Devore and Crushed Velour - Tricot edges

I was given offcuts of devoure and velour many years ago. These are both stretch fabrics that could be made into a bra. The devoure needed to be finished at the edges, because it would unravel, so I decided to line the velour with tricot, and to use tricot on all the edges instead of elastic. Tricot isn’t bulky like the other fabrics, and dries easily.

As velour has a nap, it looks different if you look at it from top to bottom or from bottom to top, so you need to cut all pieces (back and side cups in this pattern) facing the same direction.

Tricot Edging of Neckline 

Tricot stretches in one direction but not the other. I cut strips of tricot 1” wide, and attached it to the devoure centre cups with a small zig zag (1,1). I stretched the tricot as I sewed, since I was using it instead of elastic.


I ironed the tricot away from the devoure, and sewed the other side down, encasing the devoure. I needed to pin along the tricot to ensure it didn’t slip out of place.





I then sewed the centre cups together, and ironed the seam to one side. I needed to cover the seam, so I used a strip of tricot and sewed from bottom to top, across the top and down the other side. You’ll notice that I folded over the tricot at the top, so it had a nice edge, but because tricot doesn’t ravel, I didn’t need to fold over the edges. This piece of tricot didn’t need to be stretched.




Sewing the Bra Together 

I cut the side cups from velour and tricot and pinned the seams in quarters, so that I could sew them together at the right places.



I sandwiched the devoure between the two layers, making sure the front of the devoure was sewn to the front of the velour. 

After sewing the three layers together, I ironed them towards the back, and topstitched the three layers in place.


I sewed a tricot strip to the back neckline, stretching it as I sewed, and then Ironed it towards the neck, so that I could encase the velour like I had encased the devoure.




I then sewed the neckline tricot strip down.

I sewed the tricot to the armholes the same way, after sewing the back to the front. Then I sewed tricot to the bottom of the bra, and checked the fit before sewing up the shoulder seams.









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