Doctor T Designs

April has been crazy – it’s felt simultaneously like the longest and shortest month so far this year. It’s been a wild contrast of busy travels and work, and also being tired or sick and doing absolutely nothing at home. Somehow in spite of all of this I somehow managed to finish a lot of sewing projects as well? Truly, the timeline is a bit confounding and I honestly don’t even know how I have anything to write about in this month’s wrap-up post, but here we are. Let’s see what I got up to in April!

Sewing Progress

This month started with a continuation of the projects I started for the Fit Clinic in March. I was able to finalize the pattern for my Make Bra DL02, and finish the Aphrodite I made as a side project while I was waiting for wire sizes to arrive in the post. Although I had started pulling out other patterns to perhaps start testing them as well, I put them back on the on hold shelf because I didn’t have enough time to be fitting four patterns and making final projects. But I’m still happy with that because I’ve definitely got a head start on things to work on this summer. And I was able to finish a lot of the projects I had wanted to make last month, which has been great because I’ve been wearing them a lot during April.

I also found time to do what might be classified as “mending,” though it’s not exactly that. During the Fit Clinic process I decided I was still in the wrong wire size, and after some extensive testing and angsting over wire sizes and shapes, I am now using a size 50. And, truly – I think this is finally it. I’ve been happy with wire sizing before but there’s always been something niggling at me saying it’s not entirely right, or the fact that the fit feels off becomes more apparent the longer the bra is worn during the day. This time, there’s none of that. It feels right, all day long, and it’s really nice. With this revelation, I went back and compared the 50 Vertical and the new Porcelynne 50 Long Omega wires to my current bras. Some have really short wire lines and there isn’t an option to switch out the wire for anything larger because it won’t fit, but for quite a few of the bras I made last year, I could swap out the wires into one of the styles in a size 50. So I decided to add a bunch of “mending” projects for wire swaps to my list of sewing things this month. This has both been great, as some of the bras I’d not been wearing feel much more comfortable now with the 50 wire, and been awful because ripping out bar tacks is a giant PITA – so much so that my seam ripper literally snapped! Happily it’s the kind of seam ripper where you can replace the insert and I had backups on hand, but still. Anyway, long story short, some patterns like the Josey, the Ruby, the Lamina, and the Labellum actually fit better with the wire swap, and for other patterns it is more apparent that the cups are too small and I need to revisit the pattern before making more versions. Some of these bras are several years old at this point, so that doesn’t surprise me too much, because I think my cup size has also increased a bit over that time, but I am happy that I feel like I’ve found a wire size that really feels like it’s going to work and I can now select wire styles to work with the different bra patterns and styles, rather than trying to figure out why the wires feel slightly off all the time and sort of mashing things together to make them seem alright.

Sewing Delays

I was traveling quite a bit this month; I think I was home fewer than half the days of April. Which obviously doesn’t leave a lot of time for sewing, so most of my progress was really just me scrambling to finish my February and March projects before all of my travels. I’ve got a bit of time at home, so maybe I can get a few things done at the start of May, but I’m heading into my busy season, so I don’t expect a lot of new projects happening until August. Hopefully I can find the time to come back and write some dedicated blog posts and reviews over the next few months though!

Finished Projects

Despite not being home or sewing much this month, and not having time to get out dedicated blog posts yet, I actually finished quite a few of the projects I had started back in February and March. So my sewing output actually seems quite insane, even though I feel like I barely sewed this month.

Firstly, here is the final project I made after working on the Make Bra DL02 during the Bra Fit Studio classes:

For this version I just made fabric cups, even though the pattern is really drafted for foam. I think it is easier to fit in fabric and then if that works it’s easy to switch over to foam, but I don’t always have the same results working in the opposite direction. So I did all my fittings in microduoplex, and this was my final result after popping open one of my Bra Builders kits from last year. I think it turned out really great and I love the colors!

Next up is an expansion to the Aphrodite I teased last month:

I finished the Aphrodite last month, but I also made some bottoms to go with the top part of the bra. I’m a bit obsessed with the color combo, so I am planning a few more things. I don’t think it’s going to be as many items as my cherry collection from a few years back, but I’ll definitely have a few pieces to mix and match. I want to do some more fit testing and experiments with the Aphrodite, so I may not have a review for this pattern soon, despite having made it over a month ago now.

After the Bra Fit Studio class I realized that with the new wire size and the DL02 pattern I was really on to something in terms of having some very comfortable bras, and I decided I really wanted to try and make some neutral versions to wear under light colored shirts during my travels. So the first week of April I busted out two more DL02s, this time in foam:

I’ll have a lot more to say about these when I do my full pattern review, but I am super pleased with how these turned out and I’ve been basically wearing them all month. One of the instructors says you have to wash and wear a bra 7 times before you can really decide how you like the fit, and to some extent I agree with that. These have both gotten far more than 7 wears, and while I may have found a few very minor things I am considering tweaking on future versions, overall, they are fantastic. I want to make some matching bottoms but I haven’t had time yet, so those are projects to start for next month.

Finally, since I had decided to replace wires in so many of my older bras, our of curiosity I also decided to whip up a new Josey using the pattern from last year’s Bee on a Wire class but using the 50 vertical wire I had decided fit best after this year’s class:

I was pleasantly surprised to find that actually even with the wire change, last year’s pattern still worked pretty well for me, although I did need to add back a bit of length to the neckline edge of the upper cup. It’s great having several options for neutral bras that fit, and I’m definitely going to pull out the Josey pattern again because it’s such a great option to use with fun lace designs. I’m also planning to do another more in depth post on this project after I make some bottoms because I tried some new techniques and new sewing machine feet during the construction, but overall I’m really happy that changing the wire doesn’t mean I need to re-fit the entire Josey pattern again.

WIPs & Upcoming Plans

I have a few weeks at home before travel gets crazy again, so I’m going to try and finish up a few projects: matching bottoms for the bras that I finished at the start of April, a few more DL02s in more fun colors because I’m obsessed with the pattern, and maybe going back to the Aphrodite to test out a slightly larger size. Long term I want to try a lot of experimental design things with the DL02, and test other patterns from Make Bra, because I’m kind of obsessed with the fit of their patterns right now. I also want to go back to re-fitting some of my other patterns like the B,Wear and Cashmerette styles, especially now that I feel like I have a much better understanding of my wire, BCD, etc. for a starting size, and especially because B,Wear expanded their cup sizes for some of their older patterns, which is great since I’m now a bit bigger than their previous cup sizing. I also really want to sew some garments this year, though that I know I won’t get to before August. I might be able to squeeze some of these smaller projects in between travels over the next few months, so we’ll see what I’m able to get done!