Big weekend of sewing but most of the projects are not ready to share yet. This one is more of a toile/muslin* but looks cute.
It’s been getting warm at night and I thought that one of these sweet Colette Pattern Nutmeg‘s might be the answer, so I raided the scrap box and cut out the bralette top. With everything on the bias I went with a patchwork look. It worked out surprisingly well and looks adorable in real life.
You can see I have added a centre front seam to the top panel, this was purely to fit it into the limited amount of fabric I had on hand, added some silk velvet ribbon as straps as I thought the colours matched well.
Construction wise there were some odd elements. The facing on the top edge is no end of annoying and will never sit in place unless I add another line of stitching across the top cup, next time I would simply cut 2 top panels and bag the entire area out which will not only eliminate the facing but also add more structure to the whole thing. At the centre back straps, it is finished with hand stitching, this would wear very easily, so I bagged out the back panels and moved the opening to the side seam and concealed it there. Much easier and much stronger. Despite these changes it came together quickly and everything lined up.
Once it was together I tried it on and it looks well, awful. Fit wise it covers all that it needs to cover and the elastic is in the right place and the straps are doing what they should, but the complete lack of support just made me look dreadful. I’m not large chested but it would seem that if you are bigger than a B cup that this unsupported style doesn’t do you any favours.
Thankfully it is only a test piece and it didn’t take too long to sew. I think I will look for something that has a different construction/support system and see how that works out?
*I’m never sure if to refer to my tests as toiles or muslins. At fashion college it was strictly a toile and I’ve continued to use that term ever since. However I see that muslin is the preferred term on sewing blogs when talking about test garments. So if I occasionally say toile instead of muslin you will know what I mean.
