My goal is to replenish my entire lingerie wardrobe so I have correctly fitting bras that are comfortable and pretty! So it’s another Harriet bra.
This is a printed hail spot mesh that I got from Pitt Trading, it’s greens and purples printed on a white base so I paired it with a white picot, white power mesh back and white hook eye closure. I had planned for the bottom of the front to be white as the print had this wonderful straight line where the print started. I’d decided to use this as a feature so the bottom would be white to match all the trims together.
Unfortunately I used a non stretch mesh as the cradle lining. it’s in a colour that matches my skin tone and normally looks quite invisible. except apparently under this mesh because instead of looking transparent it changed the tone of the hail spot mesh to be much more tan and completely lose the impact of the white line. It now just looked dirty and like I had cut it badly. At this stage I almost recut but decided no at the very least it’s still wearable even if it’s not visually how I wanted.
Because we are currently trying to stay at home and not go out I’m using only what I have in the house to finish off projects. I’m not going out just to get matching elastics. So when I realised I didn’t have enough wider plush elastic for the lower band I improvised. My improvisation included the same width picot as I’d use for the cups and then a decorative topstitch of some strapping elastic in green. Not only did it add strength to that lower band it also helped cover up the non white, white panel at the bottom of the cradle. It works quite well and was a good solution given the situation.
After my disaster sewing on my last Harriet I really wanted to pay attention to my sewing and get a neater finish. I think I did ok at this but always there is room for improvement (I see you non clipped section on left hand side!)
Eagle eyed bra makers will also see there is no lining in my upper cup. I’ve tried this a few times and the non lined section is much more comfortable for me, I also find if I do add a lining in there I can end up with a quad boob look which is not a look anyone wants.
As always I’ve used a mix of colours, fabrics and trims to try and create a harmonious overall colour scheme. Even on a more muted colour scheme like this one I wanted to mix up the elements to bring something else to the style so that it felt more like my style. I’m super keen to make matching knickers for this one because I think it’s going to be a fun challenge.
Pattern: Harriet Bra from Cloth Habit
Fabric: Printed mesh, white power mesh, elastics from at Pitt Trading. Underwires, hook and eye from Underwired.co
Alterations: now that I have my fit working for me I’m at the stage where I can just cut and make which is quite fun
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
