to have someone cooking for me AND gluten free, dairy free foods. My hostess also has allergies. That makes things so much easier. Hopefully, I can post again tomorrow night. Barb has booked the other room here at the B & B for tomorrow until Friday morning. We'll be reading, walking, knitting, sewing, eating, and sight seeing on Wednesday and Thursday.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - vacations