In the pink again......

I'm back in the pink again.......guild challenge pink, soon to be blingy pink. My first post when I wove the fabric for this challenge is back on March 16th, there's a picture of weaving in progress there. Our guild challenge is to cut into our handwoven and sew something, the idea is to make an art bra that the guild could then display during Breast Cancer Awareness month at one of hospitals or cancer centers......not sure how many other than me will be sewing a bra so it might be a sad display.

First step was to make a pattern, well, something that kind of resembled a pattern. I searched through my lingerie drawer for a bra that had a seam it in forming the cup which I used as inspiration. I drew out a pattern for the two cup pieces and then sewed it in some scrap cotton - whoo-hoo it worked.

Now to cutting the handwoven fabric. I knew it would need a bit more body so I backed it with a heavy weight interfacing, cut the pieces out, clipped the long end of the taller pieces and fit it around the curve of the other pieces. Lots of pins used for this step.

Hurray - two cups that are actually decent looking - good thing since I didn't weave any fabric to spare.

I sat the two cups on the cutting board, put a piece of pattern tracing paper underneath and marked the seam lines for the center piece - worked out well.

Then it was on to making more pattern pieces, cutting the fabric and attaching those to the sides of the bra.....looking good. The pink lining fabric actually has little metallic dots on it - I repeated all the steps as for the handwoven and made the lining.

Here's a close-up of the lining. Since I'm designing this by the seat of my pants I have no clue how I'll handle all the raw edges yet, I'm thinking just turn under the handwoven and lining and handsew it.....but that will come later, all the bling will need to be sewn on before I get to that step.

Next step this afternoon was to warp up the inkle loom and weave a 1" wide piece to use for the back strap, I've even got hook & eye pieces made for bras which I colored with metallic pink Paintstiks to match. I'm thinking maybe ribbon straps but not positive yet, inkle weaving might be a bit too thick to fit the plastic pieces for the adjustable straps.

Here are the yarns used in the fabric and inkle band: 8/2 pink unmercerized cotton, 5/2 perle cotton, 8/2 light pink unmercerized cotton, 5/2 cotton/rayon blend and pink metallic.

So today was a very productive day, I was a bit worried about sewing a bra without a pattern and making it look decent - it's looking great. I'm hoping to have a bit of time to work on it tomorrow morning.