A Weekend of Sewing

I haven’t updated much on how the sewing is going recently, mostly because I was waiting for a couple of very exciting developments.

May I present: my first ever finished bra! Oh man, this has been a long while coming. I’ve been experimenting with Orange Lingerie’s Marlborough Bra for a month or so – mostly with elastic and bits ‘saved’ from old bras. This has been to make sure I’m confident in the construction before I cut into the nice fabric. Well, it was worth it. I have to say, this bra is possibly the nicest finished item I’ve ever sewn – if not for one wonky seam and the lack of a tag, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between it and a bra bought at New Look. There is, however, one drawback: I made the wrong size! Unfortunately it’s a 40B and I should be a 40D or 40DD in this pattern. The band is a perfect fit though? Fortunately I think this will be the right size for my mum, so my first finished bra is going to be a gift!

There are a couple of changes I have made/I will make going forward:

• I didn’t have any scalloped edge lace, so I finished the upper edge of my cup with bias tape
• In my next iteration (currently in progress) I’ve widened the top of the power bar so that when it folds over the ring of the strap it’s a lot wider – that’s just a personal visual preference, I don’t like the very small connection to the quite wide strap.
• Thinner elastic used on the bottom of the band – the elastic used on this was too wide, and I struggled with space to turn it over under the cups.

All elastics and fabrics (apart from bias tape) come from the fantastic Bra Shop on Etsy – only £1.50 shipping, which considering how often I buy supplies on Etsy and then spend the same amount on shipping it is absolutely fantastic.

I also ventured into the world of underwear making, and I am never buying them ever again. And the pair I made isn’t even finished! I made OhLuLu’s High Waisted Panties, which fit like a dream. They don’t have elastic yet – I’m still waiting for my fold over elastic to arrive – but they’re going to be a fast favourite, given pre-elastic they only took about 30 minutes to throw together. I think I’m going to make a blue velvet pair next, for some slinky excitement.

And finally for the main event: my two new sewing books! Madalynne had a competition a couple of weeks ago to win Gertie of Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing’s new dress making book. I entered, because why wouldn’t you, and promptly forgot forgot about. Not long after I was scrolling through Miss Maddy Sews and saw her post about the cigarette trousers in Gertie’s earlier book, Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. Now, one of the clothing items I am in need of and want a good pattern for is trousers, and having had a look around at reviews and found the book on book depository, I bought it.

Two days later Madalynne emailed me saying I had won the dress making book! I was so thrilled, and excited to get my hands on this book, so I went back to the original blog post to psych myself up for it. Unfortunately, I noticed the contest was only available to residents of the US and Canada, and of course I live in London. I emailed back apologising for the mix up, but I was not actually eligible. The very kind US publisher then organised for the UK publisher to send me a copy anyway – honesty for the win!

So, now I have in my possession both Gertie Sews Vintage Casual and Gertie’s Ultimate Dress Book. I’ve had a quick read of the second, and my first impression is this would be a fantastic book for the sewer looking to move from make up bags and aprons to dress making – it’s mind-boggling comprehensive. There is so much to learn, and once I have a couple more bras under my belt this will take care of my sewing projects for the next… oh, maybe two or even three years! (I ‘saved’ so much elastic and notions from old bra’s that I’m down to three functional bra’s…whoops)

Hopefully I’ll have some new elastics and fabric in the next week to play with underwear/bra wise, so my next sewing post might even involve wearing a bra!

Update, and a Pasta Disasta!

I have a couple of new posts coming soon, but they’re just not quite ready for the world yet, but to give you a hint of what’s coming:

Building a Capsule Wardrobe Part One

Recently I was reading Maddie’s blogs about making bra’s – which I read a lot, trying to build the confidence to jump in (edit: now with added bra’s!) – and she mentioned building a ‘Bra Wardrobe’. I didn’t really know what that meant, and so went searching for the first post she made about it to see where this idea came from. I promptly fell head over heels in awe of the idea of building a wardrobe of clothing you love, and which loves each other.

Maddie’s idea come from Sarai, who published a series of posts in 2014 called ‘The Wardrobe Architect’. They’re absolutely fantastic, although I didn’t follow every step, I’m going to talk you through how I ended up with the smallest, but most well used, rotation of clothes I’ve ever had. I love everything! Everything fits together! I don’t have to think too hard about what I’m going to wear!

A slight caution – I started to talk to Ange about this, and she initially balked at getting rid of items. You don’t have to. I did only because I’m moving countries (12 weeks!!) and will needed to get rid of items to fit everything in a suitcase anyway. You can get rid of items, pack away items, keep items that don’t fit into the end product but that you absolutely love, whatever you want. This process is all about make sure you love your clothes, figuring out what you love about them, and using this information to inform future purchases/projects.

If you do ‘let go’ of clothing, and it’s neat/tidy/office suitable, think about donating it to a Dress for Success. Dress of Success is a charity that works with women to secure jobs and break the poverty cycle. They provide women with interview training, a work appropriate outfit, and often support them through their first weeks back at work with a breakfast club. It’s a charity that I believe makes a lasting positive difference to women’s lives, and one that I support whenever possible.

Back to the actual project! This is split over two posts, just because it got so long! Part two will come in a couple of days, and will be linked at the end of this post.

As I said above, I didn’t use every part of the original steps, and I mashed it up with Into Mind’s Capsule Wardrobe 101. From the Introducing the Wardrobe Architect post, I identified with almost every point on the list of ‘Do these sound familiar?’. Yes! Yes, yes, yes I feel very nearly all those things. Clothing should help us express ourselves, not stress us out. I would highly highly recommend working through the stages/weeks as listed on ColetteHQ (Sarai’s blog), I’m not going to rehash how to do each step – after all, I didn’t write it! I’m just going to explain my choices, and how I came to them using Sarai’s tools.

• Week One: Making Style More Personal

I have to admit I did not complete the first week. This was all a little too vague for me – although I had already been thinking about my wardrobe and what I wanted it to reflect, so I’m not sure it would have helped me anyway. I work in Stock Control, I like dealing in specifics, I’m not very good at painting broad pictures, it’s just not how my brain works.

• Week Two: Defining a Core Style

After working through the week two worksheet (which was difficult for me, but I did warm to the process) I started putting together images that represented those ideas. As per, I used Pinterest, and and was it fun! The board started off fairly small, but I added to it as I worked through Week’s Three, Four and Seven. I’ve actually added a couple of things since I finished the project too. You can have a look at it here!

I’m considering starting a ‘for future wardrobe’ board, for styles that are summery, or maybe for when I’ve lost a little more weight, or that I’m not sure about (for me) and want to consider. I already have a whole board just for underwear. What do you think, too much?!

• Week Three: Exploring Shapes

OK, this is what I’m here for! This week is a very specific (yay!) worksheet all about the specifics of clothing and what you like. You like skirts – what length? How full? Is that the same as how you like dresses? I absolutely loved working through this spreadsheet, and it has massively helped me define what I like about my current clothing, and what I want to look for in new pieces. I then took the base of the worksheet and turned it into a table of the types of clothing I like (which you can have a look at here)

Part Two Coming 10th March 2016!

Underthings!

I have been mildly obsessed with making my own underwear/bra’s for a good month now. I entirely blame Madalynne, everything she makes just looks so amazing!

DIY To-Do List

I am easily distracted. I’m very aware that I move from one project to another often without completing the first, and end up going around in circles, unsatisfied because I haven’t actually finished anything. Or, I jump in the deep end too quickly, get disappointed when it doesn’t work first time, and end up drifting onto something else. I’m going to try and stick to the up coming projects below though. Most of these need fabric still, so I’m going on a fabric hunt this weekend – through various charity shops (what we would call op shops in NZ).

Tagliatelle and the Perfect Work Skirt

I sat down at lunch today to finish a travel diary for next week – I have about 6 half written for the next couple of months, but none of them are actually finished – but got distracted by my successfully domestic weekend!