Friday 13 March 2015

First Successful bra . . and few failures


One of my sewing goals for this year was sewing a bra for myself.  I signed up for the Bra-Making class on Craftsy with Beverley Johnson.  The class is wonderful.  Very detailed but fast paced enough to be interesting to watch each segment.  The recommended pattern to use is one of Beverley's own patterns called the Classic Bra. 

I'm not posting pictures of me wearing this on the internet but trust me it's really bad!  I'm sure with anyone with a larger cup size than me the pattern is wonderful and great and you can tweak it to make it fit nicely.  For me, every change I made just made it worse.

Version 1 disappeared into the garbage. The beige one is version 2 with an A cup and longer band.  It makes me look like a 10 year old.


The spotted fabric is version 3.  I started to realize that cutting into my actual bra fabrics wasn't going to very economical and started pulling out scraps of jersey from my stash.  For this one I made a AA cup and the same size band as the second one.  There is so much excess fabric at the top of the cup it's ridiculous.

I gave up for a few weeks. Then I saw a few versions of the Watson bra, on someone with a smaller bust.  I decided to spend the $15 for the pattern.  I made a 34 AA for the front and 36 band for the back.  And it fits perfectly! I cut out 2 cups and layered them together for a bit more thickness.

I was so excited I immediately cut out another one.  For this one I used an old longsleeve shirt for the bra fabric. For the lining I used a lingerie fabric found at my local Fabricland.  It was the closest thing I could find to the suggested materials.

Then I took apart an old bra and used the foam cups in between the 2 cup layers, as well I used the straps, back clasp and channeling. I tried putting the wires back in but they were too long.  But with the foam and channeling I get wonderful support.


And then because everything turned out so well I cut out a matching pair of underwear!  Instead of using elastic like suggested in the pattern I just used a double layer of fabric trim for the waist and leg openings.

I don't think I've ever owned a matching bra and panty set before.
 So my first succesful bra make.

Pattern:  Watson Bra by Amy of Cloth Habit

 To any other new bra makers out there:  Things of I've learned

- sewing bras is not like sewing clothes, you can't try them on as you go and adjust the fit.  You have to make the bra entirely to get an accurate fit.

- don't buy any bra kits to start because until you have pattern that works for you you're wasting your money on fabric.

- hack apart old bras and steal the findings rather than buying them. 

- Find a cheap source of elastic because you use a lot of it

- this article on boob shapes was so helpful, I found it while reading Sew Pretty in Pink's post about   cloning a Bra

If you are interested in bra making at all many very talented people are participating in Emerald Erin's Bra- A - Week Sew along.  There are pictures of many beautiful bras.

Beverley Johnson offers 2 day bra sewing at her store in Hamilton.  Since I'm only about 1 1/2 from Hamilton I'm hoping maybe this summer to go and actually take a class with her.  As I said the online class is great for learning how to make a bra . . . . but I need a lot more help adapting the pattern to me.