And finally a bra......

For the longest time I've been thinking and planning about making myself a bra.  It's been on my to do list really ever since I got back into this sewing game.  About a year ago I tried to create a soft bra pattern and made my very first bra but it was in no way a success and has sat unworn in my draw ever since.

 About February this year I had another crack at the bra making, taking a free pattern from the internet and trying to work out how it all went together.  I almost got there but it just wasn't great and those last few finishing steps were beyond me and once again the project got sidelined.

During Me Made May I made a pledge to try and create an entire me made wardrobe including bras, I didn't got around to it during May, but about 1 week ago I finally got around to buying a bra pattern. The  BravoBella Bravo Bra #2.

I did all the measurements suggested to figure out what size to use and decided on a 36E.  I printed out all the relevant pattern pieces.  The first thing I noticed about the pattern was that there is no scale.  I printed it out at 100% and hoped that it was to the right scale and started cutting my fabric.

I found some white nylon tricot at my local fabric store and bought it along with some power net.  I cut the cup pieces out of the tricot.  The bridge and band I originally cut out of power net, but after seeing just how much stretch the stuff had I decided to cut them out of tricot as well and decided to use both fabrics sandwiched together.   Looking at the white tricot cups I decided that it was just too boring and cut the second layer of the cups out of some purple satin brocade that I had in my stash.

I followed the pattern instructions to make the straps, then put the cups together and sewed the cups to the bridge.  I don't have any new underwires, just ones out of old bras so I made my own underwire casing out of bias cut satin and sewed them onto the bridge.  The thing that I found most useful in the pattern were the instructions for cutting the elastic to length.  Again I don't have the right plush elastics for bra making but I made do with some basic knit elastics from my stash and sewed them on per instructions.  I sewed on the straps and tried the bra on ......problem......it's way too small.

The band does not come close to meeting at the back - I added a piece of 2" wide elastic at center back just so I could try it on!

and the cups are very much too small (plus one of the cups ended up smaller than the other  not sure how that happened).

So I didn't bother finishing the bra at this point.  I think it was a combination of less stretch in the band due to the tricot and the non stretch satin as well as the elastic I used, plus of course the cup size was just too small.

After taking a day or two off I started all over again. This time I went up to a 38G.  I printed out the band and bridge pattern pieces at a size 38 then modified the bridge so that I kept the height of the 38 but the width of the 36.  The back band I cut at size 38 and the cups I cut at 38G.

I cut the inner cups out of tricot again as well as the band and bridge pieces.  This time for the outer fabric I decided to go with a very stretchy knit fabric that was left over in my stash from this project.

I think I sewed every seam in this bra at least 3 times.  I don't know what was wrong with me, but I kept putting things together wrong and having to rip them out and start again.  but in the end I think the bra ended up well...acceptable.

I made a few other changes to the pattern this time around.  Rather than using 5/8" elastic around the band I decided to go with 2" wide elastic.

 In order to have the back the right width for the  hooks and eyes I cut the back band at and angle from the top of the side seam down to the center back.

I like the way this sits under the arm - no wiring poking up into my arm pit - but it does mean that the bra sits further down my back that a bra usually would.

Everything else was made as per the instructions.  This bra turned out better than the original.  The band is the right size now, but the cups are too big.  Once the entire bra was finished I pinned out a tuck from the top down to just below the bust point and sewed it in so that it fits.  You can just see the seam in the picture below.

This bra is wearable, not the most supportive, but seems to be comfortable.  .

I will definitely try to make this pattern again with the same band size but smaller cup size and a more stable cup fabric.   I don't love the shape of this at the moment - I feel like my boobs are spread out too far but I don't know if that just because the cup size is wrong.   I'll give the pattern one more try before I make up my mind for good.

And in the mean time this bra is definitely wearable and I don't have that "get this bra off me" feeling at 4pm with it that I have with a lot of my store bought ones.