Hello, all:

I just finished my first bra using the wonderful articles by Mark. I feel that the bra is a success (for a first try), and am now working on resolving the problems. Maybe someone has some insight that I have missed.

First, I am a US 34H (full bust 42", underbust 34"). I read Mark's response to Melanie's comment about eyeballing the cradle drafting on a size 10 cup and followed that advice.

The bra has the following problems:

First, there is not enough fabric on the outer side of the cup -- in the step where the length of the cup's lower edge is matched to the length of the underwire, I lost a lot of real estate. That was Part 2, Step 6. It looks weird. To rectify that, I have gotten underwires that come up higher on the outer side, and I am also going to try a 3-part cup in the next iteration. Smart or dumb?

Second, the band is much too loose. I have remeasured my back and redrafted the pattern many times (I find that fun). On my current pattern draft, I just removed an inch or so on the wing. But now I have this weird extreme angle from the outer edge of the underwire down to the strap platform. Am I missing something?

Lastly, quadraboob! Yes, even with this full-coverage cup, I have quadraboob. This is a problem for me in a lot of bras, and I think it's because my breasts are full on top. I'm hoping that I can fix that with the 3-part cup. Thoughts on this?

I have really been enjoying this process and have become obsessed with sewing bras.

Thanks!
Dezibela

It sounds like you're on the right track. Mark just left a reply on this post, and it sounds like it might apply to you as well.

My experience is more in corsets, but in general, if it works for you (even it if looks really strange) then you're probably on the right track. So I would keep the strap as-is at least for now.

Thanks! That inspires my confidence. Tomorrow I'm trying version 2. Fingers crossed!

Let us know how it goes!

Okay, here is what I learned today:

Lowering the neck hem of the cup made a huge difference. No quadraboob. The side-spillage problem is also resolved. The profile is still not right for me. I'm going to try making the bottom pieces taller and the top piece shallower, or maybe

Lots of problems solved today, but new problems encountered. My patterns aren't right -- they look good on paper, they measure correctly, but when I sew the pieces together, the ends don't match up.

I need to learn to mark my pattern pieces better -- I sewed a lot of stuff on upside or backwards. I also made the mistake of sewing today's sample in a thin muslin, which was hard to work with on such narrow seam allowances. And my craftsmanship is truly horrible. I'm new sewer, so I forgive myself that, but it's frustrating nonetheless. I have some beautiful fabrics and trims put aside for when I'm confident that I can turn out a wearable bra, and it seems like they're going to collect dust for a while before I can put them to use.

All in all, I'd say today was productive.

There are a couple tricks for getting your seams to match up.

First, as you're drafting, you're not really guaranteed that anything will line up perfectly. You have to 'true' your seams by starting from a known match point (like the bust point on a bra, or the waist on a corset) and 'walk' the seams along each other - I usually prefer to do it with a light box or with my pattern on slightly transparent paper so I can see both lines at once, and I just start from my match point and move one piece over the other so the seam lines continuously line up. Usually that requires matching one several-inch section, putting my finger or a pin at the last matching point, and rotating around that fixed point until the next length matches up. You may well find that one of the pieces is longer than the other! Just pick one edge to be 'right' and make the other one match it. Fade the change out over an inch or so along the perpendicular edge of the piece.

Second, depending on your fabric, your sewing machine might be stretching one piece and shrinking the other. The feed dogs are always shoving the lower fabric towards the stitched seam, while the presser foot is dragging the top fabric away from the stitched seam. That can easily create a mismatch, even in fabrics that aren't supposed to be stretch. There's typically an adjustment on your machine that allows you to lower the pressure the foot is exerting. Basting also really helps with this (I'm working on a beautiful wool coat right now that just loves to crawl in every different direction. Everything gets basted. Sometimes, it gets basted twice) - it doesn't have to be especially neat or nice, it just has to hold things together.

(Note: that can actually work to your advantage. If you're sewing a seam where one half has been eased into the other, put the eased side down and the short side up. The feed dogs will really help ease the long side in smoothly.)


I'm glad you had success with some of your changes! That sounds like a lot of progress.