Bra update

Thanks ever so much for all your excellent suggestions on the bra decorating front. Thank you slightly less for the knitted-beard-as-disguise idea. While I appreciate that you were intending to protect my modesty, I can't help thinking that donning instant whiskers (patent pending) may just have the effect of drawing MORE attention to myself. And even worse, I suspect things might get a bit warm and uncomfortable inside the beard after 13 miles.

Anyway, cracking swiftly on... and before I get onto the bra update I'd planned, I must share with you the very exciting news that has just dropped into my inbox: Working Mom Knits is holding a giveaway - in association with my bra-walk! Hurrah!! Do pop over and have a peek... it's over here. Thanks for thinking of me, WMK!

But now, I'm sure you're all desperate to know how the bra's coming along, yes? Well, the answer would be slooooowly, so I don't yet have any finished-article pics. What I do have is a series of snaps documenting phase one of the work-in-progress, which I shall be subtitling:

"VC's rather unsuccessful foray into fabric-dying"

Before we kick off, I'll give you a hint about the moral of the story: it involves remembering to read all the instructions before you begin. And then following them.

My 'before' shot shows that things started off very well. I consulted the guidelines and got out everything I would need:


I'd splashed out on a new pair of marigolds, I'd bulked up my fabric weight by adding a pillowcase and some knickers to my bra, I'd laughed heartily at the man in baby-blue shorts pictured on the box of dye - I was ready.

Next up, I have a 'during' shot:


Here you can see my old yellow pillowcase starting to go green as the blue dye begins to take. You probably can't see the bra. That is because I had hidden it under the pillowcase so that I couldn't see it and get stressed out about how IT WASN'T CHANGING COLOUR!!

At this point, I was repeating a mantra along the lines of: "OK... so... don't panic... just keep 'agitating the fabric and forcing the dye through it', like it says in the instructions... it'll be fine... *panicky breathing*... why is it STILL NOT BLUE??"

And, well, it turns out that I should have read the fabric type on the bra label before I bought the dye, and taken into consideration that the polyester/nylon/elastene blend might not take the colour all that well. I did know that some fibres wouldn't really dye properly, but I seem to have adopted an attitude of blind optimism about the whole thing, and assumed that this bra would 'blue up' just fine, whatever dye I used.

In the end, it did work a little bit, albeit to varying degrees in different areas. So, here's my 'after' shot: one ever-so-slightly-blue-except-where-it's-still-white bra...


Soon after this shot was taken, I started sewing some bits on - but the fruits of my labours will have to wait until next time, I think. You'll like it, though. Really. The actual sewing may not be very good, but I feel that I had a very strong design vision. I drew sketches and everything. Oh yes - I've learned from my mistakes. No more winging it for this chicken: only proper planning and meticulous research from now on... or something like that, anyway ;o)