Sure, you can make a lot of your own clothing and accessories, but would you want to sew underwear? I would! I've been dying to. I'm picky about my bras and it's hard to find ones I like. I'm at the Education of the Textile Arts Dallas sewing expo, where I came for the express purpose of doing a daylong seminar in custom bra making with the fabulous Anne St. Clair, teacher and proprietor of Needle Nook Fabrics in Wichita, KS. Here's what we started out with in our bra kits: power mesh, tricot, elastics, twill tape, hook and eye bra closures, channeling, interfacing, and a pair of premade bra straps (for our convenience). We also had pattern pieces from the bra patterns she designs herself. Ann measured each of us yesterday when we arrived at the hotel, so our patterns are tweaked personally to our bodies. Janet, one of Anne's assistants, showed us the finer points of laying out our pattern pieces on the slippery fabric. A rotary cutter isn't much good on tricot — the soft, spongy fabric slides up ahead of the blade and you get distorted pattern pieces. Their trick? A pair of really cheap ($2) scissors. I thought it worked smashingly well. Power mesh, the friend of ice skating costumes everywhere. It's also in bras. You need to use it with the most stretch going around your body. How to tell which direction has the most stretch? The "eyes" of the mesh close up when you stretch it. They seem to open if you stretch it in the other direction. Buttery soft tricot. Find its most stretchy direction by noticing if it curls to the right side of the fabric. My cut out pieces. The purple marks are from a fabric marking pen and marking is a MUST in bra making. (They'll fade.) Anne had us use a pin weaving technique to hold the slippery layers together before we put our work in the machine. Anne helped all of us, all day long. I was glad she was comfortable at my Pfaff ("This is my mother's machine!" she said). I got my bra cups joined at the cross seams, interlined lightly with fleece, lined, joined at the center seam (which is reinforced with twill tape. Next was attaching channeling to the bottom of the bra cups. It's for underwires, which I skipped. Next, I sewed bottom elastic, center front elastic, and side elastic. The back closure was next. Then, the straps. It took all day, but the time just flew. The completed bra. It really fits! I can't wait to try making more of them. Like this one that has red flames printed on it, which Grace, Anne's other assistant is holding up. Wow, what a day. There were several machine failures and plenty of operator error, but Anne was still smiling at the end of it all.
A Three Piece Lingerie set, including a girdle, garter belt and Bra made in one piece, a fairly easy to follow pattern. The instructions are very short and not detailed, but there is a small diagram showing seams, joins etc. Please also note there are no seams allowed for on this pattern The original Instructions are in French but now contain an English translation. Skill level: Not for the beginner or novice sewer as you will need experience to fill in the gaps. There are no fabric suggestions. At the time a girdle and garter belt would have been made from a heavy elastic, for the stretch panels and a duchess or coutil for the solid panels. The bra in a lighter weight maybe in satin or lace, which you could use on the garter belt and girdle as an overlay to match the bra. or you could use power net and a stretch satin instead, they would probably work well. The PDF pattern and Instructions are easy to download and print PLEASE NOTE: When printing the pattern from the PDF, you must choose actual size or 100%. Otherwise your pattern will come out the wrong . Digital reproduction pattern - My Vintage Wish 2015. All rights reserved.
The secret behind super pointy bullet bras! Falsies, or bullet bra pads, were frequently used in the 1950s to fill out any gap at the point of your bullet bra.
Hi friends! I’m Kat, and I’m guest blogging today to tell you about one of the things I love to wear - partial band bras! I started my own bramaking journey in 2016 - like so many of us, it was a product of my frustration at the lack of bras that fit me in […]
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The secret behind super pointy bullet bras! Falsies, or bullet bra pads, were frequently used in the 1950s to fill out any gap at the point of your bullet bra.
