Friday, December 7, 2012

Making it wearable... solutions to problems

Last summer I made McCalls 6078 and loved it but had some issues with how to wear it (without flashing the bra band at the back).  This summer I decided I the needed to make it work.  First up I needed to get the bra out of the way.



I found this at Lincraft and it works.  It clips into the bra clips and the extra band wraps around your body and pulls the back band down.  It is not as comfortable or as secure as wearing a bra by itself but it does the job.

I wore it like that once, but found that the shoulders of the top kept slipping, so decided to add some lingerie keepers which I made myself.  All that is needed is ribbon and snaps....


I know you can buy theses ready-made but there were none in stock when I went to buy them.  I simply sewed a set of snaps to each end of a piece of ribbon and then sewed the ribbon onto the facing at the shoulder seam.


I stitched the ribbon down in the centre of the ribbon and also near one snap.  This is the holder closed...


With the bra strap threaded through the keeper I found the shoulders of the top stayed in place much better ... this is how I wore it when I went out to dinner last night...


and the back...


If you are interested the pants are Kwiksew 3384 made for an Endless Combinations contest.  However since then this beautiful swishy fabric shrunk (did not expect that) and looked all wrong being too short in the leg.  I decided to make them work as well, so took the hem down and re-hemmed them.  I also decided to narrow the leg a little while I had the hem down.  I did like the wide legs but feel I will probably wear them more this way. 

I felt quite comfortable in this outfit (even though I may have been a bit twitchy checking that the bra band was not visible) and am happy with my now wearable top! ... Ciao!  Birthday dress next up!

8 comments:

  1. Wonderful outfit and thank you for the tips about bra keepers.

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  2. Wow! So smart. I need to make this for a few dresses. Thanks for posting

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  3. Worth doing! It can be tiresome to go back and adjust clothing, but much better to be able to wear it. I have been curious about the low bra back straps and wondered how supportive they wer.

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  4. That's a very dressy top--chic. You found a good solution to the bra problem.

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  5. Hmmm the bra strap extender sounds like a marvellous idea! I've been thinking of making one of these for myself, so thanks for the description :)

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  6. Loving those strap keepers, and think I might make some of my own.

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Love to hear what you think...