Month: June 2021

A Pretty Summery Bra

~ Michelle

Oh, some very good news. Draft number four fit so well I couldn’t resist making a new bra. For the most part, my cups were fine. I’d done a lot of work on those. The wires and the bottom of the bridge were what needed the most improvement. So, now I had a well-fitting band, with the correct wire shape, I had to make a new bra.

I looked in my stash, and this lovely delicate lace was calling my name.Oh, I love this lace. It’s so pretty.

My next decision was what to use to finish the bra? I decided to try the lingerie satin B,Wear sells. I had ordered some, but hadn’t tried it yet. I think I fell in love with it as soon as I touched it. It’s so soft!

This lingerie satin does have a bit of stretch, so I wasn’t sure how my bra was going to fit, but I am not disappointed.This is the BMS Ruby pattern, adjusted for an Omega shape.

This fits perfectly – except I forgot to adjust the top of the bridge to make it lower. This bridge is for using elastic along the upper edge, so the bridge and the wires aren’t the same length. However, that’s a very small complaint!You can see here where the wires aren’t coming to the top of the bridge. There’s maybe 2 cm, or better yet 1.5 cm and a touch of wiggle room for the wires. It’s a very small adjustment after some of the others I’ve had to make.

You can also see in the above photo, I had some wrinkling with my elastic under the cup there. I had this problem on my other tester band too. I’m wondering if I have too much of a curved shape there making it just too hard for the elastic to fit to those curves.

Here’s the side view of the bra.Oh, I’m so happy with this. I used a trick I learned in one of my classes with Jeannette to help my large cup fit into my smaller band – I stretched the frame on the outside, and ‘eased’ the cup in. It works so well.

Lastly the back view. I’m so thrilled to have finally found my correct sized wire, and figured out just how to fix my band as well. I have my next bra kit all picked out, and I’m going to sew some more bras!This is another lingerie satin kit from B,Wear.

I do like a power bar, so I’m thinking for my next bra I’ll make a BMS Shelley.

Happy creating!

Adjustments to Draft Number Four

~ Michelle

My Bare Essentials drafting journey continues. This past week was a bit busier for me, but I did get the changes to my pattern done.

The changes I made were to move the strap tab in, add 1/8″ along the upper cup, and move the apex over.

Here are my pattern pieces side by side. They don’t look that different.However, when they are layered one on top of the other, then you can see the changes more clearly.  It won’t take long to get this sewn up. I’ll share my progress next week.

Happy creating!

Ideas for a Bra Dress

~ Michelle

A couple of years ago, during one of our bra-making classes with Jeanette (Sew Uplifting), a class idea came up that sounded great! I was ready to sign up that day.

Not long afterwards, that class became an option and I did sign up. The Bra Dress. Unfortunately, that class was cancelled, and as yet, hasn’t been rescheduled.

A couple of my bra-sewing classmates and I have been talking about how do we do this? We can’t take the class. We’ve been waiting for two years for this now. We want this bra dress. So we’ve been brainstorming just how this would we do this.

     I even bought a bathing suit that was on sale last year – just to see how it was made.This is a swim dress from Land’s End.

Here’s the bra inside:   This isn’t exactly what I had in mind. But I kept it because I really like the swim dress.

Here’s the back band:  No, this was definitely not what I was thinking. This is a shelf bra that has wires. I’m thinking an actual bra.

So, I kept looking for ideas. I started looking at some vintage ideas.I saw this great vintage slip on Etsy. 

Here’s the back view of the slip.Again, this is like the Land’s End suit, the back is like a shelf bra. I’m still thinking of wanting the actual bra clasp at the back though.

I did fine two vintage sewing patterns on Etsy too. I think this is the idea I’m going for – a bra built into a slip, then attached to the dress at the shoulders.

Oh, I wish I could see the back of this one. However, this pattern design is very similar to the Elite bra.

I wish I could see the back of this one too. I want to know how these slips fasten.I’ll keep thinking about this. My draft cup alterations are done, so I’ll share that with you next week.

Happy creating!