Tag: lingerie sewing

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