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Sewing Discussions - A group that is not as it seams.
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Posted by Joy Beeson on March 30, 2006, 8:52 am
On 28 Mar 2006 21:00:09 -0800, "Kitty In Somerset, PA"
> . . . tell me more about the linen bras.
>
> where did you find the pattern? are you using an elan or something
> professional?
What's an elan?
>
> I'd Love to make some, so Please tell all. or if you don't want to
> post to a public forum then email me. THanks, Kitty
I think the pattern started as the bodice of a Friends Patterns dress.
I'd been making pull-over blouses from it for some time when I bought
a quantity of nice cotton jersey, so I took some ease out of the
pattern and tightened up the neck hole, which involved making several
T-shirts of a rather garish and cheap jersey I bought to make pajamas.
(And, in fact, I tend to pack one of those T-shirts when I go
somewhere overnight.) The first neck hole stretched *way* out, so
later on (when I'd gotten accustomed to wearing T-shirts around the
house) I took out the hem and eased the shirt onto a wide binding,
which made a quite-wearable shirt -- except for having red, yellow,
and green stars and moons all over it.
Sometime after perfecting the T-shirt pattern and making the shirt at
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/BUSTDART.HTM (I posted this as
part of a discussion some time or another, and have never had a reason
to take it down) I got *really* fed up with my RTW bras & decided that
making one would be easier than hunting down my size. So I put on
the T-shirt in the picture, pinched it up to see how tight to make it,
and stuck pins in to show how long to make it.
I made a trial in the aforementioned garish cotton jersey (which is
*printed* black, which makes it rather like synthetic fabric to wear,
but it's comfortable enough in cold weather) And lo and behold, it
fit right off the bat! In fact, I slept in it that night. (I'd
slipped on the ice while wearing it, and after my spouse fell asleep,
I discovered that I'd stiffened up so much that I couldn't undress
without help -- so I was very, very glad that I wasn't wearing a J.C.
Penney bra!)
I was desperate for bras by then, so I made another (which I'm still
wearing one day a week during the winter) without changing the pattern
any except to line the front and allow twice as much width for the
hem. I applique` waistband elastic to the lower edge, then turn it
twice so the elastic is completely covered.
Then I decided it was time to make one out of nice fabric, so I
enlarged the neck and arm holes and cut one from red interlock.
Interlock, it seems, has a lot more give than jersey. This came out
as a rather loose sleeveless blouse. So I did the pinch-up bit again,
and made another red bra -- this time I restored the original neck
hole, and put a neckband in it, thinking that if the bra insisted on
showing through the neck holes of my T-shirts, I'd make one that was
*supposed* to show.
The fit was perfect this time, but the neckband idea was a dismal
failure. (My 32Gs stretch it out of shape.) I was also out of the
red interlock, but I had some blue interlock that (Tadah!) had the
same stretch. So I cut the neck hole way big and made a blue bra.
Perfect fit, but I could wear it only under my winter shirts, as the
low necks on the summer shirts showed the straps. So I pared the neck
hole and arm holes some more, made another blue bra -- perfect, so I
made two more, and then I was out of the blue interlock. But I also
had seven bras, and I was accustomed to thinking of having three at
the same time as luxury, so there matters stood.
A considerable time later, for some reason I thought I'd like to see
whether my bra could be made up in woven fabric cut on the bias, so I
tried it in some dollar-a-yard cotton-linen shirting I bought to test
patterns with. (And it's time to test some more patterns because I've
worn out all my gardening shirts!)
I used the original pattern -- the one I made the garish black bra
from -- but faced the arm and neck holes with bias tape instead of
turning them under and zig-zagging over the raw edges. I also
flat-felled all seams instead of pressing them open and zig-zagging
the raw edges. And I didn't make the front double. (In the interlock
bras, I turned the dart in the lining up and the dart in the outer
shell down, to minimize bulk, but otherwise treated it like an
underlining. Oh, yes, there was no seam allowance on the lining; the
pressed-open seams and the hems covered the raw edges.)
Excellent fit, but the armholes irritated my skin, and the neck showed
through *winter* blouses. I cut the holes bigger and made three bras
from a long piece of excellent linen that Phoenix (fabric.com) cleared
out at a dollar a yard because it had been printed crooked. (I still
have quite a lot of it: I knew when I bought it that I'd never again
see real linen at a dollar a yard.)
I pared the holes more after each of the first two bras. The third
was just right, so I made a bra out of a scrap of handkerchief linen
(a triangle scarf leaves a very large scrap!), then took the bias off
the earlier bras and retrofitted them. On the handkerchief-linen bra,
I pressed the shoulder seam open and applique'd a wide strip of bias
over it instead of flat-felling, which made a nicer finish. The ends
of the bias are pointed, cut along the threads of the fabric.
The handkerchief linen bra is much more comfortable than the coarser
bras, and there's enough of the scrap to make one or two more -- but I
don't want any more lime-green bras (the triangle scarf was to be worn
for *visibility*). So I've been eyeing Wm. Booth, Draper's
second-best handkerchief linen (or is it his third best? one doesn't
want the linen to be *too* fine) -- but I can just barely get all my
bras into the drawer now and I'm completely out of middling slacks --
when I don't want to wear shabby, patched slacks I have to wear my
best linen-cotton damask slacks -- so it's going to be a while before
I order any linen. (But I have two pairs of eight-pocket broadfalls
cut out and some stitches in, and a deadline of about three weeks.)
One thing I learned: if you piece bias yardage to use for several
small projects, it is essential to baste true-bias lines all over the
fabric while it is still flat; the grain on the second and third bras
was kinder by guess and by golly. I didn't have this problem with the
handkerchief linen because taking a triangle scarf off one corner
leaves it cut bias, so I needed only to lay out the pattern. This
plan also eliminates piecing seams, but it's rather extravagant unless
you happen to want a triangle scarf.
Do I need to say to cut all the bias tape you think you will need
before you lay out the pattern? The wide bias for lining the shoulder
straps came from a scrap, though, since I wanted only two short
pieces. (Not to mention that I thought of it after cutting out.)
Joy Beeson
--
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ -- needlework
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at comcast dot net
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Posted by Kitty In Somerset, PA on March 30, 2006, 1:45 pm
Thanks Joy. I appreciate all the work that went into that post.
I'll have to get to work.
in reply to all, yes, I am pretty much house bound with two baby boys
in tow 24 seven and I have realized that the one thing I deserve is to
have clothing that isn't adding to my stress.
Not to mention that my kiddies deserve to have a grandma who isn't
yelling because she is miserable. If I can make undergarments which
are cooling and comfortable as well as supportive so I am not suffering
from a back ache, I should take the time and do the work.
well, back to work, thanks everyone, especially Joy. Kitty
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