Adding wires to the Watson

My bra fitting woes, both in RTW and sewing patterns, generally occurs in the upper cup.  An easy way around this is to wear demi-cup bras.  A long time back I bought a heap of demi-cup wires, but so far I have only got around to developing one pattern for them.  I like that pattern, but much as  sewing TNTs makes sense, I seem to want o have a new pattern for every single thing that I sew.  All these new patterns really slow down my sewing rate, but I can't seem to get away from it.  I think that I love making patterns more than the sewing.

Anyway, I like the low CF of the Watson bra, so I thought I would see if I could adapt the pattern to make it a underwired bra.

Here is the original band pattern with the wire sitting on top of it.  I have made a small mark where I want the width of the upper edge of the bridge to sit (I made it the same as my other pattern that fits well).

 I marked a new curve for the inner part of the wire.

 

The outer wire stretches out when you wear a bra, so I didn't adjust the outer curve this time,  After wearing the bra, it doesn't feel quite right, so I think I will adjust it a bit for next time.

 I added extra height at the CF of the wire, for seam allowance and wire play.

I left the outer cup the same and only made changes to the inner cup.  I lay the cup pattern over my bridge pattern and marked how much length I lost by making a bridge.

The dotted curve in the photo below shows the change I made.

I then made the bra up using some scrap lingerie lycra that I had dyed.  I didn't have enough for bra and knickers, so I combined it with a little bit of swimwear lycra.  I'm not sure what makes lingerie lycra different from swim lycra, but it is softer, and stretchier, and not so hot to wear.  

I dyed the fabric and most of the notions months ago.  Not sure why I did not dye straps at the time, perhaps I did not have strap elastic.  Anyway, I am having trouble dying at the moment, and could not get a good match in straps, so I cut these turquoise ones off an old bra.  Somehow I sewed the bottom band elastic on upside down, which irritates me a bit when I am wearing the bra.

After my last issues sewing channeling into stretchy fabric, I marked the length of channeling I needed to ensure that the fabric did not stretch as I sewed it.  It took a few goes and a bit of unpicking.

So how did it all turn out?  Not too bad,  I need to make a slight fit adjustment to the band pattern, taking out a bit of width at the bottom of the bridge, and I think I will adjust the band so that the wire doesn't have to stretch so far to fit.  Apart from that, not too bad.

I did make knickers to match.  I used an old pattern to get it to fit out of my scraps.  The crotch seams are not in the ideal position, but it fit on my scraps.