Sewing Bras - Custom Drafting a Strapless Bra Part 3

Welcome to part 3 of my custom draft strapless bra!  [Check out Parts 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE]

IT IS DONE!

Feels sooo good to have finally finished it.  Well, mostly finished - I'm still waiting on some more black hook and eye tape but the white I put in temporarily will suffice for now.

The color combo didn't quite turn out as I had hoped but is fine for a serviceable strapless bra.

Check out that lace!  I wanted some continuity between the front purple section and the back black powernet.  Stretch lace placed on the diagonal did the trick!

This bra was definitely a labor of love.  There were challenges and quite a few firsts all around.  This bra features 4 bones in the band and 4 bones in the cups.  I added self made cookie inserts and sewed them to the cup in a free floating fashion.  The cups themselves had dual layers of foam - to ensure a smooth exterior despite all the boning.  I also had to shorten the U shaped or Strapless underwires a smidge (1/4") at center front to make it fit.  Band feels a bit loose to me and more secure on the tightest set of hooks.  Silicone elastic across the top of the back band would have helped immensely (I had 3/4" regular plush elastic or 1/2" silicon - I erred on the 3/4").



LESSONS LEARNED
- If adding cookie inserts, make them removable next time.   If for no other reason than to avoid sewing through 4-5 layers of bra foam.
- If adding inserts for more push up, lower the height of the upper cup (even more).  Possibly curving it a bit higher towards the arm pit. Current cups + 4 layers of foam (4 for the inserts and 2 for the cup) = slight quadding. Zero quadding without the inserts.
- Consider adding another set of boning in the back band over the powernet.  This will likely need to use channeling to allow the bones some movement.  Previous experience sewing boning on powenet was less than spectacular.
- Consider reinforcing the top edge of foam cup with tricot or similar non-stretch material - hopefully this will help resolve the rolled edge issue.
- Use higher quality plush elastic or just FIRM plush elastic as quite a bit of the support comes from the band.

POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTS FOR NEXT ROUND
- Shorten the u-shaped wires even more (evenly on both ends AND/OR shorter in center front). Maybe another 1/4" off each end?
- 1/2" Silicon backed plush elastic.  The concern with this one is the difference in elasticity.  I've found I need a fairly firm elastic for the upper band elastic to spring the wires correctly.
- Possibly shorten the back band 1/2" to account for the extra stretchy plush elastic (I bought 50 yards of this stuff that stretches almost 100%!!)



Overall, I'm very pleased with how this turned out!  Fit is pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  My issues at this point are all very minor.  Hooray!

Tutorial - How to Create and Insert a Bra Sling

Welcome to my first tutorial!  (pic heavy)

After hailing the wonders that is a bra sling, I received a number of requests to for a tutorial.  For those who are not familiar with a sling, it is a separate piece of fabric on the interior (or exterior) of the bra to aid in support. Sometimes called a side sling and look similar to powerbars.  Here is a VERY comprehensive series of posts on power bars, internal slings and external slings [link HERE] by Silver Lining Atelier.

(From L to R) Satami Lace Bra 2196 non-stretch sling sandwiched in cotton knit and Panache Andorra non-stretch sling.

In today's tutorial we will be adding internal slings to the very popular Watson wireless bra pattern by Cloth Habit.  I highly suggest this modification if 1.) you are of a larger bust and still want support in a wireless bra and/or 2.) your girls are a bit saggy and need some additional vertical assistance and/or 3.) your bust point tends to face east/west and you would like them more centered.

You will need the 2 cup pieces to begin.  Draw a line 1/4" away from the edge - this will indicate the seam or sewing line.  I've drawn short dotted lines in red.
***[Ignore the other lines - this is my modified version of the Watson where I've moved the cup seam more toward the Center Front and raised the height of the side wings.]

Now stack one piece on top of the other aligning the seam line.  You need to eliminate the seam line as we will be making our sling in one piece.

Tape them together.

Here's the fun part - deciding what you would like the sling to accomplish.  There is ONE main rule to keep in mind here - avoid the apex of the cup. Not only can it be uncomfortable having a free floating piece of fabric so close to a sensitive area, it is also more likely to be seen from the outside of the bra.

I'm using one of my corset bones to indicate where you would like the internal edge of the sling to end.

This version pushes the breast tissue toward center front and is the version used in the Panache Andorra.

This version pushes the breast tissue up and is sometimes used in wired sports bras.

This version pushes the breast tissue both up AND forward.



Once you've decided what shape (and function) your sling will take, draw your line (as indicated by the corset bone) and trace.

Add a line to indicate direction of greatest stretch (DOGS).  It should be perpendicular to your straight line.  You want there to be almost NO stretch along your straight line as that's what provides the support.

Last step would be to decide what material to use in your bra sling.  Both RTW examples in the title photo utilize non-stretch fabric, but I have personally also seen bra foam (regular 1/8" poly laminate foam covered in stretch knit placed on fold) and powerknit/powernet on the fold.

Today's example uses firm powernet (45% stretch doubled => 30% stretch). One of the reasons I used powernet this time instead of the Simplex (like I've done in the past) is due to proximity to the bust point (see photo above) and my desire to for the sling to be as invisible as possible.  The knit used in today's tutorial is VERY soft and such a drastic difference between stretch percentages would likely be obvious.

 Cut out your new internal sling and attach to your cups PRIOR to sewing into cradle. Complete the remainder of the steps as usual.

OPTIONAL: You can also use the same internal sling pattern for a lace external sling!  The straight edge works really well along the lowest point of scalloped lace.

And here's the finished piece!

A few pics of the finished interior.  The bra channeling is optional as this is wireless (although a short rocker wire also worked well for me!).  I added it for a cleaner look.