I’ve been on a roll with the bra making and absolutely enjoying it! When Erin from Emerald Erin released the Black Beauty bra I put it on my “to make” list, I just didn’t expect me to take so long to getting around to trying it out.
One of the frustrating and wonderful things about bra making is that you kind of need to make an almost finished bra in order to see if it actually fits? Sometimes I make up a toile in fabric I don’t care about and other times I dive straight in.
This is one of the times when I dove straight in.
The bra itself went together really well, everything lines up and the instructions (when I used them) are easy to follow.
Sewing a see through bra is a challenge, you really have to be careful as all the flaws show up. If you look closely along where the channelling is applied at the front you can see where some of my cutting was less than stellar. Still it’s nice to be challenged to level up and keep getting better. It’s one of the things I genuinely love about sewing, you can always get better.
But how did it fit? hmm not good. The band is good and quite comfortable but the cups are enormous. I felt like I was sitting on a shelf that was supported from underneath and just nothing above. Getting past the initial disappointment I decided to put it aside for a bit and try it on again and analyse what’s wrong.
When I did that I found the upper cup is too long, leaving the entire cup sagging and not holding anything. If I add in a dart I might be able to fix this one and then next time I think I want to try this band size with a smaller cup size? I do know I’m not defeated I just need to work out a solution to getting it to fit me.
Fabric: Black mesh, patterned fold over elastic from Pitt Trading, other bits from my stash, back hook and eyes from Booby Traps.
Pattern: The Black Beauty by Emerald Erin
Changes: work out how/why it doesn’t fit and try again
Holly B.G.
Oh so cute, it looks like a very fun project. After mastering the side support, I found this bra very simple and provides almost infinite variations in styling. But I do concur with the trial and error aspect of sorting which bra size to sew up. I found that tracing a copy of the cup pieces that closest matched my bust depth and width needs, then taping the pieces along my root (inner, bottom and outer) helped determine what size range I should try, and the alterations I’d want to make in each piece so that the cups would likely fit. Personally, had found it smoother to start with a larger size and scale out excess rather than add room into too-small pattern pieces.