::Sewing::FO:: Bra Strap Stay Prototype

Okay people. It's about to get all personal around here. I'm going to be talking about bras and stuff so don't tell me you haven't been forewarned!!! :)

I must have really sloped shoulders or something because my bra straps are constantly slipping off my shoulders. ANNOYING! I'm constantly have to readjust my bra straps all the time. I have a bra that has removable straps that I could cross over at the back and that worked a treat except it made the straps a bit tight and they were already as long as they could go. Also, that wasn't really an option for bras that didn't have removable straps.

I got sick of my slipping straps so I thought I'd see if I could come up with a solution. I did a little bit of research about the internet and found a few ideas. Most of the options I found online were for converting a regular bra into a racer-back style bra and were made of plastic. That wasn't quite what I was after. I just wanted a joining strap that would sit halfway up my back. It would have to be removable so I could wash it and use it with other bras and I wanted it to be fairly sturdy and long lasting.

I had a think about it, had a look around at my supplies, had a quick look online for more supplies and came up with a cunning plan. This is what I came up with.

I was going to call it the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder-strap-wrangler, but I thought that sounded a bit long winded :) So I'm going to call it the Bra Strap Stay (BSS). Essentially it's a length of folded fabric with 2 sets of snaps at either end. Each end of the BSS wraps around the bra straps pulling them to the centre and keeping bra straps taught so they don't slide of shoulders.

Here are my supplies and tools (excluding machine, thread and scissors of course)

I folded the fabric RST and sewed a 3/8' seam along the long edge

I pinked the seam to make the tube easier to turn.

Using my nifty Easy Turn I turned the tube right side out.

I folded each end of the tube inside and stitched the ends closed.

Now it was hammer (and snaps) time.
(Hee hee little things, amuse small minds : P)

The back piece of the snap was worked into
the fabric using my fingers

Using the top of the tool I pressed the
fabric into the centre of the stud back.

The prongs sticking through
the fabric ready for the next step

The cap piece was placed on top and centred so the
prongs of the  stud back sit properly

The tool that came with the studs was then
 popped over the cap and centred so the
 pokey outey bit (very technical here people)
didn't get squished.

I put a press stud at each end of the strip and the matching stud about 2 inches in from each end.

Ta da! All done and ready to wrangle some bra straps.

I've been wearing it for quite some time now and there are a few things I'd do differently. I'd probably make it a little wider and perhaps a little longer. Next time I'd use a fabric that was much 'softer' to the skin. Depending on the fabric, it may need interfacing too.

My skin gets irritated by the little bits where I turned the ends of the tube under and stitched them closed. Next time I'd sew a curve around each short end and turn the tube right side out through a hole on one of the long sides. Perhaps topstitch it as well.

I'll have to make another version and let you know how I go :)

Until next time, I hope you dreaming up some ideas that will make your life easier.
Vanessa xo

::Ponderings::What does creating give you?

I was thinking about it this morning on my way to the train station.
Creating something with my hands is an activity I enjoy because, for me, it's a form of meditation.
When I'm creating I am completely focused on what I'm doing. I forget about everything else, literally, and just enjoy doing something I love.
I'm taking it one step at a time and I am all about the here and right now.

A swatch I made for an online short rows course

Knitting is a good example. You can only knit an item one stitch at a time, one row at a time, one piece at a time.
At the moment I do smaller, simple and quick projects. I'm all about the instant gratification of quick results, but I think I need to get a bit more ambitious and start tackling larger more complex projects that require a bit more brain power.

What does creating give you?

Until next time, I hope your loving every moment of creating.
Vanessa xo

What do you mean it's the end of March already?!

Holy guacemole! It's been a fair while since I've posted. Lame!
Anywho, let me tell you about the latest most greatest things that have been going on in my world.

I'll start with the boring non-creative stuff.

In late Febrary/early March my work life was crazy hectic, luckily in early Feb I decided I'd take the second week of March off. Totally glad I did it, otherwise I think I'd have gone cray-crazy!

Last weekend I went for a gallivant OS to see my parents. It was nice to hang out with my parental units. I just did some reading and lots of sleeping. My main read was a book that I've been working on for some time, I've been nursing this book along slowly because I devoured the first volume within a month.  I do like me a little Sherlock Holmes.

My holiday read - Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume II

Mum kept apologising that we weren't doing anything special, but I wasn't bothered. It was nice just being out of my usual environment.

The view from the room I was sleeping in. I love the colours, blues and greens. Yeah you're jealous :-P

I did manage to get creatively productive when I got back. On Friday I set up my sewing machine, my DVD viewing setup and I was ready to get my craft on. Oh yeah!

Aaages ago I started what I intend to be a bento box quilt and I thought if I was going to be sewing and watching a DVD at the same time straight sewing was going to be the best way to go so I worked on putting together more blocks. I put together 4 blocks at a time. Here are the fruits of my labour!

Please excuse the blurry photos. Shame!

That afternoon I went to Big W and bought some variegated yarn, some cheap fabric and a couple of other bits and bobs.

I got 4 balls of this Sean Sheep-Rockbank

The yarn is for a scarf I'm crocheting. The fabric was for a bag bag, the Mr requested on so we could wrangle our collection of plastic bags in the cupboard.

The Mr was out of town on Saturday and Sunday morning, which gave me some all-about-me time. Saturday morning I went to a Brisbane Northside Knitting and Crochet Group  meeting. I've only been to a few, but it was fun and I got started on my Clapochet. You can read about my Clapochet on Ravelry.

My Clapochet in progress.

My sister and I went out for lunch and she came over to my place afterwards. We watched Red Dog and we talked about her plans for her sewing patterns and her online presence.

When she left I watched The Help and made the bag bag requested by the Mr out of the fabric I bought from Big W. This is my creation complete and in use, tres neutral, tres useful.

While I was out and about Saturday morning I got a text from a friend that she was going to have a birthday brunch Sunday morning. She said no presents, but I ignored that part :) I pondered what I was going to make for her and I went to bed with a plan.

I woke up Sunday morning had a shower and got down to work on my friend's gift. I had some curtain fabric I had bought last year to make a different gift that I hadn't gotten around to making.

I cut two 12' by 18' pieces of the fabric. The fabric was shiny on one side and dull on the other, I used the shiny side of one of the pieces and the dull side of the other as the right side. The wrong side of the pieces were interfaced with adhesive interfacing. With right sides together, I sewed around the sides and left an opening in one of the short sides. The corners were clipped and it was turned right side out.

I zigzag stitched the side with the opening along the edge to close the opening. I stitched so that one side of the zigzag stitch missed the edge of the fabric while the other side of the stitch caught the fabric. This created a great over edge binding for the fabric. I should have done the whole side of the fabric, but I only did it to close the opening and to one end of the opening side. Silly. Oh well, you live and you learn. :)

Next was to sew the sides to create the pouchy bit. So I folded the short end with the zigzag edging up a third and zigzagged the sides together. Ta da!

My pouch is complete!

You might just be able to see that the outside is mostly shiny while the inside is mostly dull

Here's a close-up of the zigzag stitching.

I gave the pouch to my friend with a set of coasters that I had made before (you can read about them here).

The pouch and coasters. A doubley handmade gift!

That's about it from me my dear.
Until next time, do things you want to do, when you want to do it,
V xoxo

It's been awhile - Show and Tell

Hello there!

How have you been? I've been pretty alright. I may have been a bit quiet on the blog front but I’ve been going crazy on my Tumblr. Check it out! The 'Inspiration Scrapbook' link on this blog will take you there too.

Last weekend I went to a local Knitting and Crochet Group and it was lovely. It was only the second time I had been to the group and I realised that that last time I went was nearly a year ago! Geez! Anywho, it was lovely meeting others who are into the same things as me and from various backgrounds. While I was there I worked on my Granny Square Throw.

This is the throw folded into quarters!

I have been working on this thing for years and years and I think I'm nearly at the end. It’s getting quite large. I think I want to do a decorative edge and then I'll draw it to a close. While I decide what edging I want to do it I've been weaving in and snipping all the tails. So that’s something that’s been keeping me out of trouble.

So I have a little story to tell you. In the later part of last year I became a little obsessed with sewing clothes. I've been reading sewing blogs like crazy (which probably had something to do with my FOMO post), I’ve borrowed heaps of sewing/fashion books from my sister who did fashion at TAFE (kinda like Australian Community College I guess, maybe) and I was gifted a couple of sewing books at Christmas. I had even downloaded, printed and assembled a couple of free sewing patterns; I hadn’t done anything with those patterns, but I had them anyway.

So the New Year rolled around and I thought, “Dammit! I’m just going to sew something. It doesn’t have to be amazing. Just something.” So on New Years Day I woke up and trundled downstairs with some fabric, a downloaded pattern, scissors and some determination. I’ve been slowly assembling this thing ever since and I finally finished it yesterday. So here it is…

My House Pants!

They are a pair of house pants. You know pants you would NEVER wear out of the house. They are really baggy and comfortable. I didn't take a great deal of care making them. There is A LOT wrong with them, but hey, it’s a start. I really am proud of my efforts considering it’s my first wearable sewed item EVER! Even if they look like a really bad Home Ec project :) They’re made from an old sheet that I bought from Lifeline (a thrift store). The fabric has been washed sooo much it’s made the fabric lovely and soft. That’s my sewing story and I hope to be able to add to it, I want to sew some more items of clothing and eventually something I could wear out in the actual world! Gasp! :P 

Oooh and before I go I have to show you the loot from my last shopping expedition to Spotlight (the Mr says he’s going to have to put a “Don’t Serve this Lady” poster of me there. Eeep!)

My Loot from Spotlight

I bought 4m interfacing for sewing pattern testing; 4m fusible interfacing to see if I can use this nifty tip to make my sewing patterns last longer; I bought another 4mm crochet hook with a thicker handle as I've been finding crocheting with my other slimmer hook gets tiring quickly; I bought I couple of D rings because I want to try making an adjustable wrist pin cushion; I've been looking around for this double tracing wheel for ages and I finally found it so I jumped at the chance to buy it; the Velcro is also for the adjustable wrist pin cushion; and finally a French Curve. It was the most expensive thing I bought, but I'm pretty pleased with it. It’s got lots of info in the packaging so I think it will be valuable as I continue to sew.

My new French Curve <3

The back of the Package - Great diagrams!

More great diagrams on the inside too. So great!

The invisible zipper foot I bought from a Janome dealer near the Spotlight I went to.

Invisible zipper foot

I've been lusting after an invisible zipper foot (unnecessarily really) for ages. So I just bit the bullet and bought it. I think the next foot I buy will be a binder foot (something else I've been lusting after unnecessarily, but my theory is if you lust after it for an extended period of time it must mean you REALLY want it).

There are a couple of other things I have to tell you about before I go. So have bought some pretty sweet fabric and I was trying to iron it on my small table top ironing board. FAIL! So last week I bit the bullet and bought a proper ironing board. YIPEE! Check it out!

My real life sized ironing board, mini table top ironing board and red iron rest

The only silly thing is that I had to buy a hot pad for my iron because the board didn't have a pull out rest. Oh well. You can't have everything.

And one last thing. I promise. I picked up this cute measuring tape and scissors set at Big W. I thought I'd lost my measuring tape so I thought heck why not get a measuring tape AND a small pair of scissors.

So cute!

Turns out I hadn't lost my measuring tape at all. Meh. I like my new set anywho! :)

Ok that's enough show and tell now I think. I've got to save the rest for another time. So what's the latest with you? Do you have any ambitions for the new year? How about any Works in Progress? Is there something you're lusting over at the moment?

Do something you're excited about,

V xo

How-to: Button Brooches

Hi,

How are ya? How are you faring so far this silly season?

I'm doing well. I have a few gifts sorted out, but there are a definitely a few more that I need to find.

Today I'm going to show you how I made myself a simple and sturdy button brooch.

(I would like to apologise in advance for the horrible photos. I made my brooch at night. I'm most creative at night I, think I need to sort out a better lighting system for night photography. Anyway, I digress.)

At the beginning of the year I bought a big packet of Beutron buttons. They have been sitting in my stash for aaages. About a month ago I dusted off the packet . Because I'm a little crazy, I sorted them into their colour groups. 

While I was playing I found three that fit in each other and looked nice.

So I decided to make a brooch with them.

Here, I'll show you how I did it. Firstly here are the three buttons I found.

I grabbed a bottle of gem bond. But you can use any sort of permanent glue you have lying around. Just as long as it dries clear.

I dabbed a spot of glue into the middle of the blue button and placed the green one on top, making sure to line up the sewing holes as best I could.  I did the same with the heart button

(I took photos of these steps, but they came out sooo hideously blurry and I didn't realise until too late!)

Once the buttons are glued together I grabbed some thread and a needle and sewed a cross through the sewing holes. Next time I do it I'm going to wait until the glue dries, my needle got all sticky and yuk! To speed up the process I would probably use thicker embroidery thread.

This is what the front looked like when I was done sewing.

Onto the back, where all the pinning happens.

So on my first attempt I thought I'd just glue the brooch pin directly onto the button. FAIL! It just wouldn't stay in place.

So I glued a circle of felt onto the back of the button.

I then glued the brooch pin onto the felt. BTW these are very small brooch pin backs.

And then glued a small rectangle of felt over the brooch pin to give it a nicer look.

And that's it. Ta-da! Button Brooch complete.

I've since made a whole bunch of two-button brooches for stocking stuffers this Christmas.

What do you think? Would you wear one of these puppies?

I'm interested to know. When are you most creative? Why is that?

Kanzashi Brooch

Hello there!

How are you doing? I'm doing well, but I kinda feel like this is the calm before the chaos that is the festive season.

I mentioned in my last post that I was getting all laissez-faire about housework and got all crafty up in my own grillz. I showed you this puppy in my a couple of weeks ago.

I thought it was about time I showed you how and what I made.

This is the back. Very profesh! 

First and foremost I got the idea from Kanzashi in Bloom (book website here) by Dianne Gilleland of CraftyPod fame. I really love this book; it's full of fantastic projects, that are pretty and I would actually make.

On to the brooch...I started by folding 6 rounded Kanzashi petals (I could show you how, but there are so many tutes online on how to do them, just Google 'Kanzashi rounded petal') and then trimmed them too.

Taking a loooong piece of knotted thread and a needle I sewed the petals with the needle catching all the foldey layer bits at the bottom.

I like to stack them on to the needle in lots of three. I don't know why, I just do. :)

Pulling the needle through I left a long tail at the beginning

If I only sew one row I find the flower goes a bit flopsy, so I like to sew through the petals again at the top to catch all the top foldy bits. Making sure to leave a lot of loose thread between the bottom and top row of sewing. You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm just a bit insecure about having a flopsy flower :)

Then I snipped the thread between the top and bottom rows.

Taking the long loose tails of thread from each row of sewing; I tied them using a surgeons knot. Making sure not to tie it too tight, just tight enough to bring the bottom of the outside two petals together, but not so tight they squish together (I forgot to take a picture when I had tied the thread...Oops).

I played with the petals to make sure they sat nicely when the petals were folded and when they were spread out like they will be when the brooch is finished.

The next bit you don't have to do at all. I just did it because I found that with the first Kanzashi brooch I made the fabric I used wasn't stiff enough and petals just collapsed back into their folds. So with this brooch I thought that gluing the petals together a bit might stop that from happening.

I dabbed a spot of fabric glue between the petals and hold two petals together for about a minute and a half. Then I did the next petal.

I glued three petals together and then glued the other three together. I held the petals together for a bit and then put them aside to dry.

While the glue was drying I took a deodorant cap and used it to trace a circle on some felt.

This was to be the backing of the flower. So I had to make sure the circle wasn't too big and then I cut it out.

I needed a rectangle of felt to cover the back of the brooch pin back. So I just sized up how wide and how long a piece a needed then snip-snipped the piece I wanted.

I glued the brooch back to the felt circle using some gem glue. Gem glue is the best kind of glue to stick something hard and non-porous to fabric. I put it aside to dry and went back to gluing my flower.

I put a dab of glue between the last two unglued petals and held the petals together for a bit.

While I set the flower aside for a bit for the glue to cure, it's time to finish the brooch back.

Open the brooch back, take the rectangle of felt, glue it over the brooch pin back using fabric glue and set aside.

Once the glue is dry it's time to try on a few buttons! Yippee! It's really interesting how much difference the button makes to the flower.

Too phafy!

Too small and black!

Just right! 

With the button chosen I was just a matter of putting all the bits together.

I started by gluing the felt circle to the back of the flower using a 'generous' amount of fabric glue.

I set the flower aside to give the glue time to dry.

I tried to sew the button on, but I pulled too hard on the thread and it pulled the thread through the fabric of the flower. I didn't want to risk the fabric fraying so I abandoned that idea.

To stop the fabric from fraying I put some fray stopping glue in the centre of the flower and set it aside to dry.

To make it look like the button is sewn on I sewed some thread onto the button.

I put some gem glue on the button and pressed  and held it onto the flower.

And there you have it. A lovely Kanzashi Brooch.

And here is the back.

I gifted this one to my mum. Bit I think they're a great idea for stocking fillers.

And in other news on Friday I drove to my favourite craft store. Here is a pic of my haul.
Loving the bright fat quarters!

That's all folks! Until next time, do something creative that makes you smile.

V xoxo