Harriet Bra Talk: Maker Style Interview & Workshops

Bra making has certainly come a long way since I first started my own bra adventures. Where I once had to dig to find good information on construction and materials, resources are plenty. Even better, the oft-heard phrase “bra making seems SO scary” has been officially kicked out of our collective sewing language. (Yes? It better be!)

I’ve already seen some gorgeous Harriets, thanks to Instagram and a few women who love to email me photos. Not only is bra making NOT scary, some of these women made a bra in less than two hours after I put it up for sale. That’s some sewing zeal.

Today I have a few groovy happenings to share with you, all bra-related of course…

Introducing the Harriet Bra Pattern

It’s here! I’m pleased to introduce you to Harriet, my newest bra pattern.

You may have heard me whisper or squeak about this pattern in the last year or so. It’s been a lonnng time in the making! Two years ago I drafted my very first version in order to make a special set for Valentine’s Day and it couldn’t be a better month to finally share it with you.

In my own bra wearing I try a lot of different styles and moods. I have casual days and super form-fitting days, grey days and neon days, and sometimes I just want to drape myself in chantilly lace. My goal was to design a pattern that straddles that line between sensuousness and practicality, and the Harriet has been a template for my many moods.

I designed the Harriet bra to become a truly foundational style, which meant a bra that can work for a wide range of shapes and sizes. And it brought together all the best things I’ve learned about bra fit. More importantly, I wanted to create a style with a certain point of view but keep it simple enough to encourage your creativity. I’m a designer but I’m also a tinkerer! And I love that you like to tinker, too.

Mmm, Pumpkin Pie

Hello my friends, how’ve you been? Methinks it’s time to dust off around here.

I have so many things to share and don’t know where to start so I’m just going to wend my way into this post and see what happens.

I took a long, somewhat unintentional, somewhat intentional, sabbath from all things internet for the last year.*

And whoa, internet time is fast. Sooo many Watsons. Gorgeous! Much faster than the clock I live in.

So one of the many projects I’ve been working on in little baby steps is my next bra pattern. I know!

I had every intention of releasing this much earlier this year but at that time we were in the throes of an entire home renovation. A very dear and wise friend of mine reminded me that all of my mental energy was pouring into that and it was understandably hard to drum it up for other things.
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Join Me at Camp!

Camp Workroom Social — Copyright 2015 Esvy Photography

One of my favorite winter activities as a teenager was annual winter camp with my church youth group. I grew up in Michigan where winter is all about snow, snow, snow. Tubing, skiing, ice skating, sledding, freezing. And since this was the 80s, who could forget massive puffy jackets and moon boots? They were the dork books but man, did they keep your feet warm. (Duck boots were the cool kid shoes.)

I have fond memories of freezing toes under five layers of socks, tubing for hours down dangerous wooded paths, staying up late in bunk beds and not so fond memories of early morning wake up calls. I have never been a morning person.

Such is most of my camp memories but this year I’ll be making a new one in the gorgeous surrounds of the Catskill Mountains. (Hopefully sans the snow–I left that behind when I moved to Texas.) When Jennifer of Workroom Social asked if I’d be interested in teaching a bra making intensive at this year’s four-day Camp I was all in. It’s time to substitute freezing toes for a weekend with makers! I mentioned this in passing in my last post but wanted to give y’all a little more detail.
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New Year Catch Up

Happy (belated) new year, y’all!

2015 was quite the blur. Mine started and ended with a house renovation and we are finally finished! In this photo from two months ago was the first time my kitchen looked like a kitchen after many months of having no floor right down to the dirt.

Have you been through a reno? Once you pull the string on one, oy, does it keep unravelling. What started out as a simple kitchen idea turned into changing the foundation piers under the house, ripping out 80 years of plumbing, re-wiring, ripping out two walls… and of course redesigning my sewing workroom to a space I loved.

The thing that nobody tells you about renovations–whether you do it yourself or as we did with a contractor–is that the actual work isn’t as tiresome as the onslaught of decision-making. Decision exhaustion is a thing! I knew I got there when choices over period-appropriate door plates kept me up at night.

So of course I needed distractions that had nothing to do with my business or my house, like…