Sewing Bras - Pinup Girls Classic Bra Pattern

Yay! My order from Bra Makers Supply came in! In addition to their very popular Classic Bra Pattern, I also picked up the Bra-makers Manual volume 1 and 2.

Feeling brave after reading the thorough instructions and hearing about all the great reviews about this pattern, I decided to sew it up without making a toile first! It's SOO nice to read sewing instructions that are not only well written, but geared toward beginners. Although I've sewed a half dozen bras already, the methods I used were gathered haphazardly - a few sew-alongs, an online video, random  Google searches on specific techniques. I can definitely see why so many people recommend this pattern as their first foray into sewing underwire bras - makes wonder why I didn't choose it myself.  There is something to be said about paying for a well made sewing pattern and the accompanying instructions. Nevertheless, the tidbits helped improve my sewing - creating neater stitches and more refined workflow.

BRA SIZE
I did a bit of research to see how others chose their size as the size recommended using the instructions yielded 32A... It gave me chuckle as I haven't been a true A cup since high school. After stalking her (Beverly Johnson's) blog, I found this link. She discusses the 4 common ways to measure for bra size, as well as their pro/cons. While she uses the underbust/overbust method most frequently, she freely admits it doesn't work well for petite women. She did mention that the  Bottom Cup Depth method is the most accurate and I agree with this. Luckily, the BCD measurement yielded the same bra size as the ABTF calculator in my case - now a 32E (post weaning).

CONSTRUCTION AND ALTERATIONS
The bra sewed up pretty quickly - no  linings or lace to fiddle with -  and true to unlined bras, easily showed you where adjustments needed to be made. Initially, it looked like there was too much projection the cups as the apex wrinkled but seemed to fit everywhere else. I had started pinning to reduce the projection when I remembered something from Beverly's Manual about taking in just the bottom cup depth.  A few pins later, the cups fit!  I think this particular method only works with my particular body type though. The only other alternation I had to make was taking a wedge out of the bridge under the arms. I found this change to harder to transfer to my  pattern than the others but thankfully the Manual had instructions for that too.

Picture of my super quick ALL BASTE STITCH tester in Simplex

FIT
It fits pretty well! The center gore is a hair too narrow - my fault as I just eyeballed the amount I needed to take in since it's pretty much need to take it in for all bras. Cups are pretty spot on after taking in the the lower cups only.  Still scratching my head on that one a bit - I've been TOO projected for many RTW unlined bras so this is a change. The dart I inserted in the  bridge could stand to be taken in a smidge more as well. Band is stretchier than I would like - the 32 fit more like a 34 as I have them on the tightest hooks. But that's an easy fix. I may double up on the medium powernet or just shorten the band next time.  Straps are pretty comfy and STAY on despite my sloped shoulders.

CONCLUSION
The Pin-up Girls Classic Bra Pattern is an excellent first (or second, third or sixth) underwire bra pattern.  Instructions are thorough with pictures and the patterns themselves are organized in a way that is easy to find.  While the full coverage style itself isn't earth shattering, it does make fitting easier and a well-fitting bra will beat a cute ill-fitting one any day. I forsee this pattern translating well into a nursing bra, demi cup and foam cup versions and for the intrepid, a sport bra (with the help of the Bra Makers Manual).

Sewing Bras - Adjusting Your Custom Bra to Your Liking

 Custom Bra attempt #3 (or bra #5 in the grand scheme of things)!

After my last round of attempting to copy and merge various elements from two RTW bras with some minor adjustments, I (surprise, surprise) discovered I needed more adjustments!  

Adjustment #1 - My bright idea of moving in the straps 2 cm seemed to flatten me out.  I believe it has to do with the combination of the style and possibly the materials. The material I used for the foam lining is notably "softer" than the original thus slightly less structure?  In a different style that is more "natural" and/or unlined, moving the straps 2 cm shouldn't make that much of a difference.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.

Adjustment #2 - In order to better mimic the RTW bra, I decided to try an "external" power bar.  Incidentally, the RTW bra had both padded "internal" (inside the cups) and "external" (outside the cups) power bar!  I had assumed the exterior power bar was for visual appeal only.  How wrong I was! The power bar helps brings the girls up and center better than the bra alone.  Even with higher side wings (more on that below).  I lined up two of the outer cup pattern pieces to draft the power bar pattern as a starting point.  Since the power bar was going to be made of stretchy material, it didn't have to be exact.  I took my lightweight powernet (only type of powernet I had at the time) and folded it over so it was double layered and cut while lining up the fold on the straight edge.  Then I cut a matching set in the last bit of matching lace I had.  Zigzagged the three layers together with a bit of lingerie elastic and it was ready to attach to the main bra.  The main portion of the bra was already complete at the point and I was feeling lazy, sooo... I just sewed it on to the cradle of the bra following the stitches from the wire casing.   Same with the portion of the cups to the straps.  It made it kinda bulky but did the job!

Adjustment #3 - By far the easiest adjustment with minimal issues, I went ahead and raised the height of the side wings a full inch.  Its still not quite as high as the RTW bra I have, but a bit more comfortable while still keeping a smooth silhouette.  [If you're wondering why in the world I would want to raise the side wings, check out my review on Satami bras!]

Adjustment #4 - I decided to try my hand and adding lace detail that didn't have finished edges.  It requires lots of zig zaging in different angles but thankfully, I have some free hand embroidery experience.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the end result!  The bra lifts and "shapes" as I had hoped.  It creates a rounder profile, which I prefer, and brings the girls closer together.  My boobs have never felt better.  No more settling for ill fitting RTW bras where the center gore is too wide [so its sitting on breast tissue], too tall [so its jabbing me in the chest], narrow back bands [causing back rolls, ugh], and my arms rubbing against my boobs when driving [I'm narrow set but they point wide].  I felt good enough about the bra to make a pair of matching panties late into the night.  The pattern is based off the highly rated Merckenwaerdigh Mix 30.

I highly recommend trying to sew your own bra if you tend to have issues with most RTW bras.  You can purchase bra making kits for less than cost of a full price bra at Nordstroms.  Try out the FREE Maya Bra pattern from AFI Atelier (check out my review on them here) and/or take a look at the instructions.  If you have ANY experience sewing, try it out.  If you have zero experience with sewing but NEED pricey bras (cuz small band + large cups = $$$$), it may be worth your time and effort to learn to sew!  With bra making kits at the same price as a new bra, what do you have to lose?

Sewing Bras - Copying your favorite/best fitting RTW bra!

As a newbie making their way in the lingerie sewing realm [after sewing a whopping 3 bras], I've decided to try my luck with combining my favorite aspects of 2 different bras info one custom design. The cups on the Comexim (my first Polish bra!) are awesome - they push the girls up and together while still looking "dainty". The extra wide band on the Satami is pretty fabulous as well - providing a smooth silhouette in my back and underarms.  This, endeavor, however will require significant time pattern making.

Although I've been sewing for over 20 years (remember when Home Economics was a class in Junior High?), I've had no formal training in pattern drafting. Most of the pattern drafting I've done is largely with the help of Pinterest and Googling how-to's in Eggs middle of the night. I bring this up because I KNOW you absolutely need a pattern to sew bras AND that pattern HAS. TO. BE. ACCURATE.

I essentially copied the seam lines of the existing bra(s) using pattern paper, smoothed out the lines with a ruler and ensured all the seams lined up correctly and sewed up a bra muslin.  Try on, more adjustments based on bra muslin, rinse and repeat.  My first try sewing up this chimera of a bra was more or less an exact replica of the cups [barring correcting a few mistakes like the cups being too open, not pulling the plush elastic hard enough/evenly enough on the cups, etc] and fit pretty well otherwise.  On my second attempt, I decided to move the apex of the cups to more closely align with mine AS WELL AS moving in the straps 2 cm. This opened up a whole new can of worms requiring more bra toiles.  Nevertheless, take a gander at my newest creation - mistakes and all!

The end result of Round 2!:

One of the best pieces of advice I read about sewing bras is to create a bra toile, however, I recently came across a bit of related advice that I find equally helpful.  Create a bra toile of ONLY the band.  In most cases - especially true if you're fitting yourself - the band will fit fine and/or remain the same.  Its the cup shape/design/size that differs that will require multiple adjustments.  The fitting band should be complete - with elastic, hooks and straps.  That way, you only need to make a toile of the bra cups!  Easier to sew, try on, take apart and repeat as necessary.

Here's a pic from the Merckewaerdigh site:

Sewing Bras - My First Merckwaerdigh Bra and Panty set!

After much anticipation,  it arrived!  The Highly rated Mix30 Sewing pattern from Dutch designer Merckwaerdigh.

How excited was I that stayed up all night to sew this baby? 

After copying the pattern and adding the seam allowance (European pattern companies don't include them),  I got right to work on the  muslin in a 32E after  sister sizing from 34D. Turns out that we too small - fit was much better is in usual 32F (sister size 36D). I also noticed after my first muslin that this bra provides a more pointy bustline.  So for round 2, I went ahead and rounded it out a bit.

In my excitement to sew up my first Merchwaerdigh, I neglected to notice I didn't have enough channeling for the underwire. Thankfully, that's one of the  lasts steps so I went ahead and ordered the part and continued sewing.

One thing I did to save time was to use the full band from the Maya pattern that already had all my changes (narrow set, wider band, ballet back, etc).

Things to note for next round:
- Move the straps in the back in a bit. The straps in the bra is bit more wide set typical of a balconette. Visually appealing but not so great on my sloped shoulders. Alternatively,  move the straps in 2 cm at the cups or just do away with the  fabric strap section entirely.
- Google when in doubt! (see below)
- Try 4 hook eye closure
- Try wider elastic for band

FIT
Alas, the bra didn't fit.  Cups were slightly too small as I was quadding at the top.  I'm not sure if that was partially due to the fact I used foam instead of the lace as indicated on the pattern (although the Merckwaerdigh blog specified that you can use foam for just about all underwire bra patterns).  More likely though, it due to the fact I tried to "round" out the apex a bit and possibly reduced the projection too much.  Otherwise, the center gore was flat, and the wires were comfortable.  I may try this again in a larger cup size later.

While I was waiting for the shipment to arrive, I decided to start on the matching panty. Cutting went well but when it came to assembling, I couldn't wrap my head around Step One of the instructions. It might have been due to me sewing so late at night or lack of sleep (4am!!) from the night before. I got it stuck in my head that the lace piece needs to lay on top of the back piece and was not comprehending plain English it seems. A graphic of some sort would  have been extremely helpful! They apparently meant for you to lay the lace piece above the back piece - overlapping 1 cm - essentially extending the height of the back. (Thank you Google!) The rest of the  assembly was pretty smooth once that was figured out. Incidentally,  I wasn't the only one who made this same mistake! Tasia from Sewaholic did the exact same thing and her post saved me from pulling my hair out!

Bra Sewing - My Very First Me-Made Bra! MAYA by AFI Atelier

After MUCH anticipation, my shipment of bra making supplies finally arrived!  Unfortunately, the bra pattern I ordered did not.  What is one to do?  Why search online for a free pattern of course!

Thus, the MAYA Bra Pattern from AFI Atelier

This free bra pattern has an amazing size range - 28AA to 44H (UK)!!

Prior to diving into my precious bra making supplies, I decided to make a muslin or bra toile to check the fit.  There is an excellent trial run bra tutorial at Cloth Habit.  I highly recommend it as I made not one but TWO trial run bras.

As a lingerie sewing novice, I found the instructions that accompanied the Maya bra to be sufficient.  I did some more "research" while I was waiting for the supplies to arrive and felt fairly confident to just dive in.  Mostly the tutorials from Make Bra to supplement the **almost** complete instructions from AFI.

Why 2 bra muslins?  The first one (32F) turned out to be too big in the cups - so I went back to the AFI site and downloaded the 32E.  Since I already had a teeny bit of experience sewing bra cups from the first muslin, I went ahead and made a few changes for round two.  I'm fairly narrow set so I took in the center gore - at lot, lowered center gore and graded the cups to match, and widened the back band to better mirror my favorite bras.

A few key take aways:

- Double up on the lightweight powermesh (likely unnecessary if using regular powermesh)

- shorten band further as it fits like a 34

- slightly too much immediate projection at the wire 

- Shorten underwire as the shortening the center gore also shortened the wire channeling.

Overall, pretty comfy!  Cups fit pretty well - center gore tacks and doesn't jab me in the chest.  This creates more of a "natural" silhouette.  I may make another one - but wireless to use as a sleep bra!

My Induction to Bra Making

BIT OF BACKGROUND:

Have you heard that statistic about most women in the US are wearing the wrong sized bra?  I know I have and systematically discarded it.  

"That's them" I thought. 

I had been measured by the ladies at Nordstroms and tiny lingerie boutiques - all the same size 32D.  Well, that was before I had kids.  After wearing comfy nursing bras for 4 years, my body has changed enough to warrant new bras.  So off to Nordstroms I went - they promptly sized me at 32DD.  After the initial sticker shock wore off and brought the one bra home, I went online in search of similar bras in my new size.  Stumbled upon the Reddit thread A Bra That Fits.  

Oh My!

The knowledge from that one site turned my world upside down. For starters they needed 5 measurements to calculate your size. They addressed shape, volume, how the girls point, where the girls point, which bras worked with which shapes and why.  SO. MUCH. INFORMATION. Where has this been all my life?  Curious, I measured and entered my stats into their calculator fully expecting it to confirm my 32DD status.  Surely their calculator will be THE most accurate since it requires more data.  My analytical side was kicking in. OMG. HOW WRONG I WAS.  The ABTF calculator put me at 32F/FF.  Wait, what?  I was confident that the calculator would put in at least in the same realm (maybe 1 cup off) as my old size but this was 4 (FOUR!) sizes bigger.  My mind is racing.  I had gained some weight postpartum but the band size remains the same. Could it be possible I only gained weight around my hips and boobs?  Hilarious.  Then it dawns on me.  The majority of women wear the wrong size bra!  I am one of those women.  I have been wearing the wrong size for over 20 years! WTF?

I dive full force into this brave new world where most major US lingerie manufacturers do NOT make bras in my size nor do they have a standard.  The days of grabbing a clearance bra for ~$25 are long gone.  The single bra I purchased from Nordstrom (and subsequently returned, unused) was $70! 

SHOPPING FOR NEW BRAS

I turn to online retailers to 1.) actually find a selection of bras to try in my size and 2) pray for a bargain.  In the course of a few months, I was able to purchase a few in my new size and was elated at the fit and comfort!  Not that my old size wasn't uncomfortable back then ~ i never had the issues I hear other women complaining about.  No wires poking, no spillage out the top or gapping, the center gore tacked (sat firmly against breastbone).  It wasn't until I tried on a bra in my CORRECT size for a few days then went back to my old INCORRECTLY sized bra that I felt the difference.  The wires were too small - they sat on my breast tissue and caused "tissue migration" under the arms.  

After a few weeks of wearing the new bras, I noticed the wires felt uncomfortable around the gore at the end of the day.  The wires were higher than I was accustomed to and my girls are set fairly close together so the wires were once again, sitting on breast tissue. My search now has the following (seemingly impossible) criteria: my correct size 32F, extra narrow center gore (usually indicated by OVERLAPPING wire channels) and/or low center gore, and lots of immediate projection at the wire.  Oh, and under $40 would be great!  

SEWING BRAS

Once again, I turn to Google for help.  That is when I stumble up this:

Bra pattern Merckwaerdigh BHST2 sewn by Very Purple Person 

Wait, someone sewed - at home - this gorgeous bra - with overlapping underwire channels?  It clicks.  I can sew.  I know how to read and follow patterns.  Why don't I try making my own?  The cost of purchasing the pattern and a bra sewing kit is STILL less than the cost of a retail priced bra.

And so it begins.  After much deliberation and research, I ordered the Merckewaerdigh Mix 30 Bra and Panty pattern.  From the reviews, it seems this company has really good instructions and quality patterns but also offers instructions on converting to a foam cup online.  I also ordered bra making supplies from ArteCraft.  Can't wait for it all to arrive and start my journey!