A whole new world

Bad Disney references aside (although, keep in mind that it's not a coincidence that I have a cat named "Jasmine"), I recently had the opportunity to take a sewing workshop that for me, I can see being a life-changing experience. The workshop? Anne St. Clair, owner of Needle Nook Fabrics visited San Diego a few weeks ago to give a bra making workshop for the local ASG chapter. I hadn't been a member of the ASG, but I joined specifically for this workshop.

Wow.

This workshop was so educational and so much fun! Anne, her daughter Monica, and her colleague (who I've embarrassingly forgotten the name of) helped fit over 60 women individually for the correct bra size during a Friday lecture session where we went over common fit issues and other bra-related things. On Sunday, I attended the "hands-on" workshop where I actually constructed my custom-fitted bra. Like the rest of the 20-or-so women in my workshop, I left class on that day with the best-fitting, most comfortable bra in my lingerie drawer. Like many of the women in the class, Anne moved me up a couple of cup sizes from what I'd been wearing (I had actually been sized into my RTW bras at Nordstrom a little while back)--now I'm no longer seeing cup "spillover" or feeling like my breasts are being smashed into my chest. You can really see a difference in my "before" and after photos:

Before (my previously most comfortable, best-fitting bra):


After: (the same t-shirt... wearing my workshop bra)


Luckily, with the handbook that we used in the class and the well-drafted pattern, constructing a bra isn't *that* difficult, although it probably helps to be very detail-oriented. I've already made two more bras at home (it went much faster the second time), and now I own my first "pretty" bra in years.

I couldn't be happier with my results from this workshop. I purchased a few more kits from Anne at the workshop (the black and toile bras were made from her kits), and still have two more kits to make up (these will result in black lacy bras--woo-hoo!). As someone who hasn't been able to shop at Victoria's Secret in over 10 years and who is limited to boring beige bras in department stores (if I can even find any that come anywhere close to fitting), being able to actually sew my own bras really opens up a ton of possibilities for me. And that makes me happy.