The Band, The Bridge & The Cup

Thanks for all the compliments on my daughter's bra. I'll mail it to her early this week and don't expect to hear how it fits until after next weekend at the earliest. Mail in Canada is notoriously slow.

There was a lot of interest in and questions around the bra both on the blog and on Stitcher's Guild. I totally understand the fascination because I used to think of a bra as a complex garment. That's why sewing one was on my learn list. To me, a bra was one of those many black notes kinds of projects like a complicated piece of music. In a way, it's true. Both take practice to "play" faster and smoother however, sewing a bra takes basic skills.

Debra asked - I wonder was it difficult to sew all those little and stretchy pieces together?

All the patterns I have sewn - which is a grand total of three - have fit together really well. The Kwik Sew pattern was the absolute best. Bra pieces are actually quite big and not too fiddly. The band fabric is stretchy but only when pulled hard. In your hand, it's very firm. The cup fabrics have only a slight stretch. Many t-shirt and dress fabrics are far more difficult to work with.

bobbikg wrote - I was fascinated to see you say that bras are easy to sew. "A perfect near beginner project." I would never have considered making a bra before but a bra that fits properly is such a rarity that I may have to reconsider.

When I say near beginner, I mean someone not afraid of the machine with a good understanding of basic stitches. For someone who wants to learn to sew, they're perfect because they are an underneath garment and therefore all the squiggles of your learning are basically hidden. In my daughter's case, I intend to hand her the fitted pattern so she can have all of the fun and none of the frustrating part. Someone else might consider having a friend or seamstress help fit them.

The technical aspects of sewing the bra are quite easy. You use a straight and a zigzag stitch, a 1/4" and an open toe presser foot. All the seams are sewn at 1/4" or at the edge of the elastic. The trims are zigzagged right sides together against the inner edge and then turned and topstitched in place from the right side. The seam allowances are cut narrower and hidden under the trim or the underwire channelling. Very few edges show. The process is ultra repetitive bra to bra. Once you learn it, you keep repeating and perfecting it.

Since straps are adjustable, there are only three areas of concern with a bra - the band, the bridge, and the cup. The band is the distance around. It's easily determined by measuring your upper bust snuggly. Mine measures 35" so I wear a 34" band which stays put and doesn't move. If you're constantly pulling your bra strap down in the back or at the sides, it's too big. The band is meant to provide the support of the bra.

The bridge is the distance between cups. It is wider if the breasts are spaced further apart and narrower if they are spaced closer together. This distance makes a bra sit more or less comfortably against the breasts. In RTW, it's non-negotiable. With sewing your own, it is easy to adjust from the test muslin by either pinning a tuck in the bridge or by slashing and adding distance. Mine is about 1/4" narrower than the pattern.

The cup is where the fitting issues come in. The cup is the volume of the breast - how wide and how deep it is. Two women can have breasts with the same volume but one will be wide and shallow and the other narrow and deep. That's why a 36A, 34B, 32C, and 30D all take the same size of underwire. I've found the cup the hardest part to figure out and of course - as with any garment - there is the fabric factor to contend with as well.

A bra is a fitted. As with any close fitting garment, it needs to conform to the shape of the wearer. What works for one woman does not necessarily work for another. To get a good fitting bra, you need to be patient, make multiple muslins, and fine tune. It takes work however, it's both fun and worth it. Even if you can buy bras that fit you well, you can sew ones that are far more unique for considerably less money in many instances.




The bra I buy is the Wonderbra 7422 shown above. It's about $24.99 at WalMart. I've been wearing it for YEARS as in since my early twenties. It fits me fabulously even when I change sizes. I've been through a range of them. Unfortunately, it is only available in white and black. That's boring. I'm attempting to produce a similar pattern so I can vary the fabrics and use some that are more "naughty".

Peter from Male Pattern Boldness had an interesting quiz in Friday's posting, Are You Naughty or Nice? I had to go by the pictures since I'm not a movie or music buff but basically it went if like this, you're nice and if you like that, you're naughty. It appears that I'm a constrained naughty. There's a far more flamboyant and dramatic me waiting to make an entrance. I knew that but it's hard to change the patterns of a lifetime. Fun, flirty lingerie could be a great beginning.




Above is my first attempt to reproduce the RTW pattern. I sewed my daughter's first test bra out of a stretch taffeta. It was too big and looked pointed and duck-bill-like which is exactly how the same fabric looked on me even though the band size was correct. I had taken her bra apart and used the parts to make mine and learned that taffeta is not a soft enough, figure forming fabric for a bra. I also realized that until I get the bra muslin correct, I should be using a basic fabric much like broadcloth is used for making garment muslins. I wish I'd thought of that before I made her second test bra with the lace overlays. Oh well. Live and learn.




I adjusted for all those pins in the first trial run and made a second one from lingerie lycra with powernet for the band. Underneath the black covering, Millicent (my dressform) is wearing the 36C that I used to be. I'm now a 34D. Based on my earlier example, you can see that my distribution of breast volume has changed. I'm now narrower and deeper than I used to be which is why this test looks a bit saggy. It's not quite perfect on me either. I've measured and pinned some changes for the next muslin.




If you remember from Friday's posting, I had accidentally dyed one of my bras grey and took it apart to make a pattern. In the image above, I'm comparing the cup made from lingerie lycra to the one from the RTW bra. The lower cup section is too narrow. I did this while the bra was in progress. When it was finished, I tried it on over my RTW bra and carefully pinned the two together through the center to see how they compared. The same problem was obvious. The two parts of the upper cup are okay. The bridge has been adjusted fine. The band is the right size. The lower cup needs work. It's shallower and narrower than it should be.




The new cup will fit into the same band which means I don't need to keep sewing the band over and over. I'm going to remove the channelling and cup you see in the image above and insert the adjusted cup for the next test. Once it fits smoothly, I'll completely sew another sample - as soon as I order some more supplies, especially strapping. I've been basting the closure and strapping from the RTW bra to the test bras because I'm out of strapping and because I see no point to using new supplies for a test run.

bobbikg also asked - Your lace, tricot, and straps all match to perfection and you talked about making one for yourself in fuchsia, lime, or purple. Do you over dye the components to match and if so, what type of dye do you use?

Summerset has a blog called Hooks & Wires as well as an etsy shop. The blog has excellent tutorials on bra sewing and shows the kits she dyes using Washfast acid dyes. They're gorgeous. The site that I order fabric from says that you can dye the fabrics using Ritz dyes. At the last workshop I was at, one of the students brought a collection of bras she'd sewn some of which were dyed with Ritz dyes with great success. The colors were wonderful.




The pink and green printed fabrics above are t-shirt lycra. They can be used in double layers or layered over lingerie lycra for bra cups The dotted red on the right is an organza for an overlay. The plain pink and red are athletic wear and have a very similar feel to the powernet that is used for bands. I hope - but am not sure - they'll be okay for bands. I'll have to try it and see. What I liked about these fabrics was how well they co-ordinated because one of the difficulties with bra fabrics is getting all the fabrics, elastics, and trims in the same color. Summerset's blog and etsy shop show that it's possible to dye complete fabric kits or portions to go with other fabrics like these above.

I haven't dyed any lingerie fabrics yet however, I'm familiar with dying natural fibres and don't think synthetics will be that much more difficult. The fabrics that I used for my daughter's bra were a purchased dark green lace over black lingerie lycra combined with black powernet and trims. I imagine I'll use a lot of black with other colors as I prefer darker lingerie although once I have a white bra that fits me the way I want, I'll experiment with dying colors. If nothing else, I can dye them to match purchased prints.

I've ordered The Bra Maker's Manual from Bra Maker's Supply. It receives great reviews and is expensive. Lately, that seems to be the story of my information quest. As I learn more and more about a particular subject, the books and magazine articles are too simple and I need to search out more complex information. This is typically in text books or self published works which in turn are typically more expensive. I'm particularly looking forward to the info on fitting, on suitable fabrics, and on dyeing. I've found sewing the bras fun so I want to learn more.

SO... my conclusion. The construction techniques used to sew a bra are simple and repetitive. The supplies are relatively inexpensive especially when compared to the price of RTW bras in larger sizes. Two of the three parts are quite easy to figure out and the fitting requirements for the cup are minimal. It will take effort the same as to fit a blouse or pair of pants properly but it's not impossible and it's a lot of fun. My first bra fit well. The second one fit perfectly. I could have repeated that pattern over and over but I wanted something different which is why the third and fourth are a test of a developing pattern from a RTW bra. If I'd worked from a pattern, it would have been even easier. I may just do that for the next one - LOL.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - Howard has the day off and we're going out for breakfast together. We'll discuss what needs to be done and then a carpenter is coming to look at the odd jobs around our house that need finishing. This is good. Howard is too busy at work to do them and they've become a millstone.