Category: mary knickers

What was I thinking

~ velosews ~ 34 Comments
This is one project I just could not understand – making a stock-standard bra. Nothing spesh. Plain and ordinary.
Kwik Sew 3300 has been around and has been reviewed by lots of really competent sewing bloggers. Right now there are so many new bra patterns that it made no sense for me to buy another pattern until I cracked this pattern.

This underwire bra pattern uses 

  • power net for the back bands, 
  • plush elastic for the band base and top, 
  • picot elastic for the top cup edges finished, 
  • self made shoulder straps from tricot and 
  • self made wire channelling. 

View A cups are made from lace and tricot, and view B cups are made from tricot.
I decided to use pre-made shoulder straps and re-made underwire chanelling.

Most of my notions were bought at Metro Fabrics, the Remnant Warehouse and from an ebay seller who was selling their lingerie fabrics and notions. I should have bought 3×3 hook/eye sets.

My ignorance
My first two attempts were plain stupid. I had no knowledge about the fabrics needed, types of elastics, underwires, shoulder straps, hooks and the list goes on and on.
This is my 3rd attempt and I’ve salvage some of the notions.

I decided to make the 34B but I kept changing my mind about elastics, laces, hooks/eyes, straps because I had no idea about what was what.

Here’s my 4th attempt.

This plain white attempt is my 4th attempt and it fits nicely. #success

It’s taken me two years to go back to the first two attempts and try again. The first two attempts were failures but I was able to tweak the pattern pieces for a better fit.


Machine stitching
There are a number of stitch types used to a decent bra that I hadn’t used before. It took several viewings of Craftsy’s bra making course to learn about the stitching. Beverly Johnson is a certainly a bra fairy or bra-whisperer and owner of Bra makers supply. I bought this course on sale and it’s now got me over the line.
Beverley advises to place all your pieces and notions on a board when you’re about to start sewing.

Beverly’s bra knowledge especially her bra notions and hardware knowledge were and are invaluable to me and she’ll remain my ‘go-to’ bra resource.


What did I change
The lace version is full lace cup and some lace on the side and on the bridge.

The main cup shape change was on the upper cup piece. I altered the shoulder strap location to be closer to my neck as RTW bra straps sliding off my shoulders.

I also darted out some space in the upper cup piece because it seemed too wide at the top.

The bridge is also slimmer than the pattern.

Measuretwicecutonce Mary knickers with Kwik Sew 3300

Ongoing learning
Beverly’s knowledge made the Kwik Sew instructions a lot more workable. When I first attempted this pattern I put it aside because there were too many variables that I did not understand #noidea.

There isn’t a local bra making workshop so being able to go back through the class steps when I needed them has helped me made this bra pattern work.

My main blogger sewing references are Fehr Trade, kathhhhy, Ms McCall, Sigrid and measuretwicecutonce. 

After I made these bras I found this pattern freebie page.

Road test
I’ve since worn the lace bra all day: it sits properly; is comfortable to wear; and has been through the wash and come out unscathed.

I’ll only post up future bras posts if:

  • they look amazing or 
  • I’ve used a different pattern or
  • I attempt to sew a sports bra.

So for now, that’s my bra making story.

Underthings

~ velosews ~ 11 Comments

#everyonedeservesprettyknickers. 

They do. There are lots of underwear patterns around and Susan of measuretwicescutonce blog has come up with a series of knicker patterns for wovens and knit fabrics. 
She’s a local star really.

I attempted to make the knit knickers – The Mary Knickers. All of these patterns come with a design manual. You get to be your own designer with these patterns.

DH had a good chuckle when he saw my first attempt. So I’ve got a lot of learning to do and maybe I need to work on my design skills a lot more.


He reminded me that sewing should be fun right?

These drawings were my first pattern alterations. The green marking is where I’ve traced the side leg on the knickers I already own, as a comparison.

So I tried again.

Used a basic beige to test out my alterations. This fabric is much easier on the eyes:)

Finished the gusset edges

Use the coverstitching for the leg edge.

 Then it was time to attempt the pink/fushia version.

This time I used the leg shaping and added elastic at the leg edge. 

And that’s a wrap for now.

Thanks Susan for developing these patterns. They’re all so cute and Susan’s knowledge of all things sewing blows me away everytime we meet.
Dear Susan, Please make a series of bra patterns. That’s another skill I want to develop in a class environment this time.Take care.

Cheers:)