THE DRAPERY BLOG

Oh Full Bust Adjustment, why did I not try you sooner? Thank you for all the lovely feedback on my previous post. It seems I'm not alone in my avoidance of the FBA issue, and that it was a helpful thing to share. If, like me, you are a pear-shape with a bra cup size greater than B, I highly, highly recommend you get onto the Full Bust Adjustment if you have not already. Of course, everyone's shape is unique and this may not work for you exactly as it has for me. However, even as a starting point for fitting, I've found it nothing short of a revelation. Here are the details of my second garment-with-FBA. The pattern: Simplicity 7530, from my, ahem, fairly extensive collection of vintage (mostly 1960s) patterns. Which just happened to be in my high bust measurement of 34 inches. Woot! And to think until recently I presumed I'd need a complete size grade-up to make this fit. The fabric: a fantastic mid-weight border print by Kokka of Japan. (Selling quickly so

Natalie Chanin has just released her fourth book of inspiring and beautiful sewing projects in her 'Alabama Chanin' style. (On order and due soon at The Drapery.) Not only does it contain all her previous patterns, plus some new ones, it offers advice on how to adjust them for your own unique shape, to ensure a custom fit. The patterns are on CD rather than printed like her previous books, but it's quite an incredible resource at a very accessible price. We can't wait to get our hands on it! In the meantime, I'm continuing my quest to Alabama Chanin all the things . Which was never going to be a fast process, but that's part of the appeal. If you like hand-work like embroidery, hand-quilting, knitting or crochet, you'll probably fall in love with the process of hand-sewing garments with soft cotton knit. Before I went the full reverse appliqué, which is a big commitment, I tried a couple more plain garments. Last summer I made (and wore, and wore, and

Hello, it's Jane here with a rather long and introspective blog post! Those of you following The Drapery on Instagram will have seen that we were posting photos for 'Me Made May', an initiative started a few years ago by blogger Zoe of 'So, Zo... what do you know? '. Sewists pledge to wear 'me-made' clothes - as much as they wish to commit to - and document their outfits for the month of May. Now, I don't know how to link to Instagram since I'm not on there myself but if you are, you can look up The Drapery and have a peek. Warning: possibly TMI to follow Now, I'm kind of putting myself out there in this post and examining my body shape and probably providing Too Much Information, but I hope it's useful to sewists out there! Me Made May is a bit different to sewists posting pretty posed pics of their freshly-made garments. Not that there's anything wrong with that! But MMM shows what really is worn day-to-day, how it's w