What's YOUR bra size?

SOOO many people are wearing the WRONG bra size (I was included in that category... and I even knew how to measure, but I couldn't find the right sized bra till I went to a specialty store). So I stumbled on this page and wanted to "bookmark" it for later/pass it along.

http://www.etoolsage.com/Calculator%5CBraSize.asp

I have not perused the rest of the site yet, but it looked promising....

Successful so far....

I've accomplished a couple of successful things. First, I was able to take my measurements and draft my first princess style sloper based on a design in the Ladies Cutting book. How I did it was rather genious, I thought. I bought graph paper and since the squares are 1/4 of an inch, I drew the pattern using the squares as square inches. Then I went to Kinko's and blew up the page by 400%. It cost me $2.65 to blow it up and so I figure I'll be ahead of the game if I can draw out my designs and print them for $3.00 considering most patterns are $15.00. I have not actually made anything yet, I did cut out some fabric (muslin) and pinned it, made changes to the paper pattern and came out with revisions. I have not cut out the revised version yet, but I did tape together the paper pattern and it seemed to hug my body like a sloper should. I've been too busy to get any further with this project, but when I do get the revision pattern blown up and cut out, etc... I will try and take pictures and post them.



In the mean time, I've found http://www.pattern_making.com/, which has some good ideas on it - the language is far simpler than the 2 books I posted, and it doesn't seem as comprehensive either. However, gathering resources is invaluable.



Here's a bra making diagram from pattern_making.com:
http://www.pattern-making.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/screenhunter_33-jul-31-1538.jpg

Learning, reading and researching!

I've read all kinds of things since my last post, and the same website that is the internet home of Modern Pattern Design is also home to Ladies' Garment Cutting and Making, by F. R. Morris.

I searched this to try and purchase it and the prices were anywhere from 150 up to 250. So I settled for Copy and pasting into a PDF and printing it at the local printers. Cost me $36 - but now I have to figure out how to bind it.

The language in this book is insanely wordy for no good reason. So you can't sit and waste your time trying to read every last little description because your head will spin. I did NOT understand what they were getting at until I saw the Summary somewhere in Chapter one that boiled it down to far simpler statements. After I read the summary, I started to understand what the wordy paragraphs were getting at. Once you get past this the patterns in this book are amazing!! And you draft them from your own measurements, so in theory your final piece will be tailor made to fit you. It is a bit different system than the one in Modern Pattern Design, but equally as useful (I think).

On a different note, I drafted (successfully) a pair of my husband's shorts that were disintegrating from over use (they were the ones that fit the best) and basted together a pair of shorts that seem like they will fit upon completion. Pictures to follow when I get that far.

One last thing -- I found some vintage clothing that I LOVE from dustyrose4477 on Flickr and here in particular is my FAVORITE!!

This picture has crashed my browser like 3 times because it's so big... so I'm just going to post for now. If you're interested in vintage clothing, checkout dustyrose4477's flickr account... it's a great collection!