Lessons

Did it for over twenty years... Tailors have nothing on the wardrobe mistresses/masters who have had to come up complete, finished costumes only two days before an opening. Suits (correct spelling, BTW) are nothing compared to bridesmaid gowns for "Mame" when one of the girls drops out and the replacement is three sizes larger.

Anyone who ever went through this can tell you it is so. Right, Kate?

Looked at probably all your web pages, and you do nice work. I guess I was wondering what it would be like to work in Costume shop with the hussel and bussel with perhapes 8 other workers that only make costumes.

I just think there are better tailors in Savil Row than the one Prince Philips went to. Tailoring is suppose to be an art; and those shoulders looked not good to me; they have an odd shape about have way along, and almost seemed henged there. Whereas, other Savil Row tailors would never do that. The rest of the jacket probably fits like a glove.

I just think there are better tailors in Savil Row than the one Prince Philips went to. Tailoring is suppose to be an art; and those shoulders looked not good to me; they have an odd shape about have way along, and almost seemed henged there. Whereas, other Savil Row tailors would never do that. The rest of the jacket probably fits like a glove.

Hehehehe! Tooo Trooo fer werdz!

Having had to make two pairs of loons and a whole suit for one play, I have to say that the suit and trousers took less making than the leading lady's poly satin 'I *WILL* f&^%$*£ slide onto the floor!' circular skirted 1970's dress, the fairy wings for the Cosmic Night's dream and their attendant sequinned body suit type silver fairy dress, or the Fat Suit for the nurse in the London Romeo and Juliet. And none of those were what I'd call particularly difficult costumes.

Having also done a small mount of traditional tailoring (with hand pad stitching, and lots of invisible internal hand finishing), as well as an

18th C style coat for a town crier, I have to say of all the 'difficult sewing' I have done in my 40 year sewing career, both as an amateur and a professional, the most difficult jobs of all were the spray decks for sea-faring kayak I did back in 1978 (seams had to be 100% waterproof!), and putting the arm pit zips and inside pockets into a Windbloc Polartec mountaineering type fleece for the DH! Awkward corners in stretchy fabric...

There is nothing difficult about tailoring: the fabrics are easy to handle (nice Barathea or wool flannel, compared to slippery stretch satin, or lace that evaporates when you show it the iron), the stitches (hand or machine) need to be accurate, so need care in their formation, and compared to bra making, or corset making, or even an easy Issy Mayaki patter for a shirt, the fabric pieces are simple shapes. Much of the shaping is done with an iron rather than the machine, which is a brilliant trick, and takes a few minutes to master, but that is the most difficult bit of the tailoring process.

Nope - only me, and 4 or 5 weeks in which to make 20 or so costumes, buy and sort the make-up, and learn enough of the script to shove the so&so's out on stage at the right time!

Costume designer & maker, wardrobe mistress, make-up artist and all round back stage nanny, me! It's always ME that has to apply the 2" false eyelashes, as the make-up team are too scared! Tweezers are handy for this...

Oh, and afterwards I take everything to the dry cleaners or home and wash and iron it, store it if need be, and/or return it to the wardrobe in school. And I no longer work there on a regular basis... I have a wardrobe full of this stuff awaiting collection - wardrobe and all! I want my treadle where the wardrobe is now! I will have to get another cupboard built elsewhere to hide the loo rolls in.

Charlie, if they are uncomfortable, then they're the wrong size. Try a different brand; different companies use different shapes of underwires, too. The shape you've been trying might just be wrong for your shaped body.

Karen Maslowski in Cincinnati

A harness is not designed to be comfortable. There are degrees of more and less comfort, but this type of garment will never be truly comfortable. The purpose of the garment is to make your body conform to a stylistically approved shape so that outer garments will look as the designer or style arbiters have determined that you should look. The accepted look changes from time to time, as do hemlines, shoulders, and other features. Since few people are built to suit, undergarments have been designed to push and shape many bodies into a close approximation.

It could be worse. Women used to wear long corsets.

Maybe that's the case with underwire bras, but since I started getting ones that fit me properly, they have been far more comfortable than going without, because it's not designed to make me conform to a particular shape but more to act like a suspension bridge to keep everything where it should be instead of "London Bridge is falling down." LOL

I completely agree, but I feel most comfortable in underwires. Anything else and I'm just "flopping free", and that is *not* comfortable with D cups!

Julie.

is the comfyest "real" no-underwire large-cup bra I have found in my hunt. I have rub tumors, and underwires are incredibly uncomfortable.

good luck in your hunting Kate

I have tried on so many types in so many different shops, I can safely say I just don't get on with them! Unshaped sports bras seem to be the way to go (although they're ones I would NEVER wear for sports!). I just want some pretty ones...

Charlie.

Have you considered making your own? You can tinker with the fit then until they are perfect, if the bras you own don't fit well, and they are (A) not that hard and (B) not that expensive to make. You just need to sew very accurately and reinforce every stitch.

If the unshaped sports bra type seems to fit you well, and if that means you have a small cup suze, then they are probably fine for you. But for the maximally endowed, they are not that great.

Re: Lessons/Charlie

And the 'Burn Your Bra Festival ' is scheduled for...??? Name the date and place, I'll be there! Cea

It may be just you and me, Cea. ;-) Since I quit dragging myself into an office or school to earn my keep, the bras and pantyhose (tights) have been discarded in favor of comfort. Elastic and tight bands don't agree with my skin, which gets an angry red from a harsh look. I did find these marvelous little undershirts at the Vermont Country Store. Maybe there's some advantage to being relatively "topless" after all. LOL!!

I'd love to make my own, I'll just go and hunt some patterns down. They look so complex.

Small back size, large cup size. Problem.

Charlie.

No; they are really easy. You just have to be careful.

(sorry it's a USA site but it has the pix of the patterns) sells Elan and Kwik-Sew patterns on their site, and the lady who owns the company has answered people's questions on the sewing NGs before. There are other places, too, but that will at least give you one place to look at.

If you have a bra already that fits you, even if it's worn out, you can send it to Lee-Ann Burgess in Australia and she will clone it for you and return it (in taken-apart fashion) along with pattern pieces and instructions on fabric choice and construction method.

Check her site out:

You could also try finding a good corsetiere and getting a bra that fits right, then sending one to her to copy.

Before designing my abbreviated-T-shirt bra, I seriously considered a linen corset as a more-comfortable alternative to 20th-Century bras. (I haven't bought one in the 21st.)

Speaking of which, I might as well take my bra off now -- even though it's all cotton except for fully-encased elastic, it will get unbearably itchy in about half an hour.

Ah! Much better -- particularly since I'm wear-testing a linen shirt, which I've tucked up into the itchy spots. If I dangle while reading usenet, I can save my bra time for later on when I get back to sewing.

Joy Beeson

My T-shirt bras are the same idea -- just shaped. And Title

9 or some-such had a "no fall out" bra "for small rib cages" that was superb. It was, of course, discontinued the instant I found out my correct size and was ready to order a half dozen.

I'm an F or a G. 33" under the bust, 45" over it. But that's leaning over so they dangle.

Joy Beeson