Mood Sewciety, D'Arcy Bralette

I wanted to fine tune the fit of my second D'Arcy Bralette. This time round I cut a smaller size and slightly increased the side seams. I found cutting the smaller cup size removed the wrinkles around the top and bottom of the cup so definitely did the trick. 

I did find the cut of the underarms was still a little high so I again omitted the second pair of cage straps from the bralette. 

I paired two lovely stretch mesh fabrics from Minerva for this project, dotty for the outside and plain for the lining. I did find these fabrics (particularly the dotty) were a little more stable than the fabric I used for my my black bralette, this added a bit more structure to the bra but also reduced the stretch, making it slightly more of an effort to get it over my head! 

I chose to use ivory fabrics instead of white, which created a softer look against my skin, however I did only have white plush elastic for the straps. I think both the ivory and the white pair well with the gold rings and sliders I used though - adding a glimmer of elegance to my make. 

I had a vision that leaving a sheer panel in the bralette would look kinda cute and sexy, after toing and froing in my brain for ages I decided to go for it and just used a single layer of power mesh for the centre front panels. In hindsight, I think the bralette would have looked better 100% dotty on the outside. I don't think the placement of the cup seam is flattering enough when the cup is so blatantly divided. 

I do love the pairing of the two fabrics, and using them gave my chance to test out the stretch settings on my new sewing machine! I zig zagged pretty much all the seams and opted to french seam the side seams as suggested in the pattern instructions... I think the side seams came out really bulky because if this though and think leaving them flat and perhaps just topstitching close to the stithcing would have created a smoother finish. 

We live and learn though, so instead of rushing to make matching knickers this time, I have a couple more bralette patterns I would like to use the left over fabric on. I am also eyeing up this fabric in other colours (swit swoo to red polkadot power mesh!!).

I think this bralette looks super cute peeking out of the top of things, especially summer vests and open shirts. I'm a big big fan ofthe cage straps and hope I can incorporate them into my own patterns sometime. 

x
Location: Home Sweet Home
Curretly listening to: Stupid Girl, Garbage

Mood Sewciety, D'Arcy Bralette + So Zo Knickers hack Pt. 2

You know it's physically impossible for me to make a bralette pattern without making matching knickers right? 

This is a hack of So Zo's free knicker pattern. This includes front panel, back panel and side panels, so actually omits the need for side seams. The front and back panels are lines with powermesh, so the seam allowances are hidden inside. 

I toyed with a few different ideas of how I wanted to place my fabric. The main decision being whether I wanted my side panels to be polka dotty or not! I opted for no spots on the side panels to create a contrast. The front and back panels made from the same fabric combos as my D'arcy Bralette to create the match! 

My absolute favourite part of sewing is when 2D becomes 3D. Once the panels are all assesmbled and the gusset it attached in the same manner (little bit of t-shirt jersey for the insiode gusset panel👌🏻), you can really see that your knickers are well on the way! From there on it's all about your elastic choices. 

For me, there wasn't an awful lot of choice... This was a matter of elastic leftovers, whilst trying to match the bralette as much as possible. Sadly I didn't have enough left of either of the elastics I used to trim the bralette, however I did have a length of strap left to match the straps I used. I stitched this straight onto the top of the knickers, using a zig-zag stitch made up of smaller stitches (which I don't think I have ever used before!) to cover the width of the strap and also remain stretchy so stitches don't twang when I pull then up over my bum. The magic touch was sewing one of the gold rings as a cute little emblem to the centre front. 

Leg elastic was just a classic picot finish. Wearing the knickers you can't tell at all, but when they are off I think you can tell I added a little too much tension around the gusset. I always find it so hard to judge. I remember I was once advised to increase the pull on the elastic when finishing leg holes around the hoo-hah and the bum cheek to avoid gaping. A little bit of pracice needed here but nothing I don't think I can errr...bottom for next time. 

I'm happy with the vibe of these, and also love how consistent they are with the bralette. Next time I think I would add maybe an inch to the top??? to make them a little more high-waisted 💋 

x
Location: Home sweet sweet home
Currently listening to: Life Is But a Dream, Findlay

Mood Sewciety, D'Arcy Bralette + So Zo Knickers hack Pt. 1

I've been hoarding underwear elastics. Everytime I see a bundle with a picot edge or a plush back I'm chucking it in my basket thinking "this will come in later!!". Last summer I took a trip to the Antique Emporium in Stockport to find their haberdashery area was absolutely RIFE with elastics and bra-making supplies and god knows what else (check it out- deffo worth a trip if you're in the area). 

I've probably mentioned before that underwear projects are always fun for me because I love combining fabrics. For this project I used this powermesh with velvetty polka dots alongside plain black powermesh. I think I bought both of these off of Amazon during the first lockdown and I've been sat on them until I had suitable elastics to make something cute. 

The pattern is a freebie off of the Mood Fabrics website. Again, something I dowloaded yonks ago but still hadn't had a go at. The pattern is a softcup bra with no back fastening, so I would encourage bra-making beginners to give this one a go! The pattern features A/B cup pieces and larger cup pieces, as well as being generally multi-sized anyway. I cut a B cup and a Size 4, I did find it was a little large in some areas - I did end up increasing the side seams. 

The walk-through on the website suggests using French seams so encase all the seam allowances. I opted not to for this attempt as I was unsure how the fir would be and the thought of unpicking french seams on delicate stretch fabrics when it didn't fit was too harrowing-a-thought! I feel like the pattern did miss a trick in not encasing the seams between the fabric and the lining. Next time I makes one (there will deffo be a next time!!) I will stitch the outer and lining cup pieces separately (instead of treating the lining like an underlining) so that the seam allowances can hide inside. I think this should be easily doable with the side seams too once I settle on a seam allowance. 

Whether hiding the seam allowances inside or not, I would recommend a narrow top-stich on the cup seam for a professional looking finish. I top stitched the underband seam too for a little extra stability. 

The bra doesn't use underwire, but for a little extra 'hold' I stitched a narrow piece of elastic onto the seam allowance of the underband. I added a little tension as I stitched as I wanted to mkae up for the pattern being a little large in some areas. Just make sure the tension is even and don't pull too much because you still want the bralette to be comfortable! Also be mindful of the bulkiness this could cause at the sideseam where the underbust seam meets. 

With the abundance of lovely elastics I decided to make my own straps instead of cutting some off of an old bra. I had hoops and sliders close at hand so seemed a shame not to have a go. I feel much more confident in how to succesfully assemble a slider that works now! Honestly, it's like a brain-teaser for me everytime! I love the exposed straps on the back that pop up from between the back bands. I added an extra hoop to the straps here just for a bit of extra interest. 

Instead of just folding over the top edges I added some delicate elastic for a scalloped edge. 

I've been thinking a lot about authenticity recently, particularly while I've been writing music. I've shared a few "yay look what I made" pictures of this project on Insta, but I'm going to be honest about a couple of the fuck ups I met along the way. When sewing the front of the bra to the gold loops, I rammed my needle right down onto a metal ring and bam - of course the needle snapped in two. Funny how you can't stitch metal eh? 

The next fuck up would be my elastic choice for the bottom band. I used quite a hefty plush elastic with picot edge. I stitched it from the inside, before flipping the elastic to the inside and top stitching. I'd added a little tension, again aiming to aid the fit. I must say the stitching was really neat and it looked pretty lush! .... Then I actually tried it on and the band didn't grip to my body and looked like it was tretching out the fabric and generally just looked lumpy! Luckily I hadn't cut or trimmed any of the fabric, just the piece of elastic. So I hastily unpicked both rows of stitching. In attempt to shrink the fabric where it may have stretched (tho didn't look too band once the elastic was off), I gave it a few blasts of steam. After much rummaging I found a piece of delicate picot elastic and attched that in it's place. Phew! Much better fit. 

There was something really satisfying about adding the 'cage' straps to the front. The pattern does feature another strap from the front to the side seam, but I felt the underarm area already sat quite high on me and another strap there would be quite uncomfortable. 

Things to consider for next time:
- Making the pattern a little smaller. The cupsize fits my bust nicely, I think I oculd do with taking a little bit of fabric out of the side panels. As stretch fabrics are so forgiving, there is defintely scope to make it smaller without fear of it being too tight

- Encasing the seams inside the lining (as mentioned above)

- Making the neckline a little lower? Also making the front to underarm panel sit a little lower so I can incorporate the second pair of cage straps

- Fabrics! Velvet would look lush alongside the powermesh

- Leading me on to - maybe the centre bust panel being powermesh and the side panels and bands being err, less see-thru. 

- Making sure I have enough elastic to finish the top and bottom aaaaand to make matching knickers with. I used a bit of a mish mash of what was left over here which looks fine but I do like an excuse to buy more supplies!

- Inserting cups? Just an idea, but if sewing the fabric and lining separately it could be quite easy to insert foam cups between the two and give my pancakes a bit of shape. 

Overall though, really pleased with this bralette! A cool find from the Mood Sewciety website and completely free download! 

See part 2 for how I made the matching knickers 😊 

x
Location: Home sweet sweet home
Currently listening to: Mystery Girl, Alexandra Savoir

Mood Sewciety, Almond Bodysuit

Do you like free stuff? Do you like to do a bit of problem solving? Do you like fitted body suits and stretch fabrics and mildly suggestive cutways? Yep Yep to all of the above. 

The Almond Bodysuit is a free pattern from Mood Sewciety. The problem solving comes in the form of maneuvering your way through the slightly sketchy instructions on the website. There's a bit of filling in the blanks needed as you work your way through, you need to really tune in to how the crossover sits at the neckline and shoulders, making room for the seam allowances where the neck band and sleeves sit. 

The pattern suggests cutting a slit down the back of the neckline, and I later saw something about adding velcro to the neck?? Let me just say, if you're using a stretchy fabric I'm sure this is all completely unneccesary. My fabric didn't even have the greatest %stretch but I had no problems in getting my head through the headhole when I'd done. 

First major problem to tackle is not stretching out that outside curve of the over lay when you hem it. Zizzag stitch was just sending the fabric a bit nuts - I didn't want to press the hem too much and add too much heat to make it stretch out, so I turned this under by 1.5cm, pressed lightly and tacked by hand before using a piece of pattern paper between the machine and the needle. The overlay doesn't really need mcuh stretch to it, so to avoid over-handling the fabric here I just used a long straight stitch to hold down the hem. 

It came to finishing the shoulder seams (slightly chunky due to the layers of the overlay but not insane), and my overloacker had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I've notitced it getting a bit jammy and fluffy around the blade for a few projects now.... And is it any wonder handing never changed the blade in 9 years! It slowed me up to mailorder new blades.. and slowed me up a bit trying to change them (queue MY nervous breakdown), but once it was done.............. Oh my my my how easy overlocking had suddenly become! I can't eve begin to epress the joy! It was like being reborn! Bulky seams no longer a problem I was able to finish edges without any more drama. 

My go-to bodysuit pattern is the Simplicity 8513, from this I knew that I would absolutely need to include a centreback seam for a close fit to my back curves. This was a bit of a winging it process- just grab the excess fabric in the centreback and effectively sew a massive dart starting somewhere between my shoulder blades (widest part) and ending at the widest part of my bum. Once happy with the fit I trimmed the dart and pressed it open which helps release the curve and fit that little bit better to my lower back curve. 

This pattern gets a lot of stick for it's superlow neckline. It doesn't offend me, and I think using a fabric with a better stretch recovery would have made me feel a bit more, er, secure, but this is something I would alter if I made the pattern again. It either needs to be not as deep or not as wide. In turn I would probably also extend the width of the overlays at the underarm where they meet at the side seam. 

Instead of just turning under the raw edge of the legholes I attached some underwear elastic with a nice picot edge. This helps with the fit and prevents any gaping around the crotch (no one wants that). 

If I'm honest there were times I almost give up on this garment. My motivation was thwarted by getting dumped mid-make, leaving the garment sat on my attic floor for two months while I tried to stick my life back together. It didn't take me long to realise the fabric could have done with being a bit more 'springy' in it's stretch and I was worried the whole thing would be a waste of time. The overlocker blades finally calling it a day almost made me do the same to be honest. Hating leaving anything unfinished though I powered on, and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. Yes I would make a few changes if I made it again, but if I found the right fabric I do think I *would* make it again. 

Have you had any lucky free-pattern finds? Or any to avoid! Do you have fitting issues in the back everytime you make something fitted? What are your usual pattern hacks to aid this? Drop me a line.

x
Location: Doncaster City Centre, Multi-storey Carpark
Currently listening to: With A Woman, Tempesst