(no subject)

[mechanonymouse]

First make of 2020 is a bra. Which also ticks one off my Make Nine.



In my previous post I had a toile of the Marlborough bra by Orange Lingerie is size 30H that looked a good shape based on my RTW bras and the band was a good shape but I couldn’t try it properly because I didn’t have a fitting underwire. Since then two of my ready to wear bras have given up the ghost providing me with two fitting underwire sets and a increased need for new bras.


I used the first of these underwires to test the toile I already had. From the front it doesn’t look that bad on camera but in person it was doing something weird to my bust. From the side you can see how badly it gapes at the top and slightly see the weird way it’s flattening my lower boob.



From that fitting:

• It’s wearable but I’d prefer not to have to wear it. I’ve had far worse fitting ready to wear bras in my time.
• I need to pinch a 2cm dart out of the upper cup
• The bottom cup fits oddly and it’s unclear whether that is the cup or using scraps to test the general shape

So my next step was to make a new toile using the intended fabrics with the modified upper cut piece. I bought kits from Fit2Sew for both myself and my mother last year. One of my kits is bright red and the one I used to test as red bras are a lot less wearable than plain white. This checked my alteration to the upper cup and if the problems with the fit of the lower cup were a combination of the upper cup issues and using the wrong fabrics.

This version is a significant improvement. The gaping at the top has been solved and some combination of the reshaping of the upper cup and changing to the duoplex and power mesh the pattern is drafted for has fixed the weird thing happening with my under boob.




This bra is as good as I can buy RTW for considerably less than a RTW bra would cost me. I would like to make it better than RTW though. So niggles:

• This bra isn’t lined. The pattern doesn’t call for it and I didn’t want to line a toile when working with duoplex rather than the scraps from a shirt remade into a petticoat. However the pattern does call for two layers in the bridge/centre band to finish a raw edge which I forgot when cutting out. I would prefer to line future bras and definitely remember to cut both pieces of the bridge.
• I need to bring the shoulder straps in to help them not fall of my shoulders using this tutorial for the front and this tutorial for the back. Both free from the pattern maker.
• My apex sits as the pattern intends which means half of my nipple is visible through the lace cup. I’m not 100% comfortable with the idea of taking my shirt off in a doctors office and flashing them nipple. Lining the upper cup with a opaque fabric like duoplex or making the upper cup completely opaque with or without a lace appliqué could fix that.