Doctor T Designs

This month was the wrap up of the Bra Sewing Bee, and I’m happy to say that I was able to sew one set during the beginner portion, and I worked through two new patterns during the main part of the Bee. I got a lot more sewing in than I expected, and I feel like I learned a lot. I wasn’t able to attend as many events as I would have liked due to my existing obligations, but I decided to extend my access to the Bra Bee Academy this year so that I could review recordings from previous year and continue my deep-dive on learning more about fit, construction, and design. There were a lot of classes from the 2022 Bee that were referenced in 2023 that I really wanted to see, and since I’m still really focused on sewing undergarments it seemed like a good investment. Even without that, I probably would have stayed in The Hive community because there are a lot of really exciting upcoming events and it’s been a really great place to learn and ask questions from the other members, many of whom are professionals in the field. All that being said, although I’ve spent a fair bit of time focused on the Bra Bee, this month has also been super busy with non-sewing obligations as well! It definitely feels like I’m in peak busy season, and it’s going to stay crazy for the next few months.

Sewing Progress

This month I have successfully made my best fitting bra so far! The Josey has been a really great fit and has made me reconsider some things I’d been thinking about how my bras should fit. The pattern uses wire spring, which I’d given up on after last year’s Bee and the issues I had with wires being too long, but it turns out if you spring the correct sized wire, magical things can happen. I also learned some important lessons about the shape of the power bar seam, and how much it impacts the overall shape of the cup. I do think that having several decent fitting patterns allowed me to figure this one out; I think I probably saved me a lot of time and frustration.

Getting really close to a perfect fit does make me want to see if I can get it even better though; this project is inspiring plans to fix the Josey band and play with re-drafting my own band with wire spring to have a “battle of the bands” sew-off coming up.

Sewing Delays

This has been quite a busy month – I was out of town a few weekends, and at in-town events the rest. I also managed to pick up the most awful cold so I was down pretty hard for the better part of two weeks (and I’m still recovering, honestly). I have definitely fallen off the sewing wagon a bit because of all of the travel and necessary recovery time from being sick, but I’m slowly getting my energy back. June and July are going to be even more busy, but I’m hoping to sneak a few projects in here and there, or at least get back to my current patterns I was working on.

Finished Projects

I was super motivated to finish some projects in conjunction with the Bra Bee this month, so despite the fact that I had very limited free time, I ended up with two new sets using two new bra patterns – the Josey and the Lusamine. I used my self-drafted Craftsy class pattern to pair with the Josey (left) and the Friday French Cuts to pair with the Lusamine (right).

WIPs & Upcoming Plans

I don’t actually have any WIPs, which feels really weird after having so many months of continual sewing progress. Being sick has really kicked me in the butt. I do have a giant list of projects I want to work on, but I think the most immediate thing is working out a band pattern to correct the remaining fit issues, and fixing the Friday French Cut pattern a bit more to finalize this month’s projects. Once I have the band worked out I’d like to re-fit all of my cup patterns (which shouldn’t be too difficult since it’s the same wire length), and maybe break into a few of my kits to ease my storage situation a bit. I also want to start working on the Cashmerette Loftus as part of The Hive June sewalong. I’m also thinking pretty hard about working on some activewear and sports bras, because mine are getting pretty old and have been small or stretched out for a while. I also need some new white shirts by the end of summer, and, honestly, just new clothes in general. Of course, I keep getting distracted by projects and techniques from the Bra Bee Academy that I want to try too… so who knows. But I’ll start with nailing down the fit, and depending on how long that takes, I’ll see where I need to go from there. June’s going to be even busier than May, but I surprised myself with how much I got done this month, so hopefully next month will be the same!