Animals on my Feet

Now that my shop is finally in a groove and I can let go of some responsibilities by having employees, I’ve been working on some personal crafty and fix-it projects. Today I repaired my giraffe slippers.

These are my giraffes. I have worn holes in the bottoms and the darn necks don’t stay up.

The bottoms are pretty bad as shown.

First thing I did was remove the bottoms of the slippers with my handy new electric seam ripper.

I used some left over foam from recovering my dining room chairs for the new bottoms. The bottom insides I used some fuzzy faux fur type stuff. I used some upholstery fabric for the absolute bottoms. I’m actually using the underside for the bottoms since it has more texture to grip the ground.

Before I started sewing, I added more stuffing to the neck of the giraffe so it would stand up. I first sewed the fuzzy part on the bottom using my awesome industrial sewing machine. I doubt a regular machine would work on this. Then I placed the foam on the bottoms and then the upholstery bottoms. I would have used the little bands around the foam, but one side was torn up pretty bad. I pinned it all together around the edges and sewed it again.

Voila! Fixed slippers in under an hour. I guess I can now pull out the other slippers sitting in the back of my closet that need repair.

Still doing prep work

Thank you everyone for sending me your measurements. I have been swamped with work this week. I got my first production account and am operating without any employees currently. I really need to hire someone again. LIKE YESTERDAY!

I finished the grading of my 3 piece cup, so this weekend I will send each of you that sent me messages 2-3 cup patterns to test. I know some of those measurements are strange, but I’m experimenting with measurements. I know they aren’t measurements you would normally take, hence the experimentation.

I’m thinking that with the new book and directions I’ll have illustrations of what you might look like in your bra, which can tell me if you are wearing the wrong band, cup size or both. Like I said, its all an experiment.

I have also been hesitant to write too much on this blog, because I’m trying to add a blog within my website with wordpress. My site is built with ZenCart, which is awesome for all the inventory stuff, but the wordpress integration is just time consuming (meaning I can’t get my husband to take time to help me implement it). He has made a bunch of changes to ZenCart to customize it for me, so just copying and pasting the code won’t work.

Ahh. Anyway, there are a few more days to send me measurements. Remember, if you don’t understand them all, do what you can and I’ll decipher it.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Measuring for our patterns

I have been working diligently on creating about 150 sizes of my 3 piece bra cup to cover sizes 28A through 50J (Sizes AA and AAA are also being created for many band sizes). Because it takes several hours to grade each pattern piece, I’m going to start my sew along with a little testing of directions for measuring. 

Each person who wishes to participate in my sew along with my pattern pieces, I am asking them to give me their results from different measurements. This will be helpful when I write the update to my bra book and also help me send you the right pattern to test.

After I select a size for you test, I will send you 2-3 sizes based on your measurements and ask you to sew together one cup in muslin to test for the best fit and size. This won’t be a perfect fit because I’m not designing the bra to be sewn in a woven, but in a power mesh with a stretch lace.

The reason I want the sample cup in the woven is because it is not forgiving and will tell me which size you are meant to fit into. Providing the initial fit samples don’t have major problems, I will then send you the remainder of the pattern to fit the appropriate cup size we selected for you. This gives me time to finish grading the band patterns.

While all this is going on, I will be putting together a sewing kit with fabrics, laces, trims and anything else you will need to sew a bra together. Once we have your size, I can include the most appropriate underwire for you to use.

Ok. So now that you know the conditions, here are the first set of directions for you. Lets take your measurements!

Feel free to fill out this info and email me at jennifer at porcelynne (.) com. If I have a moment to breathe this week, I’ll try to do an illustration of the measurements. If you don’t fully understand, just indicate it in the comments and I’ll try to clarify it as much as possible.

1. Your current bra size. If it varies for brands, give me 2-3 examples of sizes from different manufacturers.

2. Your under bust measurement. Snug measurement.

3. Your bust measurement. Not snug, your breast tissue is soft so it will crease easily.

4. Your chest (over bust) measurement. Snug measurement.

5. Wearing your bra, measure from the side of your bust at the center front of your body across the apex and over to the far side of the bust. This is the full amount to where the breast tissue ends. For large cups, it may measure close to being under your arm. You can also use your existing bras as a gauge and measure to where the underwire ends. If you are getting a couple different measurements, just explain the measurements and give the amounts.

6. Not wearing a bra, with your breast sitting high or hanging low, it doesn’t matter. Measure from the point where the breast leaves the body, either the beginning of the mountain or where gravity makes the breast form a pull downwards. Measure straight across the body to the other side of the breast tissue.

These numbers will help me determine how accurate measurements are and how they relate to the bra itself.

Happy measuring.

BTW- I’m in the process of moving my blog over to my main website, so I’ll include an update on this blog when I transition it over. If you follow it here, you will have to change to following it over there.