About
Carolyn's Story
(through the lens of sewing)
Carolyn grew up with farming parents that had lived through the Great Depression and the World Wars. In her upbringing, sewing was just as much of a household mainstay as your basic chores and when you have to budget all year off the farming profits, some years new outfits meant dressing up the old ones with accessories that you made. Carolyn remembers sewing with her Grandmother as a young girl, making doll clothes. She began sewing projects around the age of 10. By high school, when everyone else made one garment for Home Economics, Carolyn made a 5 piece suit.
Carolyn had a career as a nurse and when a back injury made that impossible, she was a stay at home mom before Kristen went to Kindergarten and then worked at a sewing machine store doing alterations. Eventually, she went out on her own and began Sewing by Carolyn in 1991. In 2010, Kristen joined the business and has been working full-time with Carolyn ever since.
Kristen's Story
(through the lens of bras)As a teenager, I can remember being about a "C" cup by my junior year in high school and by my senior year I wore clothing that was size 16-18. I went off to college, and as is typical, gained weight and have pretty consistently been between a size 18 and a size 20 for my adult life.
There are so many more options now, but in the midwest during my 20’s, you had to go to a plus size store to shop for bras and I struggled even at the plus size stores (that usually had a reputation for having “old lady clothes”). Bras were still sold under the American sizing system that consisted of size A, B, C, D, DD, DDD in each band size and that was it. So if your best fitting band was a 38, but you were larger than a DDD cup in that band, they would just put you in higher band sizes to try to compensate.
I wore a 42DD for years, even though my under bust measurement is 37 inches. The result, when your band is too big for your body is that it doesn’t hold you up where clothing is typically designed for and it’s a real let down (pun intended). I felt too big/fat when in fact the industry didn't carry enough options.
This is where my bra making journey began, without much success, because the bra patterns closely resembled the ill fitting sizes that I’d been trying for years. My sewing skill was not developed enough to alter patterns and I was so frustrated and disappointed. My ex husband, who was always very body positive, convinced me to go to a specialty boutique store and get fitted properly.
We were living in the greater Atlanta area at the time and were very near LiviRae Lingerie who later had a reality show “Double Divas” that really brought the discussion of the sizing problems of the bra industry to the forefront of their show's focus. I discovered UK bra sizing and found a favorite ready to wear brand that is the only brand I have worn for 10+ years. I absolutely love their heart and their mission.
Then I began sewing...
With my upbringing around sewing, I was interested in making my own clothes because I was having such a hard time finding clothing that fit the way I wanted it to feel. I tried a few projects, but just did not have the sewing experience to pull off the vision I could see in my head. So, in 2010, when my ex husband and I split up, I decided to look for a job in sewing to gain experience to go with all the theoretical knowledge from my upbringing and from reading various sewing books.
I worked for a summer at our local David’s Bridal store in the Alterations department and in the fall, mom’s shop was so busy I went to work for her and have been part of Sewing by Carolyn ever since!
Sewing bras went on a back burner for me. I got remarried, had kids, and went through all the bra changes that pregnancy and breastfeeding does to a body and those fit problems resurfaced. I had moved back to the midwest and there were no local stores that carried adequate nursing bras. I tried again to make bras, but I didn’t know enough about altering for fit and even though the patterns had come a long way, they still didn’t seem like they were close enough to fitting “out of the box.” With young children, and lots of frustration, I broke down and found nursing bras on the internet. Eventually, I was past the breastfeeding stage and was able to return to my favorite ready to wear bras.
Then there’s my friend. She’s never yet been able to find a ready to wear bra, and I’m not convinced there are any that come in her size. With my limited knowledge, and newer sewing patterns, I tried a couple attempts at making her something that fits. They didn’t.
This is how I began the drafting process. I’ve been searching for drafting textbooks and informal drafting courses because going into debt to go off to lingerie fashion design school doesn’t make sense at this point in my life. I’ve studied a couple of different methods with their authors and read a few other texts on the subject and have really worked at gaining knowledge and more importantly, fitting my friend. Now I’m ready to add my knowledge to our list of services at Sewing by Carolyn.
