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hey I have gone long enough and now i can no longer get away with not washing my bra (i know gross) but how do you wash it with out destroying the velvet,and not having coins fall off!
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Los Angeles
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 10:57 AMHere's a post from anothe topic:
I use a foam cup bra and I do use "Stiffy" <grin> on it. Then I cut off the straps altogether and use them to make patterns for non-stretchy straps that I will sew on once they're decorated. Stiff horse-hair interfacing (synthetic) and stiffened felt are good bases. I cover in a soft fabric on the inside and decorator fabric on the outside. I can them make the straps wider so they dont cut into my shoulders or make the bra look like a halter top, which is more costume-y and less bra-like. I want something that looks like a costume, lots of coverage, support and decorations, rather than something that looks like it got a few chotchski's sewn on after pulling it out of my lingerie drawer. Then once it's together and sturdy, I do the felt lining, so then it won't have to cleaned. Once it's funky, I pull out the nasty glued-in lining of felt, and glue in a new one. It's so important to keep the sweat away from your stitching.
If you need to clean it, try washing in a tub of cool water with some Woolite or gentle cleanser. It should be dried in the shade of a summer day so it dries quickly, but not in the sun so it doesn't fade. I've done this with several cabaret and tribals bras. Just swish around gently in the tub. Or if you want to, Febreeze the inside of the costume, or do like we used to in the theater and use a one to one ratio of vodka and distilled water to spray the inside to get the funk out. Then line it witl felt so you won't have to wash it. A glued-in felt lining can just get ripped out with a pair of pliers and throw in some more glue, put in new felt, and viola, clean felt and all your stitching is protected from you sweat by the glue. don't forget to line the straps, too.
Good luck!
Lee -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 11:37 AMI have found that several things work for cleaning bras . . . woolite works in the tub method as mentioned. My favorite method is equal parts vodka (or rubbing alcohol) and water. Put the solution in a spray bottle - removes bacteria instantly.
What I have done is I made up a solution of pure rubbing alcohol and some essential oils, like patchouli, sandalwood and myrrh. I spray down my costume (belt, choker, anything with a fabric backing) after every use. Keeps it clean . . . and keeps me smelling exotic.
I hope this helps . . . if you want the exact recipe for the essential oil spray, let me know. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 11:54 AMcan i get the recipe? :)
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 11:59 AMI would love the receipe too. Some of the authentic costuming pieces can smell ....um... well just plain funky. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:11 PMVery, Very EASY!
These directions are for 2 oz of spray: It goes a long way.
2 oz Rubbing Alcohol
1 drop patchouli essential oil
2 drops sandalwood
1 drop myrrh
1 drop frankincense
Use a small cosmetic spray bottle, you can get them a dollar store . . . or at a beauty supply shop. It is very important not to use more than 1 drop of patchouli . . . otherwise you can smell like a bedouin prostitute who had a hard ride on a camel if you know what I mean. LOL.
You can also add a drop of Citronella and a drop of Rosemary essential oil for during the summer. It will help to keep the bugs from biting -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:13 PMThank you so much. You are very kind to share your ideas and receipes with all of us. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:17 PMWhat use is there of knowledge if you are not willing to teach?
You're completely welcome and I hope that I can share some more of my insights with you.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:17 PM"bedouin prostitute who had a hard ride on a camel"......HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh my god....my stomach hurts from laughing. You are too funny! -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:18 PM. . . And some more of my humor . . .
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:20 PMthat was a good one :)
i am irritated that my essiantials were lost to me. ahhs well. time to build them back up!
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:24 PMMy recipe is very similar,
3 oz vodka
2 oz distilled water
2 drops oakmoss
1 drop myrrh
3 drops plumeria
2 drops jasmine
Same thing, keep it in the dollar store cosmetic spray bottle. I mix up some for my husband's costumes too leaving out the jasmine and plumeria and adding a drop of musk to the mix. I up the vodka to keep it longer. Still cuts the funk just fine. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:28 PMjasmine jasmine jasmine!!! and plumeria! hooray!
that must have a very pleasing scent!
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:29 PMThanks so much Adele and Shawna. I would like to have something like this to offer my customers. Smelling exotic is always a good thing...well to a point, I guess, as Adele pointed out. ;-) -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:36 PM. . . did I mention that I once rode a camel? :::blushes::: Unfortunately I wasn't wearing patchouli at the time. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 8:02 AMI did too! I got to visit Morocco (Tangier and Tetchouan) for a day when I was studying abroad last summer. I wasn't wearing patchouli, either...I was wearing a full length dark skirt, a longlseeved black skirt, and my hair was completely covered by a dark scarf. No makeup, no jewelry. I was dressed more conservatively than the Moroccan women my age, but not as quite as the ones older than me. Nice distraction from the American woman in our tour group wearing shorts, a tank top, and an oversized crucifix. Guess which one of us got hassled? :D
I found that doing ATS helps with camel-riding. Nice, straight upper body with good, elevated posture (a la horseback riding) and totally wiggly lower body which can move everywhere with the camel. Everyone wondered where I'd taken camel riding lessons, I kid you not!!
I LOVE THE VODKA/RUBBING ALCOHOL OIL IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is nothing short of inspired, and I am going to run out and destink some of my costuming ASAP.
I was wondering if febreeze or the like would be okay, except that I'm not sure about putting chemicals right next to my skin! This is a much better solution (in more than one sense of the word)
Since scent is linked to memory, here's hoping that our signiature costume scents will help us be more memerable dancers!
TELL YOUR CAMEL STORY! **loves camels**
giddily -LbH (just woke up and am ditching work to spend the day with my best friend. :D)
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:42 PMIn case anyone has a hard time finding spray bottles, Sephora has very nice mini\pruse size perfume atomizers (in Sephora brand).... both in store, and on their website I think. Not too expensive either.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 7:49 AMWhat's this Stiffy stuff and where do you get it? I was originally told to use Buckram, but that's so stiff and scratchy that I passed on that. The gals at the fabric store showed me something else that's still, but softer. Not sure how it will conform to the cups of the bra though. -
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Re: How Do you Stiffen Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 8:38 AMI use buckram in my bras quite often. What makes buckram stiff is a starch that is dipped on and then heat baked. So to soften it use an iron and steam. More heat and steam, more softness, until it dries and cools and becomes hard again.
I eye ball out my pattern peices and then iron that much buckram off of my peice to cut. Pin down the pattern peices and cut it out, then I turn on the steam clean setting on my iron and get those peices hot and pretty wet. I put on my cooking gloves (the kind for grabbing grills and hot pans out of the oven, except wither fingers in them) and begin to lay the buckram into the bra cup liberally with glue. It gets shots of steam whenever it won't cooperate.
Once it is all smooth, I put a grocery sack over it and smooth it down next to the glue, and put a bag of rice in the cup and shake until it settles down. This holds everything in place where I want it while the glue sets and everything cools. After 10-20 hours I go back and take out the rice, and carefully peel off the grocery sack then let it sit another day or so for the glue to throughly dry.
The glue I like is about 4 parts aileene's tacky glue, 1 part water, and 2 parts elmers school glue. I mix it up in a little glass bowl (because the dried stuff peels out afterwards if I forget to rinse it), and use a 1/2 inch house painting brush to get it from bowl to bra.
There are no seam allowances or sewing in the buckram. And after it is done, it is overlayed with a lining fabric that is glued in in the same fashion. Then a peice of felt is whip stitched in to absorb sweat. -
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Re: How Do you Stiffen Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 8:47 AMThat sounds like a process, but I'm glad someone finallly explained it! Thank you, Shawna! So, with the buckram, the lining, and the felt it sounds as if you need to start with a bra that's too big for you otherwise if it fits perfectly to begin with, wouldn't it be too small after all those things get added? -
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Re: How Do you Stiffen Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 9:28 AMYes, I start with a cup size larger usually. But the linings don't take up all that much space, and it usually still needs a little padding for most people.
Most often I make my bras completely myself. I have several cup patterns that I like and know what kind of push up and fit they deliver and I just whip them out. You can find good bra patterns online. The difficult part is really in the stretch of the straps and side panels, which we don't even use in costuming bras!
Most of my cups are made from either two or three peices. Once is a long rectangle which is the top part of the bra, the bottom peice is shaped like a football. It becomes three peices if that bottom peice were to need a dart, I just split the football in half and take out the dart wedge on each side. Once I have a pattern I have the shapes for the lining, buckram, core (made out of duck cloth or old jeans), and fashion fabric. Only the lining and the fashion fabric get seam allowances. The core is stitched together with a flat zig zag and has fusible interfacing strips ironed over the seams when I am shaping it.
Its not nearly as much work as it sounds, and I am a stickler for a perfect fitting bra.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Sat, March 5, 2005 - 12:13 PMYou can buy Stiffy at JoAnn's or Michael's... probably Hancock's too. I never use Buckram, it's just to much of a process and it's scratchy... I don't line my bras and I've never had any 'odor' issues... air them out, spray 'em when you need to and store them with incense... it's worked for 25 years for me and the average bra lasts me several years before I take it apart and make something else with the parts.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 12:50 PMEveryone's directions sound like good sound advise. The only thing I would add is the following:
If you do have velvet on your bra, just make sure not to crush the pile while its wet, or it might dry "crushed" and not go back to normal.
If any stones or beads are stuck on your "kuchi" adornments on your bra and they used glue, you might notice that some come off after washing. These should not be hard to re-glue though, with water-safe glue.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Thu, March 3, 2005 - 1:43 PMAfter any performance, I use incense -- best to hold coin bra over it with the incense in a container burner (no chance that way of burning a hole in the fabric). I also store incense with my coin bra -- keeps it smelling great. -
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 5:36 AMIt's also important to let your stuff air. The vodka:water solution is an old theatre trick- I love the essential oils, I hadn't heard of that before.
I also sometimes use incense- If I've worked in a smokey environment I'll hand up my veil and light incense under it- that helps a lot.
the changeable lining is great whenever possible. I use a cheap cotton.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Sat, March 5, 2005 - 2:40 PMI read about a technique similar to this that supposedly nomadic women use to clean their decorative clothing - in a small area (like a bathroom) close all doors and windows, light a lot of sage or incense, turn the piece inside out and smoke the bacteria/funk out. I tried it with an old Rajasthani choli that I was afraid to wash and it totally did the trick. The idea is that smoke has anti-bacterial properties, although I have no idea if it's true or not.
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Re: How Do you Clean Your Bras?
Fri, March 4, 2005 - 2:12 PMWow!! What a great topic, thank you all SO much for sharing your ideas and recipes. How helpful is that?! I love Tribe... **grin**
