The Maya bra! New addiction?

I've kinda run out of motivation lately when it comes to making clothing. It might be my closet exploding,  it might be the weather and being already fed up with the winter, who knows!😵

The thing is, I can't go a day without sewing ...something ...anything! So I decided to give lingerie, well underwear in general a try!

I started by ''drafting'' a pair of underwear following the instructions of a book I borrowed. Well... that didn't go totally as planned since they were huge! So I started searching the interwebs for free patterns and found a very nice one. I made one, and then a second one and then I thought, why don't I give making a bra a try!😍

I didn't want to buy a pattern only to be disappointed if I discovered that I sucked at it so I went searching for a free one again! 😁

And then I found the Maya bra pattern 💘
Beautiful pattern with nice and round cups and lots of sizes!

I had a big bag of galloon lace that I got from my mother in law together with a couple of pairs of straps and closures. I also had a pair of underwires from Prym that I bought a while ago.
So I figured, I more or less have what i need, why not give it a try 😋. Since I only wear padded bras I also needed some padding which I ordered online together with some elastic for the band.

I printed the pattern in my RTW (ready to wear) size and started cutting!
I more or less followed Ana's instructions when I was putting it together (she not only has a free bra pattern but also instructions with pictures of how to put it together.) Unfortunately the instructions aren't complete so I also followed the instructions on the Makebra site as well. It took some improvising here and there but I managed!

For the cups I used the padding fabric to make the foam cups, it was easier than expected putting them together! I used 3-step zigzag and a stretch needle, easy peasy!

I didn't want to stabilize my whole cradle so i skipped that part and stabilized only the bridge.I used some soft tulle in a not so very matching color but it did the job 😋 .

For the cradle and the wings I used only the lace fabric thinking it was good enough only to find out later that it's way to flimsy for me. My band elastic didn't help either, very stretchy and flimsy as well, so I ended up with a not very supporting and too big band. Oh well, live and learn! 😞

All that said, I do find it a pretty good lookin' bra!

First proper bra I've ever made! (Yea well, it doesn't fit properly!)

The bra came out being too small for me (that's what happens when you kinda wing the size 😒).
I also did quite some research on the interwebs about bra construction and fit and realized, I've been wearing the wrong size all along! 😱
Yea, if you constantly have to readjust, it's the wrong size...
If when you pull your bra to fit on the sides, you have no fabric left in the center and the girls are falling out, wrong size!

But I ain't quittin'! Next one can only be better, right? 😉

Trumpet sleeve Dress! Lutterloh supplement 306, pattern 55

Time for a dress! because.. why not!😛

Dresses are a bit of a challenge for me, not making them but choosing a good pattern for my body type. My bottom size is (depending on the pattern brand) 1-2 sizes bigger than the top but this isn't the challenging part, making a dress the flatters my figure is...!
I usually make one-piece dresses with no separate bodice en bottom, that way, if the pattern doesn't fit me nicely in the end, I can always chop it off and call it a jumper/top/blouse 😋!

And the dress pattern I'm going to be trying out this time is a Lutterloh pattern (again) and it is from supplement 306 pattern 55. Here's what it looks like:

Supplement 306 pattern 55

After drawing the pattern I started measuring just to make sure it fits (as I always do). The bust and waist measurements were good, quite some ease since it's a pattern for woven fabrics. The hip measurement wasn't right though, it was 2 cm less than my hip measurement, we gotta fix that!


On the pattern, the line drawn from waist to bottom hem looks like a straight line. Since I don't want to go up a couple of sizes and have my hem way too wide, I decided to do the following:

Ok, that's some lame drawing skills but you get the point of what I did (I hope😶). I used my handy ruler to draw, instead of that straight line between the waist and hem, a curved one that hopefully is going to give me enough space around the hip area without having to alter the width of the hem by much.
And to make it a bit more clear, here's what my paper pattern looks like now:

Now that I'm done with the width measurements, time to check and fix the rest of the measurements. The length above the waist is, as always, not right for me so I removed 5 cm there.

Also the bust point is too low for me (quite common), sometimes to fix this, I move the whole dart upwards by a few centimeters (and I believe that's the right way to do it), but other times I do it the lazy way and just add a new point above the one given and reconnect the sides of the dart ( below the armhole) to that new point. Lazy way payed off this time, Roxanne agreed (yes, my dress form has a name and she likes it!😅)
Since the sleeves are 3/4 sleeves and I'm too cold in the winter for that, I lengthened the sleeves around 10 cm and the ruffle part another 5cm.

Time to pick a fabric! I don't want to use woven since I don't want to put a zipper on my dress, I want a knit that's warm and not too stretchy.
Same problem every time I'm making a new pattern: What if I don't like how the garment turns out and I've ruined my beautiful fabric....?! (Which almost never costs more than 5 euros per meter but what can I say, I'm a cheapskate!😂🙊)

This time it didn't take me that long to figure out which fabric I'm gonna be using (!), here it is:

Everything cut and ready to start assembling!

First thing: basting the bust darts and then pinning them. Since I'm not sure how the dress is going to look on me, I won't sew it together yet but just pin it and have Roxanne try it on!

Well, the pattern is good, but I did take an extra centimeter off the outer part of the shoulder seams, using knit fabric with a pattern for a woven fabric will most likely need some adjustments.

Attaching sleeves, ruffles on sleeves and finishing them off with a rolled hem on my serger. Next up is the neckline! I don't really like facings on tops and dresses so I chose another way to finish it off, the fast (and lazy) way: Ready made piping! 👍

Finishing of the hem with a twin needle and it's all done!🙌

Very easy pattern, I had to do my usual adjustments to it (including the shoulder width which is something I almost always have to do with Lutteroh). I don't have much to say about this pattern, simple straight forward dress, drawing the attention to the sleeves.
It can be a good basic pattern to play with, lower the neckline, change the sleeves e.t.c.
Will I make the pattern again? Possibly in the spring with some of the adjustments I named above 😉