More adventures in bra making

Hello all! As you can see, I've made another soft bra. Pretty much the whole of the design of this bra is down to the supplies I had on hand at the time and so it's very basic and minimalist.

I traced the cup from a soft bra that I already had, pinching out some excess where I knew that it gaped a bit. This gave me all of the pattern that I needed to make my bra. I decided to make the cups from the fabric of my old prom dress, which is a blush coloured crepe back satin. It is a woven fabric and the cups of my original bra were made from a jersey knit, but I was convinced that if I cut the pattern on the bias, all would be well.

The first step was to sew the darts, and then I encased the top edge of the cup in foldover elastic, stretching slightly as I went so that the cup wouldn't gape.

The next step was to encase the edge of the other side of the cup, starting at the bottom and working upwards. The foldover elastic then continues as a strap.

Using the existing bra as a reference I measured how much plush back elastic to cut, which acts as the band. The cups were then sewn onto the band and I pinned down the straps, again referencing the existing bra. I only had wide hook and eye clasps so I ended up just trimming them so there was 1 row of hook and eyes instead of 3, and zigzagged the raw edges.  I tried on the bra and ended up unpicking the band right in the centre so I could cross over the cups just a teeny bit more for a better fit.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I quite like the juxtaposition of the sporty elastic and the luxurious fabric. I think that the cups did stretch out a bit at the top edge which isn't ideal. It is really comfy to wear. I'd like to try this pattern again, perhaps with some black lace for a completely different look.

Thanks for reading!

Lauren xx

Whale Print Cleo

Hello all! This is my second Tilly and the Buttons Cleo and my April Minerva Make! I saw this striped whale embroidered seersucker on the Minerva website and thought it would make the perfect whimsical pinafore dress. You can read all about the making process here.

Thank you very much for reading, to Edward for dragging his camera around Nottingham so we could take some pictures and to Minerva Crafts for supplying the materials in this project.

Lauren xx

Floral Cleo Pinafore

Hello all! So it appears that I have jumped upon the pinafore bandwagon and I'm not even sorry. In regards to trends I love to hate them while they are in fashion, and as they are being pushed out the back door my brain has just started to come around to the idea. However, all of the pinafores I have seen look really quite comfy, and I was intrigued to try a new, less fitted silhouette than I am used to. When deciding on my next few Minerva makes I thought it was time to experiment and I included the Tilly and the Buttons Cleo pattern in one of my kits. This version is a test run.

The pattern took no time to cut out at all with only 5 pieces (excluding pockets). I cut the front and back pieces on the fold, because the seam was a straight line and I didn't want to disrupt the print. This made the sewing process even faster.

 Construction was pretty quick and straightforward. I under-stitched as much of the facing as I could to make the topstitching easier. I left off the pocket, but I might add one later. I'm not sure it needs it with the busy print though. The mini length was pretty short on me so I zigzagged along the raw edge and turned it up 5/8inch and topstitched it into place.

 I didn't make any adjustments to the fit at all. It looked alright to me, but I'm not really sure how a pinafore is supposed to fit. It's definitely not the most flattering view from the side, but I wonder if that is just the bulk of the jumper?

All in all, this Cleo was a very good experiment. I look forward to wearing variations on a crop top with it as the weather gets warmer.

Thanks for reading, to Edward for taking the photos and to Minerva Crafts for the pattern!

Lauren xx

Cropped Clare Jacket Hack

Hello all! Today’s Minerva Make is quite an interesting one, if I do say so myself. When I saw this fur backed suede fabric online I thought it would make a perfect cropped jacket. It would be super cosy and I wouldn’t even need to line it, because the fur is there already! Easy peasy. As with all projects, it ended up being a little more complicated than I first thought, but I worked on this project in short bursts of time over a couple of days which give me time to think the next step through. I started with HeatherLou of Closet Case Patterns’ Clare Coat as this jacket was inspired by her version with an exposed zip. You can read all about the making process at the Minerva Crafts blog here.

Thanks for reading, to Minerva Crafts providing all the supplies used for this make and to MK for taking photos!

Lauren xx

4 years of blogging!

Hello all! The anniversary of my blog was at the end of February and I wanted to stand back a bit and have a look at what I have achieved in the last year, and how far I have come in the last four years. My first blog post was an apron made out of a tea towel, and four years later I struggle to think of a garment I haven't made.  In the last year and a bit I have made over 50 pieces of clothing with a success rate of around 63% (which means that over half of those makes still get worn).

This year was all about the dinosaur fabric. I made pajamas for me and boxers, pants, t-shirts and a vest top for various other people.

A personal highlight in the year for me was writing, staging and performing in a musical and I loved making a massive new romantic style shirt for that. It was then that I learnt how much a piece of clothing can make you stand a little taller and your swagger a little more pronounced.

In terms of my most worn makes this year my scuba Noelle dress has been worn practically every single week since I made it. I love it for going out on a Friday night, but I also love layering long sleeved t-shirts under it for daywear.

My black top that I made to go with my elephant dress has been worn constantly since I made it a few weeks ago. I should have predicted this, because it goes with everything and it's super warm and cosy.

My last favourite of the year is my strappy back dress. Again, I can't wait until the weather warms up a bit so I can wear it again. The fabric, colour scheme and the fit of this dress just make me happy.

My most popular blog post of the year, and in fact ever is my Summer Ball Dress, which is incredibly ironic because I really wasn't happy with it at all. In fact, it got completely taken apart and is sitting on my dress form in a completely new guise.

My chambray jumpsuit was a firm favourite for warmer weather in the past year and I can't wait to put it back into rotation when the weather starts to warm up a bit. I was dreaming about a stripy version just the other day. This is one of the makes that I am most proud of this year. It looks like such a simple garment, and essentially it is, but I had problem after problem after problem in the making of this jumpsuit. I could easily have just given up and let it sit in the corner for eternity, but I didn't and now it's one of my favourite makes. Perseverance is key!

The other make that I'm the most proud of is my Kelly Anorak. The fabric was disgusting to work with, and there were some quite complicated techniques in there but I gave it a shot and I did it. Admittedly there was some swearing, but it got finished and I'm so proud of it.

I feel that the blog has really upped its game in terms of photos in the last year. I have worked with some fantastic photographers, including Lucy and my brother Edward and it makes me so happy to see my clothes done justice in photo form. I also want to say thank you to the less enthusiastic photographers who get kidnapped in the middle of their lunch break to take pictures of me posing in front of some kind of shrubbery. My favourite photoshoot is the one of my tutu for sure. Somehow, there's just so much atmosphere in it.

The photos of my Sophie swimsuit also deserve a mention, purely because of the amount of fun I had taking them, and the involvement of the inflatables. I also love my hair in this shoot.

I also love the stripy top and red skirt photos. Very idyllic and painting-like.

What have I learnt this year? I've learnt that there are ups and downs. Successes and failures. Some failures can be made into successes. In a way each failure can be called a success because of what has been learnt from it.

Thank you so much to all of you that read my blog. I really am much obliged, and I hope that you will stick around for another year.

Lauren xx