Bra By Bra

A bra isn't hard to sew. The steps are basic and repetitive. What makes a bra both hard to sew and absolutely wonderful is the customized fit and the details. The fit of a bra - as with any other garment - can take a lot of practice to perfect. I took the bra making workshop in October 2009 and have been sewing bras intermittently ever since. The steps come naturally now and I'm working out the details, slowly, bra by bra. My sewn bras now fit way better than any purchased one.

When my daughter was home for Christmas, I sewed two bras for her making adjustments to the samples that I had previously mailed and which she - thankfully - remembered to bring so I could see them in person. Having an actual body in front of me was much easier. I'm about to sew one further sample, mail it, get feedback, and if it's good, go head and sew her a selection. Our agreement was that I'd perfect the pattern, sew the first set, give her the pattern, and after that, she's on her own. With the fit figured out, the skill level will be well within her capabilities.

What I found interesting with my daughter, myself, and my friend is that we all wear a particular size with the lower cup a size smaller. That sounds confusing. What I mean is that I wear a D upper cup and an altered C lower cup. The lower cup is the height of a C and the width of a D which eliminates the flat, hollow spot at the bottom of the cup above the underwires and provides better fit. Strange that three of us would have the same adjustment. I wonder if it's actually quite common. I had worked out this adjustment with my previous bras. Testing this new pattern, I made the same adjustment and it worked. YES YES




I've learned that it is absolutely, vitally, critically, important that the bridge does NOT stretch. The bridge secures the cups and holds them in place, which in turn keeps the bust in place. All kinds of adjustments might be needed for proper fit but in the end, no matter what the size or shape, the bridge must not stretch. For this bra, I used a piece of cotton fused with non-stretch interfacing and then covered with the fashion fabric. No stretch whatsoever. It worked so well that I will interface some black and white yardage to use in subsequent bras.




One of the Kwik Sew bra patterns I have uses bias tape for the channeling instead of purchased channeling. What I liked about this method is that you pin the tape to the seam and stitch on the previous lines. It's much easier than aligning the channeling over the seam which is the more common method. I was concerned that the channeling might be too lightweight. It's not. There's sufficient bulk with the woven fabric and the seam allowances underneath.

In the image above, the channeling was made from bias strips cut 1 and 5/8" wide and then pressed in half lengthwise. If you look carefully at the bottom right of the picture, you'll see that the top stitching that holds the channeling in place slightly missed the bottom edge. It's because of the turn of the cloth. The seam between the bridge and the band is underneath and that area is quite thick.

The 1 and 5/8" bias strips were already wider than what Kwik Sew had recommended. Their width was based on mathematics and didn't include the bulk of the seam allowances or the turn of the fabric. Next time, I'll cut my strips 1 and 7/8" wide. If I like how that works, I'll precut and press white and black strips for future projects. The bias is made from a woven fabric which makes me wonder if a knit could do just as well because bias and knit are both stretchy. Something else to try.




Another thing I've learned is that the underwires need to come to the top of the bridge in order to prevent the bridge from lifting forward. I know that a lot of women do not like underwires and find them uncomfortable. Having tried on bras with and without them, with is more supportive. My guess is that if you find them uncomfortable, you are wearing the wrong size because when the bra and the underwires are the correct size and the bra cup and supporting wires are correctly positioned, you can't even feel that they are there. I think that's another difference between making do with RTW and a custom sewn garment.




Because the t-shirt fabric I used was so stretchy, I could cover the band fabric with it. That's a fun touch. My entire bra is both pretty and practical. There are quite a few t-shirt knits in my stash that just might become bras. Often there are more than enough scraps left after cutting out the garment. I could end up with a whole bunch of tops and matching bra/panty sets. Too fun.




This pattern is Elan 645. What I like about it is the range of sizes from a 32A to a 42DD. That covers me, my daughter, and most of my friends and makes sharing/teaching in the studio easy. I also like the low bridge and the minimal band. These tend to fit better, especially for the larger sizes, and don't roll easily if you curve out immediately below the bust as some women do. The cups can be made with either a lace as shown or fabric with trim as I've done. The instructions are slightly disconcerting. They refer to two views although only one is shown. That took a bit of figuring out.

Here's the front again in case you've forgotten from yesterday. This one would be "bowable" if I had a white one. I only sew a bow on when I'm really pleased with how the bra turned out. I need to figure out how to make my own bows. The bought ones are ridiculously expensive.

Yesterday, I test drove a car in a snowstorm which turned out to be just perfect because it was an all wheel drive car and you need snow and slippery to test that feature. On Sunday, when Howard was taking the boys to visit his parents, he only made it about 20km out of town in our van and had to limp back. The transmission wouldn't move out of second gear. We've been expecting this to happen. It's common to this model and the van is REALLY old. We'd hoped there was one last trip in it as his parents had some larger items stored for him to bring home that wouldn't fit in our car. It was not to be. Luckily, they were close to home and could exchange vehicles.

A few months ago, another "sign of the times" happened so we knew the end was coming and have been looking for an all wheel drive Matrix only they are incredibly hard to find, used, at a good price. We found lots of other cars but maintenance costs and ease of repair are important to Howard and good gas mileage and all wheel drive are important to me, especially AWD as I'll be driving over the mountains to Nanaimo in a few weeks to take another workshop. Our van was AWD. Without it, I'm not at all confident to travel in winter.

We found one with low mileage that is a rental car about to be decommissioned. It was brought down from Terrace (about fourteen hours north) for us to look at. After the test drive, we bought it and Howard will pick it up later today. It's a plain Jane model just like I wanted, no bells and whistles, just power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, and a stereo. Good and enough. Unfortunately, it's also white which is great at night and in the summer and sort of invisible in a snow storm, like yesterday. It snowed ALL DAY. The car did great.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - finding the right car at an affordable price