A little bit girly...

I have more unfinished bras to show you.  Who was it that talked about the difference between blog-finished and finished?  Well, these aren't even blog-finished, but by the time the wires arrive, I think I will be in the throes of Christmas preparations.

These were made using the Emilia kit from elingeria.  

For the first set, I started with the bra pattern in  my previous post and altered it to become a 2-piece cup with vertical seams.  The cups are padded.  Whilst I wait for the right wires, I have inserted some other wires which are a bit longer and more tightly "sprung" than my usual wires.

The briefs were cut off an old Bendon pair I had.  The lycra is reasonably firm, so these are more of the fuller, suck-it-in variety.

Whilst these were all very pretty, I didn't think the padded version showed off the lace to all its beauty, so I decided to make an unpadded version.  It is a bit of a squeeze to get 2 sets out of the single length of lace, so I decided to make a partial band version.  I followed drafting instructions to make a partial bra band.  To modify the cups for a partial band bra, it is necessary to add a seam allowance width (6mm) to the wire line of the pattern pieces.  This is to account for the fact that on a partial band bra the wires sit inside the cups, whilst on a full banded bra, the wires generally sit outside the cup.  I also removed some of the curvature from the bust seam, to account for the fact that my fabric was stretchy.

For the first set, I purchased a pink ribbon to match the darker pink in the lace.  I didn't really like the look of this when attached, so for the second set, I used ivory ribbon.  Yes, I have sewn it off-centre on the knickers, and maybe one day this will annoy me enough that I take it off and redo it?

The knickers are a softer style than the ones above, using mesh instead of the lycra, in the same style as those in my previous post.  The fabrics and elastics would not behave whilst I was sewing these, and I unpicked them and redid them about 4 times.  Which is really off-putting.  Then I was pleasantly surprised to put them on and discover that sewing them 4 times does not make them less comfortable or less pretty than if they had worked out the first time, and that inanimate objects are really not imbued with the emotions of their maker!