Yet Another Bra!

And the never ending quest for the perfect bra continues.....

I've been trying to make my own bras for a while now as detailed here and right down the end of this post here.  I've got two that I'm really happy with - the last black one and the teal lace one.  But I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another one (or maybe even two?)

I only had enough notions for one more so I decided to go for a red plaid bra.

This material is one that I saw in the fabric shop a couple of times and was drawn too, but I usually left it on the shelf unsure what I could make out of it.  On my last trip I decided to go ahead and just buy it anyway.  Its a knit fabric, probably some sort of poly lycra, but its slightly thicker than the usual stuff I see around and feels beautifully soft against your skin.  I started trying to make a shirt out of it, but got the shirt half way done and couldn't bring myself to keep going - something is just not right, the combination of pattern and design isn't working for me.

So for the time being it's been thrown into the corner to sit and think about what it's done whist I go to work making some of the scraps into a bra.

Once again I made a few minor changes to the pattern - still working on getting it just perfect.  This time I took the bridge pattern piece and cut it in half so that there is no seam down the middle of the bra - instead you have a much smaller seam directly under each breast - I like this much better.

No center front seam

I went back to the original placement of the straps at the back - my modification last time didn't work very well.  The only other real change I made was to the way I made the straps - I'll elaborate on that later.

The outside of the bra is cut entirely from the red plaid fabric, the inside of the cups from nylon tricot and the inside of the band from power mesh.  I've finally got the constructions of the cups down pat and managed to make the entire thing without once having to unpick a seam - that's a first for me and bras....

I didn't have any of the 1.5" wide push elastic left for the bottom band so I had to use 5/8" plush elastic instead - I definitely prefer at least 1" wide bottom band, but it's not too bad.

I also didn't have any black 3/8" elastic for around the top of the bra, but I did have a whole bunch of old bras that I had previously cannibalised for parts and I realised that I could use all the black plush strap elastic from those bras to finish off this one.

For the straps I cut a piece of the nylon tricot  fabric 1.25" wide x 8" long and sewed that on to the cup.  I then extended the side back and front elastic pieces up along this strap piece  - without stretching the elastic,  Once all the elastic has been turned this resulted in a very sturdy 5/8" wide strap.  To cover all the elastic I cut a piece of the plaid fabric 8" long and sewed it into a tube.  Whilst it was still inside out I threaded the bra strap through the tube until the farthest end of the tube was in line with where the strap attaches to the cup.  I then sewed the tube on inside out and the turned the tube back the right way completely covering the strap - this creates a beautifully neat seam at the strap attachment line.

I had just enough underwire casing and one hook and eye catch left.  As the underwire that I bought with my bra making notions were too small I took another trip to Walmart and pick up another $3 bra.  This time I bought a 38D and the underwire fits pretty nicely.  I might go up to a 38DD next time if they have one or maybe a 40D, but this one works pretty well.

I did plan on using salvaged rings to join the straps to the elastic at the back, but it ended up being rather uncomfortable so I unpicked it and just sewed the two parts of the straps together instead.

I think I may have put on a bit of weight since the last time I made this bra - the cups are just a smidge small meaning there is a little bit of extra flesh at the top of the cups - not too much, and nothing that's going to stop me from wearing it, its just something I have to be aware of for next time.

Of course I had to make a couple of pairs of underpants to go with the bra. I think I finally have my underpants pattern down pat, though on my first pair I may have made the leg elastic a bit too tight.

The second pair of pants was squeezed out of some of the left over bits of fabric so I ended up having to put a seam down the center front and there is no pattern matching but hey - who's going to see it except me!

And whilst I had the fabric out I figured I'd make up a second pair of underpants to match the black bra I made as well.   Pretty soon I'll have a fully handmade wardrobe of underthings.