Happy New Year to all. I have been busy, as always, working on new and exciting things. This new sports bra pattern is no exception. I made a new style with a few new features.

The Laurel Sports Bra is no different in fit than the Christina, in fact you can interchange the pattern pieces of the Laurel with the Christina, meaning you can use the back of one with the front of the other, or switch up the waistbands.

I made a couple small adjustments to the Christina waistline, so if you previously purchased this, just log into your account and redownload the pattern to get the pattern updates. These will be needed if you plan to interchange the pattern parts.

The Laurel Sports Bra features a fun criss-cross detail at the front waistband. The waistline of the sports bra is contoured up at the center front to better hold the breasts in place, plus it is helpful if you have issues with rib cage restriction.

I suffer from acid reflux, so tight waistbands under the bust are very uncomfortable for me. The waistband isn’t supposed to fit tight, so it lends itself comfort for people like me. The support is all in the body of the bra. The shaping of the princess seams gives you a little lift which is also helpful if your bust is completely deflated such as mine.

I am my own fit model, a 36J-38J depending on the holidays, so the sports bra was designed for supporting those large cups.

The back features a hook and eye closure with a heart shaped cut out in the back. The back is also scoop-necked and can have adjustable straps. The adjustable strap and hook and eye was added to this design by request. The instructions state how to remove the hook and eye portion and turn back into a straight band, but if you have the Christina, you can use the Christina back band as well.

The pattern for the straps have a fixed length marking on them, so the adjustable part is also optional.

As for the pattern itself, I have made some fun new changes to the download and options for a printed pattern. My range is extended up to an N cup now! As if I didn’t have enough sizes already! One of the girls that has been a big supporter of my business became an N cup and I wanted to make sure she was covered. This range is for you Ivy!

The patterns are now available in 4 paper sizes – Letter, A4, A1 (23×33) and A0 (33×46). Now it is easy to print in nearly any format. I also created layers on the pdfs, so you can turn off sizes you don’t want to print out and print just the pages that have your size on them.

I also have a printed pattern option for the Laurel and the Christina. I went back and updated the Christina pattern to have all the same features including adding metric measurements to the directions of both patterns. The Christina Sports Bra also has a new expanded range up to an N! I had to increase the price by a few bucks, but for all the hard work I did on these, I felt this was ok.

As a little thank you to all my fans, customers and friends, I am making all my other downloads and corresponding kits 25% off for the release of the Laurel Sports Bra. This discount is good until Sunday the 13th of January.

I created 4 new kits for the Laurel Sports Bra and even added a few more sizes of kits for the Christina. If you purchase one of the Christina kits for the Laurel, you will also need the Laurel Add-on kit. This is the difference in supplies that are needed for the Laurel.

Here are a few samples from some of my testers. They fit great. The white one is made of all cotton jersey (t-shirt fabric), so the pattern works for nearly any fabric. I picked a couple different angles so you can see all the different details. The green one is made of swim lycra and the others are made of scuba.

I did a series of YouTube videos just as all the other patterns. I will be releasing all of them over the next week, so they won’t all be available until next weekend. I need to do this with YouTube due to their algorithms.  Here is the first video. I will create another blog post next weekend that contain links to all the videos.

Until then, happy sewing and thanks for following.

I have completed the design of the Laurel Sport Bra and made all my necessary changes to the 38J pattern (my size).

I made a few pattern adjustments since the last sample and just printed out the pattern in preparation for sewing my last design sample. At this point, there shouldn’t be any changes to the design, but I have to make the sample to make that final call.

I am so confident on the patterns that decided to go ahead to start work on the grade sets. The waistband was simple as I was able to copy the grading from the Christina for the waistband.

The second easiest is the back grade. Here is the screen shot of back grade in progress. This part wasn’t that hard to complete. I copied the backs from the Christina Sports Bra so I could infer the grading from the latter. To give you an idea of what you are looking at, the pattern between the blue guidelines is the 38 J graded patterns for J cups across the range of 28 to 52.

The last changes I had made to the back are actually pictured here. Since the back grade doesn’t take long, I had already graded the backs to the previous iteration of the back from the last sample I made. I basically doubled my work, but it really only took me about an hour to do it all, plus its good practice for me. The back is just a little tedious and you have to follow the steps in the right order. 

That bit went quickly so I thought I would start on the front, which was a little overly ambitious. It was my intention to copy the grading from points on the Christina Sports Bra onto points of the Laurel Sports Bra. Here are the two patterns. The top two in the middle of the page are the Christina and the bottom are the Laurel.

The first steps were relatively easy. The first set is a J cup graded for bands 28 through 52. I had to keep the same proportions of the Christina Set for the Laurel Set. I had to make sure the princess seam lines matched for all sizes for both pattern pieces. The waistline, side seam and armhole didn’t really change, so my main concern was the seam line. The armhole did change, but the measurements didn’t. After creating all the J patterns, I then change the grade rules for A through K. Its a little tricky.

I started with the 28J pattern with the cup grades and tried to match grade points to the 28 grade set. This proved to be a little harder than I had hoped. I was originally thinking, I’ll just do this in an hour and be set. WRONG. In the screenshot below, you can see the measurements from the Christina. The first measurement titled bust is irrelevant. The curve amount won’t relate to the Laurel either, but the three other measurements MUST match the Laurel’s measurements.

I played around with changing some grade points and then I checked measurements, these need to be exact in order for the pattern pieces of the Christina and Laurel to be interchangeable (front, backs and waistbands).

What I thought I could do quickly will not happen. And as I’m typing this, I remembered a pattern modification I had to make that I didn’t do here. Anyway, its dinner time and I give up for the day. 

I will make my final design sample, which I also just realized I need to alter. I removed space off the waistband for the hook and eye, but I did not reduce the amount I removed from the pattern with a stretch reduction. Basically, I removed 3/4″ for the hook and eye, but really should have only removed about 1/2″ off of it since the hook and eye won’t stretch. Its probably why my last sample was too tight on me. To be on the safe side, I will add 3/8″ to the back waistband.

I was able to complete the Laurel Sports Bra prototype this weekend while my daughter sewed her first project – a pillow for her bear.

I played around with a few new construction techniques for the sports bra – the main being a clean finished waistband on the inside. The last sports bra I made itched like crazy at the band. I assume it was because I had to sew over the waistband twice and the threads bothered me. After I washed it, it didn’t bother me, but it got me thinking that a clean finished waistband would be beneficial.

With clean finishing the waistband, I had forgotten to clean finish the keyhole in the back prior to sewing the waistband on. I still need to hash out how to complete the keyhole/waistband.

I had to seam rip a little bit in the back, but it wasn’t ideal.

I made a fun criss cross alteration to the waistband which worked out pretty well, although I will need to alter the pattern so the lower waistband part isn’t so tight.

I also made the straps adjustable with my new 35mm black bra sliders, but I was trying to utilize all my scraps and cut the strap out on the wrong grain and it sure made a difference. It might be too thick to have covered straps, but I’ll have to test the strap when cut and sewn correctly.

I also added a hook and eye closure, but I cut off about 3/8″ on both sides and I really shouldn’t have.

I haven’t had a chance to try it on yet to test the fit, but I’m nursing a headache today and don’t feel like putting on a bra.

My daughter also had a very successful day. She sewed the hearts on to the pillow, then sewed the pillow. It still needs stuffing, but we don’t have any. She wasn’t done either, she also made a little purse completely on her own and I am very proud. She is inspired and wants to add pockets to everything.

All in all, both mom and daughter had a productive day sewing. Our plan was to sew the kid’s sized Rachel Tank as a swim top for her today, but this headache is keeping me couch bound.

Now that the pattern making book is almost ready to publish, I have decided to pick back up on some designing. My next pattern that I’m working on is called the Laurel Sports Bra. I am using the same grade rules as the Christina Sports Bra which will make it easy to interchange parts with the Laurel.

I completed my first draft of the Laurel. The front styleline goes into the neckline and the back has wider set straps. I also made the back for a hook and eye closure which will make it easier to take on and off for those of us large chested.

I have been wanting to experiment with a weaving pattern at the center front of the waistband. I couldn’t find my scraps of powermesh to do my lining, so I’ll finish up the sample another day, but I like the look so far. What do you think?

If this sample fits great, I will continue to create my pattern range of the 28A through the 52K. Hopefully this range won’t be too difficult since I mastered it once before.

I am also getting back to work on the illustration work I’ve been working on with a colleague and trying to carve out some time to work on more videos.

I started filming videos with my daughter to make her clothes. I made the Rachel Brief and Tank into a child size and am making her a bathing suit with the pattern. Maybe for once she will have a bathing suit that actually fits her torso.

I have a few more mounts for the video coming this way. I’m trying to do my set up so my husband doesn’t have to take off an entire day to do filming and then another day to do editing. Once we get our mounts on the ceiling it should make it easier to set up and make it more consistent for filming.

On the homefront, my daughter just finished her third day of kindergarten. I think she likes it. Her class has a color chart for behavior. Red being terrible behavior and White being perfect behavior. This is her third say of white and she is so proud. It sure beats those last few weeks of camp getting into fights and getting suspended. Yes, my 5 year old got suspended from camp. That was embarrassing. But she behaved well and Hanna took her over to my moms to go swimming. I think I will join suit and go for a swim. I deserve a little time with my monkey.