Sewing Bee Fabrics: upcycle

Friday, 20 February 2015

How To Convert Any Bra To A Nursing Bra

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Convert Any Bra To A Nursing Bra

Nursing bras are often pricey and unflattering so I thought I would show you just how quick and easy it is to convert a standard bra in to a gorgeous nursing bra. Be careful though. Underwire and nursing is controversial because especially in the early stages of establishing feeding, if the bra doesn't fit correctly then the underwire can press in to the breast tissue which can increase the risk of blocked ducts and therefore mastitis, which anyone who has had wouldn't wish on anyone else!

What you will need:

2 nursing clips - Available HERE
approx half a meter of elastic ribbon - Available HERE

How to make it:
On most bras you can simply unpick the front bra strap attachment but every bra is slightly different so you may have to snip instead - just leave yourself a little loose bit of strap fabric attached to the bra.

Next, cut off any strap trimmings that were attaching the strap

Attach the completely flat part of the clip by folding down the part you unpicked (or curling the bit of strap that is left around the fastening)

Then fold the free end of the strap around the other half of the clip with the hooked part facing forwards and upwards towards the strap.

Attach enough elastic ribbon to comfortably sit between the nursing bra clip and the base of the bra. This is so that once you unclip the nursing clip that the other part of your strap wont ping off somewhere irretrievable in public! Simply curl one end around the hooked clip part, and the other to the base of the bra and sew in place. Hint here - Look at where the elastic lines up. You will probably need to take it diagonally inwards so it doesn't show when the cup is done up.

And your done! How easy was that!

And compared to the other side, there is hardly any difference in how the bra looks

Lastly, just do the same thing to the other side and your maternity bra collection is suddenly looking far more fabulous!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!

Remember you can access our index of sewing tutorials easily at http://www.sewingbeefabrics.co.uk/free-tutorials

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Make your own ruffled skirt

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Make A Ruffled Skirt From Old Shirts

When my husband decided he had finished with 2 matching shirts, I thought it would be wrong not to keep them together, so with a little bit of patterned fabric, this skirt was created.

What you will need
2 long sleeve shirts ( the body of the shirt needs to easily fit over
your hips)
Contrasting fabric (mine was approx. 110cm x 50cm)
Enough wide elastic to comfortably fit around your waist.
A lot of matching thread

How to make it:
First, make the under skirt by cutting straight across one shirt just underneath the armpits. Then, remove the thickened fabric with the buttons and buttonholes, being sure to stash the buttons for another project! If the shirt is giant compared to your hips, you will probably want to trim the edge more so it fits over your hips with a couple of inches to spare.

Hem the top and bottom.

Now for the ruffles! You want 4 pieces that are approximately 10cm wide, and the length 1 1/2 times the width of your under skirt from the remaining shirt fabric. You will also want one the same size from your patterned fabric. You will also want one other piece from the patterned material the same width but the length only needs be as long as your under skirt is wide.

Hem top and bottom of each long side on the 5 long strips, but only the bottom needs hemming on the shorter patterned piece.

Pass each through the ruffler foot on the sewing machine. I used the deepest pleat setting on every 12th stitch with an average stitch length. To make this skirt without a ruffler foot, you can sew a long stitch length then gently pull the tread ends to gather the fabric to the desired amount. Be careful though as pulling too hard can make the thread snap.

Now here comes the fun part - piecing it all together. Start with the shorter piece. Place it right side facing your main section and sew a seam right along the top.

Flip the patterned piece over and top stitch along the top edge. I used an over-edge sewing machine foot as my guide to sew the top stitch at 1/8th inch distance.

Now using a temporary fabric marker, draw yourself lines about every 7-8cm. There needs to be a slight overlap of ruffles.

Line each ruffled strip up with a line and sew in place.

Now take a piece of elastic and try it around your waist. Cut to the desired length and line up centrally underneath the top patterned piece.

Pin in place centrally, then gently stretch and pin in place on each side so the ends of the elastic reach the ends of the fabric.

Sew the elastic in place top and bottom using a 3 step zig zag stitch while keeping the stretch on the elastic (standard zig zag is less able to move with the elastic).

Fold the patterned piece back over and sew a running stitch under the elastic line to form a casing for the elastic. In retrospect, I should also have sewn another line of running stitch to hold the top piece covering the top ruffle seam as this has a tendency of getting folded up on wearing.

Fold the skirt in half with ruffles facing inwards and pin the side seam.