Bra and Undies and a lesson in testing stretch!

I found recently that I really needed some new underthings so spent some time trying to perfect my bra and undie patterns and realised something.....Whilst I'm pretty good at remembering to test the crosswise stretch of the fabric, I often forget about length ways stretch.....and it's amazing how much the lengthwise stretch of a fabric can affect a garment - especially bras and undies.

First up Bras:

For a while now I've been waking in the morning and really wishing I had a simple pull on bra I could throw on without the whole rigmarole of doing up clasps etc I do have a couple of sports style crop tops but I've found that when I wear them I get this whole mono boob thing going which is a look that I don't like, plus they are so high cut at the front they show under a lot of my clothes, so wanted to have a go at making something like the bralettes that I see a lot of people making.

My wish list for the new bra:

• Bottom elastic band closes with a simple snap (I would like a bra without any closures but they then tend to be very hard to get on and off so I am happy to go with a simple snap)
• As few pattern pieces a possible
• Made from stretch fabrics for comfort
• A solid non stretch band over the shoulder - I've found that elastic over my shoulders really tends to dig in so I prefer a solid shoulder strap.

I made two bras one right after the other, using 4 different fabrics

Fabric 1 - deep purple - heavy weight scuba fabric - 25% stretch across, 18% stretch lengthways.
Fabric 2 - Butterflies - medium weight scuba - 40% stretch across 30% stretch lengthways.
Fabric 3 - Black dragon- lightweight scuba fabric - 40% stretch across 40% stretch lengthways.
Fabric 4 - blue/green - lightweight swimsuit material - 50% stretch across, 40% stretch lengthways

I started with the back pattern.  I wanted something with a fair bit of coverage for comfort so used an old sports crop top to quickly draft something.   My original draft had the straps a lot closer together in the back but when I tried it on it put too much pressure on my upper shoulders so I moved the straps out by 2" to get this. 

This was a little bit to far out so for my second attempt I brought the strap attachment back in about 3/4"

I fully lined the back of both bra to finish off all the edges.  The top bra is made from fabric 3 and lined in fabric 1 whilst the second bra has both outer and lining in fabric 4.  You can see that the first bra looks smaller as it has a lot less stretch to it.

For the first bra I finished the edge around the cut out in fold over elastic but for the second one I just used the lining to finish it which is why the cut out looks bigger.

For the front of the bra I started with an old bra lining (made out of fabric 2) that I had made a while ago but didn't use - it's been floating around my sewing room ever since.  This pattern was drafted from my normal bra pattern but simplified to just a bridge and two pattern pieces for the cup and designed for use with a stretch fabrics.

When I tried this on it fitted quite nicely so I went ahead and cut it out of my fabric 1 to create a lining as I did the back piece -  but then realised my mistake - with the lack of  vertical stretch in fabric 1 the bra was now impossibly small.  Thankfully I realised early enough and I was able to unpick it. 

So I went back and cut a lining out of fabric 3 instead, this had enough stretch that the bra pretty much worked, though it is still a little snug. 

I made a few modifications to the pattern for my second attempt.  I moved the straps in by about 1/2" and extended the inner cup piece in and up to provide more coverage.

I found that the front neckline needed a little more support so added fold over elastic stretching from one shoulder strap to the other..  To make the straps I used  a black cotton sateen material interfaced on both sides.  The straps widen over the shoulder for extra comfort.

 For the bottom band I used some elastic with some rubber bits woven in so that it doesn't move about.   I don't think I'll use this again as I find that it gets quite uncomfortable by the end of the day.

Having had these bras in my closet for a couple of months now I can definitely say these are my two favourite bras.  The second blue/green one is the most comfortable and gets reached for first, the one and only downside is that it doesn't provide much in the way of support - not even a light jog could be sustained in this - but it's great for lounging around the house which is really what I wanted.

whilst the first bra gets chosen if I want a bit more support but still comfort. 

I definitely want to go back and try this again, this time in a medium weight stretch fabric lined in the light weight for the best of both world and with softer plush elastic.

Next up underpants and again I had issues with stretch.  The pattern itself is pretty simple, they have a gusset, fold over elastic around the leg holes and the top is folded over 3/4" wide elastic. I made three pairs of pants that fitted nicely, then left the pattern for a month or so before going back to make more and this time ended up with the goldilocks of underwear.  When I went to make this batch I pulled out a bunch of scrap fabric thinking I could use up some scraps and paid no attention to how much stretch the fabric has.

The first pair (the bottom of the stack) had only 30% stretch across and minimal lengthways stretchy stretch so they ended up too short. By attaching the elastic to the top and using that as extra height these are wearable, but not great.

The second pair (Middle of the stack) was made from a super stretchy fabric 50% across and 50% lengthways  so these ended up as full on granny panties just about under my arm pits.

Finally for the third pair (the top pair) I got the right amount of stretch (40% across and 40% lengthways) and ended up with a good pair of pants. 

Lesson of the day.  Double check the stretch in your fabric before you make underwear and bras!

Houndstooth Cardigan and Chevron Shirt

A couple of months ago now I posted about a boucle cardigan, that I made as a wearable muslin for this cardigan.

There is really not much else to say about this make. The fabric I used is a beautiful brushed flannel fabric in a black and white houndstooth pattern.   This fabric is so beautifully soft and warm.I used the same pattern and same methods as I did for the boucle cardigan with just a couple of exceptions.

I used a black bias binding to finish the top of the pockets and added black piping in the curved seam between the pocket and the front piece.

I used a black knit fabric to bind from the top of the front right around the back and back to the front at the other side and also to bind the sleeves.

I tried my hardest to put button holes in so that I could use these cool black velvet buttons that I have but it just wasnt working so I just added two black snaps instead.  I may go back and try again at another time - maybe I need to do hand stitched button holes, but for now'I wantéd to be able to wear this on my trip to Australia so snaps it was.

And now that I have a couple of nice cardigans in my wardrobe, I thought it was about time to remake my existing chevron over sized cardi

into a normal sized shirt.

I used my basic raglan sleeve pattern, cut the front out of the existing back, cut the back out of the original front and put a seam up the back,

The sleeves were cut out of the existing sleeves which required a reduction in length, but I cut off the band around the front and neckline and used it to make new sleeve cuffs. 

I used some of the remainder of the band to make a new neckband. 

The hem is just a simple turned up and straight stitched hem.

There is nothing really exciting about this shirt - in fact it's pretty boring, but on the plus side it feels so snuggly and warm which is what drew me to this fabric in the first place.

Draped Chiffon Posh Frock

Quite some time ago I found this beautiful piece of fabric at my local discount fabric store.  It has a black background with teal paisley motifs all over it with small pops of pink and mustard flowers just for some contrast.  I loved the design on the fabric but I wasn't too sure about the fabric itself.  Its a chiffon type material but I have no idea of the fabric content.  But I'm pretty sure it's a poly of some kind.  Now I don't normally like to use poly woven fabrics - I generally prefer to wear either cotton or rayon, and I don't normally wear things made out of a delicate chiffon fabric but for this print I made an exception.

So I bought the fabric but then was never quite sure what to make out of it and so it sat in my stash for many years.

Then, coming home from my latest holiday having not sewn anything for 5 weeks, I looked at the contests running on the Pattern Review website and saw that there was currently a "Draped Garment" contest running.  I thought that this might be a good time to use my beautiful chiffon fabric - It lends itself well to draping and I figured I could hopefully draft something without too many seams so if it didn't work I could still salvage some of the fabric.

Ok now to figure out what to make....Growing up my family watched a 1970's British comedy show called "The Good Life"  In this show the next door neighbour Margot Leadbetter was a very sophisticated woman who wore some really fabulous clothes.  A lot of these were flowy chiffon type dresses and I always wanted one of those dresses to swan around in. 

Something really flowy with lots of pleats and drapes and a deep V neckline - so that was the general image that I was aiming for with my draped dress.

The first thing I had to do was try and get my dress form to match my figure at the moment - easier said than done.  The basic form was adjusted to as close as possible then I added a bra and padded out the chest area and finally I put my moulage on that I made a while back and padded it out with some extra padding to try and approximate my actual shape - It's close but still not quite exactly me.

Then I took my fabric and  started wrapping it around my form.

 I pinned the fabric to the form in a couple of places starting at the neck/shoulders, the waist and the underarms.
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And then started added adding pick ups here, pleats there etc  to try and get the sort of shape I was looking for

I'd try something and it wouldn't quite work.

So I'd take it apart and try again.

At this point I hadn't touched the fabric with scissors at all.

No armholes!

 But when I got one pleat arrangement that I liked

 I hand basted all the pleats in place

 

 And went ahead and cut out the armhole.

But now I had a problem.  There were so many pleats on top of pleats that when I went to sew it together I'd have to take out one lot of basting to get to the one underneath and it pretty much just fell apart. 

And so I had to start all over again.

I started again from scratch - this time machine basting each pleat in place before moving on to the next - but I got to a certain point and it just wasn't working - there was just so much bulk all sitting on top of my stomach - so it sat in the corner for a couple of days before I once again took it all out and started over.  Thankfully third time was a charm.  I tried to keep the pleats and darts simple this time and managed to get the dress somewhat close to what I was trying for.

I added four pleats/darts over the top of the bust to get the bust shaping I wanted. 

 A pleat at each side and french darts under the bust for waist shaping.

 And two darts on each side of the back for back shaping.

Each pleat and dart was hand basted then I used a washable marker to mark each of them.

I then tried to match the darts on each side so they were symmetrical.  Finally I actually sewed each dart/pleat then serged them so that I didn't have all the bulk.

The next big step was to get the center front seam sewn - this was tricky as I had to match all the pleats/darts and get it to fit nicely over my breasts - This is where I really wished that my dress form was an exact replica as I really struggled to get this pinned and sewn neatly.

 
The back darts I left uncut as they were not as bulky as the front. and the sides were only sewn/serged at the top 3-4 inches.

Once I had all my darts and pleats in place it was time to finish the armhole and neckline.

For the armhole I cut facings to match another sleeveless top that I like the armhole on using a piece of scrap rayon (I didn't have any pieces of my actual fabric and this was the closest in colour and weight.)

I then laid the facing rights sides together around the armhole over the top of the dress and pinned it in place shaping the armhole opening to match.

The facing was then turned to the inside, understitched, then trimmed down and turned under and stitched in place like a binding.

To finish the neckline I simply turned under the edge twice and stitched in place.

The back V was then sewn together  just above my bra strap (The dress has to be practical) and the remainder to the back neckline allowed to drape as it wants.

I had to add two darts at the shoulders to get the back neckline to sit beautifully.

Finally the bottom was cut off - the length was dictated by the shortest length of the draped fabric - and was finished with a  narrow hem.

And now I have a beautiful drapy, flowy dress.

From this rather wordy post the process sounds pretty straight forward, but this project seemed to take forever to finish.  In reality I've probably only been working on it for a week or 2, but that's a long time for me.  I'm glad its finally done and I can work on something else for a change.  It's a good thing that this was done to meet a contest deadline otherwise it never would have gotten finished.

And for anyone who is a member of the Pattern Review website head on over and vote in the Draping Contest.