Creating a Look

I’ve been sewing my own bras for at least 20 years now, so I hadn’t looked at what the current trends were until I started to create this blog.

I thought my pattern and my ideas for bras might be somewhat dated, and I thought it might be interesting to people if a copied a current look. This would also allow me to explain some more advanced techniques that I haven’t used elsewhere. I found this picture.

It has a two piece horizontal cup similar to the one I use. The neckline is a sweetheart line, so the top edge of the cup would need to be slightly altered, but overall, it’s a similar pattern. It looks like it’s got a mottled black powernet frame, and cream powernet is used in the cups and as a lining behind the black in the bottom cup. An edging lace (or, mor probably a lace motif) has been used in the upper cup, while a different lace fabric has been used in the lower cup (possibly a stretch lace). A narrow edging lace has been used on the neckline edge of the cup, and lingerie elastic on other edges. I have suitable fabrics to make it. I’m not going to include the bow, which probably adds a lot to the look by covering up white stitching, but I hate bows. And, I don’t do underwires, so it’s not going to have an underwire.

Change the neckline

Copy the pattern pieces to paper (the pattern is a multi-sized pattern, so copying the pieces each time means I can use the pattern repeatedly and for different sizes), and adjust the upper cup. I decided that the neckline goes further up, so I extended the armhole by 2.5cm. Then I added a couple of curves to make a sweetheart neckline (this was added to the pattern, as I think it covers more rather than less of the neckline area).

One thing I didn’t do, but should have, was mark where the top centre front point was, as it is now difficult to find when you’re sewing, as it’s no longer a point.

Choose fabrics

Here are the fabrics I used - black lace fabric, medium wide black lace edging, narrow black lace edging, white powernet, black powernet, lingerie elastic, strap elastic and hook tape.

Cutting out

The lower cups were cut from black lace fabric and white powernet. The upper cups were cut from white powernet, and scraps of black lacc fabric were also used. The frame had 3 pieces which I cut from the black powernet. I played around with the placement, to get them all aligned with the maximum stretch and using as little fabric as possible. When you do this, you need to work out which order you will cut the pieces, so you don’t inadvertently cut into another piece.

Upper Cup

The lace of the upper cup needed to be joined, but first I checked how much curvature I wanted in the edging lace.

You can see that it will buckle, so it needed to be gathered at the edge where I’m joining it to the other lace. So I sewed along the edge with a long straight stitch (4 length).

Then I pinned it to the lace offcuts making sure the outer edge was flat. This meant the edge next to the lace offcut bulged, until I gathered it slightly.

It was now covering the part of the upper cup that needed lace, so I sewed the two pieces together where I had pinned them. I went back to the small (1,1) zigzag stitch that I use for lingerie making.

Next, I placed the lace pieces onto the two upper cups, checked the placement and pinned them at the top of the edging lace and cut the edging lace near to the edge of the powernet.

I sewed the lace to the powernet, at the edge of the lace. You can see that the edging has been slightly gathered to the lace in this photograph. I wouldn’t try to gather the lace in a tighter curve or a wider edging lace - you would be able to see the gathering on the final garment.

Then I sewed over the join in the lace offcut and the edging lace.

The powernet was shifting the needle all over the place while I was sewing because I was using a ball point needle. It’s tricky to know what to use in these circumstances - a normal needle will pierce all the elastic in the fabric, so the material won’t last as long, but the ball point needle gives a rough finish, and makes sewing more difficult. Note that I sewed down the edge of the edging lace along the edge of the powernet, so I could cut it and have a neat edge for sewing the rest of the cup together.

Cups

Now that the fiddley bits were over, the upper and lower cups needed to be sewn together. Normally, I would sandwich the lace and the powernet lower cup around the upper cup, but this time I decided not to do that, as I wanted the lace to have a smooth transition from the lower to the upper cup. So I treated the lace and powernet as one unit, and just sewed the pieces together.

Then I top stitched, sewing the seam toward the lower cup.

Cup complete. Note that because the powernet is very firm, it’s difficult to get pictures!

Note that I didn’t finish the top of the cup at this stage. The small edging lace is applied along the entire neckline, so the top of the cup needs to be finished after it has been attached to the frame.

The Frame

The frame is joined together in several straight seams, and topstitched with the seams toward the back.

Joining the Cups and the Frame

We have now reached this stage - we have a frame and cups.

As the cup and the frame have opposing curves, you need to pin each quarter of both pieces to ensure they are placed correctly.

Sew the cup to the frame

Topstitch the seam toward the frame.

We are ready to finish the neckline.

At this point, I realised that there was a tight V at the centre front, and I wanted a smooth curve, so I cut away some of the centre front before I sewed the edging lace to the neckline.

I then changed the thread I was using to white, and turned over the edge and sewed it twice - once 6mm away from the edge and once right on the edge. These held the powernet in position and the lace in position.

Attaching the Elastic

Next, we need to attach the lingerie elastic to the armholes and the bottom of the frame. The elastic needs to be 15% shorter than what it’s sewn to, so it gathers the bra appropriately. However, since I need a loop at the top of each cup to hold the ring, so I added 2.5cm of elastic to each armhole measurement. I then pinned the elastic and the places they were being sewn onto in quarters.

Still using the small zigzag (1,1), I sewed the lingerie elastic with its fuzzy side up onto the right side of the bra, next to the fancy edge of the elastic (which is on the inside of the bra). You will need to stretch it as you sew to fit the frame.

Fold the elastic over to the back, and change your stitch to a wide step zigzag

And sew from the front with this stitch. You want the fancy edge on the elastic to be showing, but you are actually sewing down the other edge of the elastic so it doesn’t flip. It depends how wide the lingerie elastic is where you actually sew this seam, but where I have positioned the foot is nice, as as much as possible of the elastic is being sewn down. Again, you will be stretching the elastic as you sew so that you have a smooth finish.

With all three pieces of elastic in position, we are ready for the strap. You can see that the extra elastic for the loops is sticking up at the top of the cup.

Straps with Rings and Slides

Firstly, we will create attach the rings. Put the ring in the elastic, and turn it back and sew it down with the small zigzag (1,1). I sew across the loop three times, as I want it to be firm. The elastic is long enough that the ring should sit outside the foot so you cannot sew on it and break a needle.

Next, we need to add the slide to the strap elastic. I used 50cm of strap elastic on each side. The elastic I used had a fuzzy side and picots on each edge. Attach the slide to one end, sewing another loop, this time around the middle bar of the slide. Make sure that the right side of the strap is on the outside of the loop, and it is sewn to the wrong side of the strap. Again, make sure the slide isn’t anywhere near the needle!

Next, thread the other end of the elastic through the ring, and under and over the other bars of the slide.

Lastly, attach the strap elastic to the curve at the back of the bra. This is sewn on the same way as the lingerie elastic, but you don’t need to stretch it while you are sewing it to the frame. Because the strap is folded over in the second step of attaching it, you need to check that you have added a twist to start with as per the picture above.

Now the straps are complete.

Hooks

Hooks for the back are often available as a tape that has the eyes in rows on one piece, and a single row of hooks on the other piece. You cut off the amount of tape you need for the bra you are making. The left edge of the eye tape actually is a mouth that encases that side of the bra, while the right side of the hook tape is sewn to the other side of that side of the bra, encasing it too.

I cut off three hooks and eyes and pinned them to the bra. First, I sewed the eyes to that side of the bra, zigzagging down the cut edge, across the bra, and up the other cut edge, using the 1,1 zigzag. This finishes the two raw edges as well as attaching the eyes. Staying right on the edge avoids hitting the buried parts of the eyes and breaking the needle.

Now comes the hard part. The hooks are quite difficult to get a sewing machine foot over, so I use the zipper foot, which only holds down the fabric on one side of the foot. There is only a very small place for the needle on this foot, so check that it will be happy doing a 1,1 zigzag by manually turning the wheel to raise and lower the needle through an entire zigzag with the foot on. Then you need to do the same as you did on the other side. I do this very slowly, because the needle is very close to buried parts of the hooks (as you can see in the second picture. If you are unsure, you could always hand sew the sides of the hook tape.