Thank You For Being My Friend

Yesterday involved a lot of friends. I had breakfast with one, coffee with another, and sewed with Wendy last night. Normally, that would be way too much people interaction for me, especially if it happened every day, but, as an unusual occurrence, it was great. The next few weeks will be busier than usual with Christmas breakfasts. I think there are five so far on the calendar upstairs. They're a wonderful opportunity to say thank you for being my friend. Life is about relationships. Friends are a precious gift.

Thank YOU for reading my blog, for your comments, for being a part of my life, for sharing the gift of creativity and learning. I really appreciate that you are here.




The waistband is on. There's a button to go and I'm done the skirt. Nothing in my stash matched the unusual color. I might need to use a snap or a hook, something smooth that won't create bulk. I'm over near Fabricland tomorrow so I'll look at buttons then and decide.

With a waistband, the skirt feels much more secure. I'm not worried about it becoming too big overnight, falling off my hips, or twisting around. I used a one inch band. Next time, I'll experiment with three-quarter and half inch widths.




Refashioning the bra didn't go the way I thought. When I tried the RTW bra on again, I noticed a whole lot of other things besides the cup size that I didn't like. In particular, the shoulder straps were placed really close to center. Since I have narrow shoulders, they'd be way over on someone of average or wide shoulder width. It felt confining. As well, it didn't have underwires. Combined with the close together straps, that made me feel squished together but not supported.

My sewn bras fit me so much better than anything purchased. When I counted up all the things I didn't like about this RTW one, I decided to sew a long line of my own by adapting the instructions starting on page 175 in The Bra Makers Manual for a strapless bra. I drafted the pattern last night and it was really easy.

I still have the bra that I sewed in the workshop in October 2009. It has a 36 band and fits quite well so I used it as the starting point. To gather information, I compared the sewn 36 bra to the purchased 34 bra. Guess what? They were the same length. One was not two inches longer than the other. It wasn't any inches longer than the other. Weird.

That made me compare the sewn bra to my regular RTW. They should have differed in size. They didn't which means I'd have been a whole lot further ahead starting with the pattern than taking apart the RTW and copying it as I've been doing. Oh well. Live and learn.

There's some interesting information in the manual starting on page 45 about grain line and what it does to support, enhance, or minimize the bust line. I read through that information to make sure I'd used the best choices. They were basically the ones that were already drafted on the pattern with a few minor adjustments.




To figure out how much to lower the back, I tried the RTW bra on over the sewn one and they were the same depth. Since the RTW was supposed to be a low back bra, that was another surprise. The shaping of the back band gives the illusion that it's lower than it really is. I may copy the shape. I haven't decided yet.




I've been taking apart the RTW bra so I can use the bits and pieces, especially the back closure, the wide band elastic, and the stays. The stays are a very flexible, interlinked, metal chain. They're quite soft if you can say that about metal. There were only four in the RTW bra. That's not a problem for my copy however, if I like wearing a long line bra, I'll have to figure out where to buy more.

This morning, I'm cleaning house. This afternoon, Sharon is coming over to sew a bra for herself while I work on mine. She just bought a new sewing machine so we'll be figuring out how to make it work as well. It's possible - LOL - that I've created an addict. She hadn't sewn for years and now she has a new machine bought specifically for sewing lingerie. YES YES!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the ability to take things apart, understand them, and put them back together. Learning.