Binding it's time

The pearl choker apparently worked to kick my tush into gear and work on the scary bra top.

 Terrifying, yes?

Maybe not small children running for their lives, grown men sobbing in the streets terrifying, but intimidating none the less.

It is a pretty bra, and fits surprisingly well. The the ends of the seams that run down the middle of the cups end in a knobby bit. So when worn under a shirt, I look like I'm always cold! And when I really am cold, I look like a freak of nature.

I have a different black bra now.

 First, I unpicked and cut my way through the back strap and shoulder straps. Leaving me with just the cups.

Whoever invented the unpicker was a genius, by the way. It comes in handy for so many things! hems, shirts, bras, cleaning under fingernails.... ok, maybe not that last one, I was running out of examples.

Now, in hindsight, I shouldn't have removed the entire back strap. As it turns out I really should have cut just to the side of the boning. That would have given me a great straight edge to attach to. Oh well. Next time.

I picked this necklace up at the second hand shop a while back. It had a silver butterfly on it that was poorly attached.

This is what finally led the design for the back strap. I've decided to have a solid straight strap across the back that laces to the cups on the side, and I'm going to attach this charm to the middle of the back.

I'm still debating what to do for the shoulder straps.

The charm is about 3 inches in diameter. I thought I'd make the back strap 4 inches wide to give a bit of edge to play with.

Turns out that's too wide. Three inches it is!

 So, with my stretchy black material that was left over from a skirt I made a while back, I measured out my rectangle and drew the lines with my (Steve's actually) straight edge.

Does that look wider than 3 inches to you? Well, you'd be right. I'm making the strap a double thickness since the material is quite thin. So that's actually 6 inches plus seam allowance by 21 inches.

I measure the 21 inches by approximate placement of the sides of the cups. It's easy to make it a bit shorter later on.

Cut out the rectangle on the lines.

Yeah, obvious step. However, I've discovered in my travels to never over look the obvious.

 Next, I folded my rectangle in half length wise and used my overlocker to sew the edges together.

A bit ruffly on the edge there, but it's not a huge deal.

 Then I switched to my classic machine to sew the seams on the long sides.

I folded up the edge with the overlocking and sewed that down, and top stitched the other side.

And here's where I was forced to stop. I've discovered that I don't have anything laying around the house that would be handy to attach laces to for my bra top. As such, I can't really be certain how long I really need to make the back strap.

So it sits.

And it waits.

I wish I could say that starting this project in earnest has made it less scary. I wish I could say that children no longer run from it, or that I don't lie awake at night wondering when it's going to jump out of the darkness and tear my throat out. Unfortunately, I'm even more paranoid at the moment that it's not going to work at all, and I'm going to wind up throwing the whole lot in the trash.

Or possibly it will spend the rest of it's life lurking in the darkened corners of the studio. Binding it's time.