The last of my bras for this session. Reading back through my blog, I saw that I sewed bras in July last year and again in July this year. Perhaps I could make it an annual tradition, each year adding a few new bras to my drawer and getting rid of the most worn. July is probably a good time, as we don't have much of a winter and I don't need to do much winter sewing.
I tried out a new pattern for this one, Elan 540, which is a push-up bra with a front closure. It is not my favourite pattern. If you want, you can read why in my pattern review.
I thought I would show 2 techniques I used in making this bra. The first is attaching 2 padded sections together. For most of my patterns, I use padding that has alreading been finished on each side with tricot. For this pattern, fabric is wrapped around fusible fleece to form the padded sections. First I remove the seam allowances from the padded seams to be attached. Then I butt the 2 pieces together and slowly feed them under my presser foot, using a wide 3-step zig-zag to join the 2 pieces. The result is shown in the picture below. (You can see the pockets for the pads in this picture also, as the cup is inside-out.)
Then I cut a strip of tricot and place it over the seam and sew it again with a 3-step zig-zag, so that there are no seam edges to irritate the skin. Photo below.
The next method is how to replace a bridge with a narrow strip, ribbon, or in this case, a front closure. I have made a customised bridge template to use for partial band bras. I trace and cut a copy of this template in tear-away (you could use paper).
Then I pin the narrow front piece to the tear-away, and position it in the bra cups. I sew the tear-away and front piece to the bra, and then remove the tear-away. This way, the front closure has ended up the right size. In the photo below, you can see that I need to trim the pattern closure quite a bit to fit my customised bridge template.
Clear as mud? Oh well, hopefully this helps somebody.
4 comments:
I am impressed.
Genious.
Amazing - you have such incredible skill - I would never ever be brave enough to attempt a bra and here you are with several under your belt! The lace and colours are gorgeous.
Thanks for posting this. I want to start sewing bras (as soon as I get my to sew list down) and this looks very helpful.
Post a Comment