Question & Answer Time

Hello again! I had too much to talk about to do it in the comments on the last post so here I am again.

Sue asked a couple of great questions about sewing the Ingrid bra. I really don't think it would be feasible to try to sew the centre front seam earlier in the process to avoid having a raw seam on the back. The top and bottom edges of that seam are where the elastics (FOE at the top and band elastic at the bottom) come together at acute angles. You couldn't get those angles correct without sewing the seam after the elastics are applied. There's no real advantage to hiding that front seam anyway since the rest of the seams are also exposed on the back as well. I guess you could hide them if you made completely separate lining and cups before joining them with the elastics but as far as I can figure you still can't avoid sewing the centre front seam last. Maybe my 3-D brain isn't functioning and I'm missing something?

Sue's second question asks about taking in the top cup. Nope, the only modification I did was to bring the strap attachment point on the cup in towards the centre by 3/4" following Beverly's tutorial here. This keeps the straps up better on my narrow sloping shoulders. The centre front seam doesn't tack close to my chest like an underwired bra but fits more like other non-wired bras I've purchased and is raised a little away at the bridge. However I do get reasonably good support and a whole lot more comfort than with wires. If it matters at all, my final Ingrid bra size (that fits better than any bra I've ever owned!) is BCD 4.25" X 32" band. I now have No Idea what that is in regular bra sizes! Heh. Ingrid has over 200 sizes including a lot that don't exist in RTW so it's perfect for those hard-to-fit or between-sizes girls.

Thanks for your kind words, Barbara!

And thanks for not being bored yet, Alison! There are more bras to come. Also, I apologise in advance if switching over to a new blog platform is going to be troublesome for you or anyone else who hangs out with me. You might be interested that I've already created an embryonic blog on WordPress.com but I'm not giving out the URL. Yet. I have a lot more learning, experimenting and tweaking to do before it will be ready for prime time. I promise to give you a chance to test the commenting procedure and hopefully we'll be able to find a setting or something that will allow you to do it easily. As things stand right now, I have the opposite problem than you - I mostly can't comment on any Blogger blogs from my iPad which is my primary computer these days. Pardon me for a moment whilst I go on a rant...

Blogger. You are my nemesis! It's not like I haven't given you the benefit of the doubt here. I've been flitting about this old Damselfly's Delights pond for nearly 14 years now. (My Blogiversary is May 5.) Fourteen YEARS!!! 1834 posts as of this current one. That's a heck of a lot of babbling, huh? However, it's been getting harder and harder to do what I want with my blog. There has been no update of the post editor in Stinkin' Forever! There's no iPad or iPhone Blogger app. The web-based post editor doesn't work properly with the iPad either. My third-party app Blogo, which was working just fine is now broken again so that I can't post with photos. The developer is so overwhelmed that I can't even get into his help page to report it. Last time this same thing happened, it turned out to be Apple's fault when they changed something somewhere in the iOS and I'm betting that's what's happened yet again. They sure don't warn anybody ahead of time. I can post to Blogger from my desktop computer if I first boot it up, hook up my iPad with all my photos to it, transfer the photos over to the desktop and then go online to the post editor to input my text and photos before finally hitting post. A lot of steps and I have to be at home to do it. I would much rather just use my iPad that I carry around with me nearly all the time and is my only camera. I can do almost everything else easier and better on it and do it anywhere that I can get wifi! Why can't I post to my blog easier too? Your guess is as good as mine. I bet you've noticed my blog posts have been getting further and further apart though, haven't you? If it's not easy I'm not going to do it. Hello, Instagram. You are easy. Too easy. Ahem.

But I don't want to stop blogging so in retaliation I've been exploring my other options and WordPress seemed like it would work for me. Confusingly there are actually two entities called WordPress: WordPress.org which is the more powerful self-hosted opensource website design software and its offshoot, WordPress.com, a fully hosted site with security and backups included. The latter is obviously what I'm looking at more fully. There is a limited free level with the option to upgrade to a paid subscription. As long as the ad banners aren't too annoying, I'm not adverse to having them so I'm starting at free. And believe me, though some things are similar to Blogger, some things are not so there's going to be a learning curve to get through. But there is an iPad app! And the blog is automatically optimally configured for computer screen, tablet or phone views which I like. Can I say all this on here or is Blogger going to shoot me down for trash talking it? LOL!!! I'll stop now and not mention it again until I have something concrete to tell you. ...end rant.

Meanwhile, we're waiting for a cold snap to hit tomorrow. I ran out and picked some of the wee overwintering greens from my garden before something happens to them. Like they get covered in snow or freeze to death. There's a actually few tiny bites out there:

Clockwise from the top: kale, chard, mizuna, bok choy, purple sprouting broccoli and (middle) corn salad. The kale hasn't budded out yet but the garlic is coming up. The snowdrops and crocuses are starting to bloom here. Yeah, I know. Those caught in the Polar Vortex are cursing me now. Snicker! Although we may get a little of our comeuppance very soon. Winter ain't over till she's over!