Summers seem to be getting longer and hotter, in fact it was the ongoing heat of last summer that seriously kicked me into gear over making my own bras. No longer did I want to wear padded non breathable sweaty inducing bras ever again. As such I’ve been working with lace, lightweight lining and basically anything that is going to get my bras feeling lighter and more breathable.
Naturally the next step was to try and make a cotton bra. Never one to waste time on making an ugly bra, I used some Liberty tana lawn scraps for my experiment. Normally the pieces are placed in order to cut with the greatest stretch, to do this with a women fabric I used the bias as my greatest stretch. Apart from the fact I’m using a woven fabric everything else was the same construction as I would regularly follow for a Harriet bra.
But did the experiment work? Well yes and no. It went together well and looks super cute but when I wear it I have a ripple of excess fabric along the apex where the seams meet. The shape is also much exaggerated and looks very pointy. My guess is that the bread tissue normally sits down much lower into the cup due to the greater amount of stretch. This would result in a rounder shape that pulls the fabric down rounding off the shape (the Harriet isn’t a totally rounded shape it does have a definite angle to it).
The upper cup panel I did in a woven broderie anglaise trim. It looks super cute but due to the lack of stretch it does dig in the tiniest amount on my bigger side. I’m hoping it will loosen with wear.
To try and fix it I want to try and pinch out the excess fabric and baste it in place then re try it on and see if that solves the problem. My hunch os that the lower cup is going to need to be split and have a bit more volume put in it as well. When trying to solve any pattern making/sewing issues I always try and solve one problem at a time. That way if it goes right you have done it in the least amount of steps/time and if it goes wrong you can pinpoint where it went wrong and walk it back to that step. Trying to fix everything at once can actually create more problems that are harder to solve than going step by step.
Pattern: Harriet bra from Cloth Habit
Fabric: Liberty Tana Lawn – leftovers from a dress, elastics and trims from Pitt Trading
Alterations: keep working until I find a solution for a good fitting cotton bra
It’s the Harriet Bra from Cloth Habit with the adjustments mentioned here and here. Essentially this is meant to be the same as the blue printed mesh version I made but here are just some of the mistakes I made
Apart from the issues it looks amazing and I really like the fit. With a limited amount of lace I feel like I managed to cut it so it looks like it was planned that way and not just a result of “making it work” I’ll definitely be using similar methods in the future.
Pattern: Cloth Habit Harriet Bra – with fitting modifications
Every so often I fall in love with a piece of fabric, colour and print and big motivating factors and well this fabric it was one of those swoon at first sight type moments. It came in during a shipment of designer fabrics when I was working at 
Then when making this bra I decided to take the multi hued elements of the print and step further and use non matching trims to make the bra. Bt rights, this many colours, types and print mixed together should be a dogs breakfast. But it’s not it all came together in one of my most favourite makes ever.
The pattern is another Cloth Habit Harriet Bra with a few extra modifications. On my original I added some extra to the lower cup so I sat down into the cup more and adjusted the seam allowance at the bridge to allow it to be fractionally wider so the wires didn’t sit on top of each other.
These changes I was happy with but I want a little bt more projection and lift. When I wear the pink one I totally want to pinch out a section at the top to bring everything up. So I did, well sort of. Using 
With these changes I think I’ve got the fit almost perfect for me, they are super comfortable to wear and I like the shape they give me, it’s not the high rounded shape of a full moulded foam cup but honestly am over that look anyway.
The heat of summer is getting hotter and longer. Last summer I promised myself it was going to be the last summer I wore foam bras, they are sweaty, hot and generally just add to feeling hotter and sweatier.
Measuring myself against the size chart I went with the exact size the chart told me to do. To check the fit I cut out a tester version in plain cotton with the Direction of Greatest Stretch being the bias of the cotton fabric. Once cut I quickly sewed it together without elastic then basted in the power mesh back and back closure.
Once it was together I tried it on, the band was ok sitting flat without too many wrinkles, the lower cup however was all wrong. I had a flat section above the wire casing and I was spilling at the top of the cup.
Writing my notes and annotations directly onto the pattern I cut out this pink lace. It’s lined with cream non stretch mesh and for construction I followed the very excellent instructions though in a moment of “what was I thinking?” I managed to sew the wide picot at the base of the band on incorrectly. Something I didn’t notice till I had also sewn in the underwire casing so I just left it. The pretty underarm edge (shown below) made up for my mistake.
Once done I was really happy with how it looked and fit but I wanted to wear it a few times before I decided if it was good enough? After a few wears I’ve noticed
Pattern: Harriet Bra by Cloth Habit
