This last summer, I attended a Peggy Sagers (Silhouette Patterns) ETA Expo in NYC I took a class with Anne St. Claire (Needlenook Fabrics) who was teaching a bra making class. This has been something that I have wanted to do for a while as the off the rack offerings are just plain uncomfortable or make me at the age of 44 look like a hoochie mama. Not really the look I want as I am happily married and not looking to be "girlfriend bait" anymore.
It was a wonderful class, however in my typical MO (Modus Operandi), I took the class, spent a week at the expo taking more classes, during which I PROMISED myself that I would immediately make one upon getting home. I even coerced a sewing peep that happened to be in the class with me to do the same. Great intentions... then once I left the Expo all my good intentions got clobbered with real life.
At the time of writing this, it is New Years Eve. And just like my birthday, I finally put aside all the things that jump into my path, and work on what I want to do. So after making boxer shorts for my husband for Christmas, I am now getting back to me... and trying to simplify or exactify the process of bra making... to make it easier and less of something I have to set aside oodles of time for, and make it something I can just "do" with a few hours and little thought. I wanted to write this blog so I can help others do the same and also not forget this myself...
One of the first things I did, was to digitize my pattern into Silhouette's (No relation to Peggy Sager's company) software (Silhouette America), making a digital pattern that my Silhouette die cutter can just crack out. Why you ask? Well, the lining of the lingerie is made with tricot (a light weight silky knit). Which is a *&^%#@ to try to cut even with the RIGHT scissors. The hobgoblin of making your own lingerie is precision. When fabric slides like liquid, it is almost impossible to get an accurate cut. So what do do? I thought about using my BERNINA CutWorks for this, and it might work...but the limiting factor with this is that any piece I cut, it HAS to fit in a 255x140mm hoop... and that is NOT going to work. The Silhouette Cameo is at 304x304mm (12x12 inches). If I had a machine that could use the Jumbo hoop from BERNINA that would be one thing, but an 8 series machine is a bit out of my reach for 2015.
The next problem I had was HOW to keep the fabric stabilized while it is being cut. Silhouette sells 2 fabric stabilizers. One you CAN sew through and the other one you CANNOT. It did not matter as neither would work as this was a knit that had to stretch after being cut and sewn. They were a permanent addition to the fabric.
Reaching into my embroidery stabilizers, I looked for something that would not only adhere to the fabric but also wash out. I came up with the best of both worlds... Floriani's Wet and Gone Tacky. The adhesive is great enough to hold the fabric, but also release it, with out damage, if peeled away. If I need to leave the stabilizer on, it will WASH away when the bra is laundered.
The other problem I had was how to not have the tricot bubble on the stabilizer fabric. I found that if I laid the fabric down first on my table, then placed a pre-cut piece of stabilizer on top of it, and hand pressed it on to secure, I had little or no bubbles. If I had it the other way 'round, it was very bubbly, and I spent a good deal of time trying to hand press the bubbles out.
I found only one other mention of cutting knits with using the cameo, and that was on silhouette's blog making a floral T-shirt. They suggested a depth of 7. That DID NOT work for this, and I damaged the mat I had. After sacrificing the damaged mat, I tested it a few times and found that the 4 setting on the cutter is a better option. I also noticed that when I tried to cut, it did nothing during one of the tests. The bottom of the cutting tool, was loose...it is the part that has the hole in it at the bottom of the tool. After tightening it, to the point it wasn't spinning it worked just fine.
So in short, this is what you need to know when cutting light knits with your die cutter:
-Floriani Wet and Gone Tacky
-Place fabric down first, then place stabilizer sticky side down, and hand press.
-Use a fabric cutting tool, not the standard tool.
-TEST your cutting setting... The happy number I came to was the #4. Yours may be different. At 4 it did still score the mat, but it did not cut through it as the higher numbers did.
Oh and also keep in mind, not that I mentioned it here... but the Silhouette software is needed... If you come from the BERNINA world as I do with embroidery, it behaves NOTHING like any other vector digitizing program. There is a GREAT tutorial series on youtube that I recommend for learning how to use Silhouette's software as it is so different. The channel is "Clever Someday" and she has a "Tracing Without Tears" video collection where she illustrates very well how to digitize your cutting files. Do check out her channel here:
Tracing Without Tears
Happy Sewing!
