totchipanda

I have been busy! 3 evenings at the holiday job last week, a few hours with the former roomies on one of the off nights (bc dancing with the stars was over; we watched Grease and played video games on our respective devices), Friday I was finally HOME WITH NOWHERE TO GO and I planned to maximize that. Saturday was the holiday party for the social group my mum is a part of, but she and hubs went to their timeshare in the mountains for this week so they weren't going. Yippee!

So Friday evening, I worked on a bra. I've been looking into bra-making off and on over the last 15-ish years and had been wanting to finally give it a go over various points in the last three years (never let it be said I rush into [some] decisions). AT LONG LAST -- Emerald Erin has a sale for Black Friday every year and I was in a good spot to actually participate. So I bought her Black Beauty wired bra pattern and a couple of kits (while home sick with covid).

Still took me some time to get around to it, not helped by aforementioned holiday job and dancing with the stars. According to her chart I would be a 34E (33-34" underbust, 39-40" full bust depending on the day) so I selected the corresponding wires for the kits, and realized after that I should have gotten one in the next size up just in case. Alas. The front is basically all stable non-stretchy knits, so I felt OK making a test out of quilting cotton.

34E was not the right size. Even without underwires in, the center front bar did not come anywhere close to my chest. I made a singular 34F cup that I tried to fit by holding it up to my chest. That was... a couple weeks ago, so on Friday I took the cups off, put bias tape on for the wire channel, and cut power mesh for the back band. Pinned the hooks and straps from an old bra on and tried it all on, boobs hanging out, to assess fit of a 34E band.

Actually, not terrible. The cup opening is SLIGHTLY too narrow for me (the left wire especially sits more on top of the breast tissue rather than behind it), and the band closed on the last hook. I was happy with that and proceeded to make a pair of 36F cups to see how that worked. Much too large! The bottom edge was fine, but the top edge gapped horrendously. I pinned it out and was thinking about how to modify the pattern, but after some dinner I decided to try that lone 34F cup just to see.

Luck was with me, it was the left side which is my larger breast, so out came the 36F and in went the 34F. And It was really nice! The bar sat close to my chest, I had only a small amount of excess at CF. I thought I would shorten the back band to a 32" but keep the 34F cup, making my homemade bra size 32FF. Woot, I can manage that without printing more pattern pieces, using the 34F pattern if I shortened the back by one size. Done! Onwards! Cut everything out (with help from the kittens) from one of the kits, and I wanted to get started right away but it was after 10pm by then and nothing good happens after 10pm.

Slept 7.5 solid hours that night. I felt AMAZING.

And then I sewed a bra! Wherever a straight stitch was (surprisingly a lot of it), I used a straight stitch machine, and the zig zags were done on the only modern (18.5 year old) machine I own. I put on an audiobook and made some coffee and pretty much worked straight through it. I was done in about 3 hours, and the only changes I made were to pull that CF in by a tiny amount, maybe 1/4", shorten the back strap, and shorten the over-shoulder straps just to have some wiggle room for the adjustableness. It fits so good! Turns out the back strap did not need to be shortened as it now closes on the first hook and is VERY snug, but it feels more like a firm hug than like I'm being squeezed out of it.

I did not secure the wires in because I really do need the next size up (which also appears to be the size of wire my best-fitting RTW bra uses) but since they are inserted and then the channel is top stitched closed, I could completely finish the bra except for that last step. And then I took some photos and pranced around the house in my amazing new piece and felt like the witch one of my non-sewing friends suggested I was :D

After the party on Saturday, I cut out the other kit (again with help from the kittens), which took longer because there are two layers, and the suggestion was to cut the "fashion" layer in a way that let the embroidered bees look best. Last night, after getting home from the holiday job, I wound up a bobbin and intended to start sewing but A: I maybe put the bobbin in backwards? The tension is terrible. B: the two layers are super wibbly!! I spent some time basting them together. C: the fabric is black. In a darker corner of the room (I put the sewing machines by the window bc it gets the best light, but especially at night, which is all the time in winter, the only other light comes from the far corner of the living room). It's OK, i said, I can wait another day to work on this.

Saturday's party was nice, very small group compared to previous years. Sunday I worked the holiday job, which was extremely quiet until 2, and then we were SLAMMED non stop until almost 5. We wrapped/delivered 101 presents, and we think 80% of it was during those three hours. Predictably, I did not stay nearly hydrated enough and ended the day with a headache. You'd THINK after 35 years of migraines I would know better by now, but no.

Dinner was leftover fries with Cajun spice, which i ate with mayo to dip because the spice was a lil too spicy, and laid in bed with my tummy protesting something about that meal for half the night. Sophie woke me up at 4am by trying to get into a box and I did not do more than doze afterwards. I am tired. But I do not have holiday work all week until Friday, yippee!

Now I have to find the house keys for my friend's place because she is going away to her parents' for Xmas Eve/Day as she usually does. I'm reasonably confident I remembered to grab it before I left the townhouse for good but... there is doubt. It was with my spare car key, so surely I packed them!