Photos of newest bra making attempt

Hi,

I've finally got pictures available of the my latest attempt at bramaking. In some of the shots it's on my body, so I'll invite those who've been discussing bra making to email me and I'll send 'em.

I made a deep salmon pink bra with the front frame and top cups in stretch lace stabilized with tricot, bottom cups and back wings in tricot-lined spandex. The fabrics and findings came from a cami-pant set so I was stuck reusing foldover elastic for finishing the upper edges. Had good matching 9/16" plush elastic for the bottom band. Made straps from the spandex, non-stretch in front and covered strap elastic in the back (pat myself on the back for that!).

In general my technique has improved, most noticeably in topstitching. My stitches and distances are much more even and I'm doing better at controlling tension and stitch length. The lower cups are stretchy so I had to do the seams in a narrow zig-zag and then topstitch them to one side. The original bra I'm copying does one line almost in the ditch and another 3/16" away, so I tried to do the same. I could get a lot closer to the ditch in my next try. I did the topstitching tension a whole lot looser than before and it worked out much smoother. It also helps with the stretch in the seams.

Another victory is that I applied stretch lace to the underband. Haven't done that before and it turned out prettier than I imagined. I hope to incorporate that whenever possible! Had to take out half the bottom elastic when I realized I didn't need any seam allowance folded under it. (Took me half the underband to figure out to apply the lace first, then apply the elastic. Dur.)

Another improvement is that I covered the cup seam allowances with real tricot strips not the itchy fusible tricot stabilizer I tried the first time. It wasn't easy and the best results came when I glued wide strips on with wash-away adhesive, topstitched from the front, then trimmed the excess. With the topstitching being so crucial I couldn't just sew it straight to the inside of the cups. It's a bit tricky with the cups being stretchy too, because one is supposed to pull on the strip to get it to curl around the SA. I lost a good bit of stretch in the seam doing that. [From the look of all my RTW bras none of the coverings are cut on the bias. Does anyone know about this? I bought some Seam's Easy but it's white of course]

On the negative side, I misjudged the exact width of the SA. (!) The pattern has 1 cm allowances and I did 3/8". Extremely accurately, mind you, but how a big a blunder is that? The cups have some wrinkles from the extra fabric and in the side view you can see that the apex of the breast is below the transverse seam. I don't think I can fix this problem since the topstitching is all done, so I'll have to retire this bra too. I suppose I could reseat the cup in the frame, but I've lost my momentum with this...

As usual my biggest frustration is with fabric selection. The original bra cups are made of something Brenda Solanki called tricot-fused stretch poly net. Although it has give, there's not much. My tricot-spandex fusion is too stretchy by far. I'd really like to have someone *quantify* how much stretch I need-- in percentages in both directions-- so I can be accurate and confident in selection. But it's hard to perform the distance test on such small pieces in the cups. Marci Pecot, bramaker in the Oakland area, and I have been trying to meet for months. I hope she can clear this up for me. [Anybody else wear a Fantasie Rimini and want to give it shot??] Speaking of Brenda, I think she did a fine job of patternmaking from the bra without cutting it up. The cups are more complicated than most and I believe her work is accurate. When I can do the right SA I'll be sure!

I told Phaedrine that I discovered the Fantasie wires are in metric, which are available at

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None of the U.S. retailers had the right match, despite Beverly Johnsons' downloadable wire files. When I get the fabric stretch percentages figured out I'll finally be able to get to the whole reason I'm doing this: a fabulously structured bra in fun colors and prints!

So endeth this installment.

Pora

Reply to
wurstergirl
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Pora, if the Seams Easy is nylon it'll dye easily. There's a simple way to find out: put a strip of Seams Easy in a cup with some water, a dash of vinegar and a couple of drops of food colouring. Heat it in the microwave until it boils, then leave it to stand until it's cool.

If some or all of the colour has gone from the water and the fabric has picked up a colour that doesn't wash out, you've got something that can be dyed with acid dyes. Now you can have any colour you like!

Sally Holmes Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

Reply to
Sally Holmes

Pora,

I give you a lot of credit for these efforts. By the way, I did get my Lily (Fantasie) and it's quite comfortable and the wires are just the right height in the front. I'm thinking that the balcony bras are definitely for me. It's slightly wide for me in the front but I'd rather have that than too much cantilever. The straps are wide enough for once though they have stretch. I will mitigate that with a length of 1/4" twill tape as I usually do. The blueberry Rimini is back-ordered so we shall see.

I thought I would mention that in areas where you have stitching problems (because some of these fabrics are so touchy to work with--- especially in such small pieces), you might want to use a non-permanent stabilizer if you haven't already tried that. Lately, I've been making cotton/lycra gloves for myself because my hands (the palms) are just in such horrible shape right now (I have an undiagnosed condition). And I use a tear-away/wash-away stabilizer in the process. It's Ripstitch Soft, TW 1.5 that I get from Allstitch, and it comes in really handy sometimes when working with stretchy fabrics with tiny seams.

Phae

Reply to
Phaedrine

Oh, that's a great test! Originally I was cannibalising elastics, channeling, and back closures from colored clearance bras at the discount store, but I'm considering the dyeing route now. Gotta order Dharma Trading's dye catalogue! Thanks!

P.

Reply to
wurstergirl

I didn't realize how much I've been doing until I wrote it all down!

By the way, I did get my

Phae, I'm so happy for you. You found it! I can't believe your wire height problem is solved after all these years!

That's *exactly* what I've been looking for. Wow, making your own gloves. Sorry about your condition.

P.

Reply to
wurstergirl

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