Watson Overdose

I think I might be overdoing it on the Watson Bras.

I have made 8 so far, 5 for myself and 3 for friends. I prooobbably don't need anymore for the time being, and I'm thinking of switching to the underwear pattern and making 5 pairs so I can have pretty sets.

I've decided to do Me-Made-May this year and I'm thinking this new abundance of Watson's make it a hell of a lot easier! What I like to sew doesn't really align with what I buy RTW and wear on a daily basis (hilarious novelty print dresses don't look cute with steel-toe boots) so I think  good chunk of the me-made pieces are going to be undergarments and athletic gear.

The three top pairs in the photo are my 3 new ones. The snakeskin one is the true to the pattern, but I've made slight variations to the other two. The white floral one is my favourite. I am absolutely in love with the fabric!

I made a silly mistake when ordering the straps. I totally didn't look at the width and was pretty surprised when 3/16th inch thick straps showed up instead of 1/2 inch. BUT I made do, and decided to double up the strap. This was kinda hard to maneuver, and presented a bit of a problem at the back:

I had to invent a way to attach both straps close together. I think I did alright, the only thing is that it kinda twists when you wear it. It's under my clothes so I'm not too broken up about it.

My second variation, is that I tried to foam line a Watson to make a bikini top! I used a tutorial from Cloth Habit for the foam lining.

I did run into some problems with this. I found the cups didn't really fit in the cradle and I had some excess at the sides. I have laid this one on top of another to show how much I cut off.

This doesn't make it unwearable, but there is definitely more side-boob going on. I asked on the facebook bra-making forum about this and was directed to The Clothing Engineer's post on foam lining the Watson (I just lover her blog name so much). It looks like she went up in size to account for the non stretch so maybe that is my problem. I will try again!

Here are the innards of the bikini top. Not neat! I kinda used whatever I had laying around for the lining, I didn't have any swimwear lining on hand and couldn't see any at Fabricland. This lace seems like the sort of fabric to dry quickly... (the back is lined with powermesh)

It seems like most people use some sort of binding to neaten up the bottom edge of the foam, I looked on the bra-making forum (again) and there was a helpful conversation of someone asking the same sort of thing. It seems fold-over elastic is the most recommended, but there is also the "taco method" (??) and adding extra seam allowance to the spandex cover and bagging out the bottom, so the edge is neat, and will cover the seam allowance from the cradle when topstiched down.

I kinda DIYed my own way of doing it, I used a scrap of black swimwear fabric to encase the seam, then its stitched down with the top stitching. Upon further research, it's basically the hong-kong binding method. I feel like this also keeps the cups under my boobs where they belong, but this may be something I'm imagining and it was fine all along. Less itchy, that's for sure!


I will definitely still wear this in spite of the hiccups I ran into. Many of the mistakes are on the inside so as long as I manage to keep my top on in public I don't think anyone will notice! The cover is also a bit baggy, but it's alright for a start I think. Upwards and onwards from here!

The Morris blazer got released today from Grainline Studio, and I really like it! I even have a ponte lurking around that I've been hesitant to use because I want to use it for the perfect thing, this could be it! I am done with my coursework on the 27th, so me and this blazer have a date on Monday evening!

In other news, if anyone was curious about the progress on my desk garden...

 

I have an 8 hour exam tomorrow and I'm seriously considering bringing a pot to the work room, to make the face that I have an EIGHT HOUR EXAM slightly less depressing.