I did it! I sewed lingerie!

My first every foray into the world of bra-making is complete!!

So, here she is, one finished Harriet Bra from Cloth Habit.

Ever since I sewed the underwire bikini top of my Sophie Swimsuit this summer, I’ve been itching to try bra-making. I’ve been slowly squirrelling away supplies. Does anyone else do that? I decided I wanted to try making bras, so I have already purchased enough supplies for 3-4 bras before even sewing one. All that lace is just irresistible…

Let’s face it, when you sew a lot, there is a point at which you realise, ummm, my wardrobe will not be able to sustain 25 new items per year on an infinite basis. So I felt like lingerie could be a more sustainable field into which to direct my sewing energy and output. And, it’s one of the few areas where we can sew for much cheaper than it costs to by RTW!!

So I felt like bra-making was going to be an amazing light bulb moment for me!

And…

Well, in all honesty, I was kind of disappointed. All for reasons that are entirely my own fault.

Indeed, this entire blog post is going to set out how my first lingerie sewing experiment, was pretty much a failure…

Let’s start at the beginning.

Do you get excited about your sewing plans and engage in mass preparatory buying? I purchased the Harriet Bra PDF months before I actually got around to sewing it. And, between the time that I purchased and was actually ready to sew it, Orange released the Landsdowne Push Up bra which is exactly the kind of bra I like to wear. I don’t know why I stock up on purchasing PDF patterns in advance. There is absolutely no reason to – they aren’t going anywhere. Yet I do it – all the time! Since I already had the pattern, I decided I’d start by trying Harriet but there was a tiny bit of my heart which wasn’t entirely in it – I secretly kept wishing it was a Landsdowne.

Am I alone her or do you buy PDF patterns way in advance of actually needing them too?

My other fundamental error was that I took inaccurate under bust measurements. And, the end result is, well, just a little bit too tight to be comfortable around the band. It is wearable but it’s kind of one of those bras that you whip off the moment you walk through the door of your home in the evening and breath a huge sigh of relief.

Again, totally my own fault!

The cup fit was actually pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised in this regard. I had to play around with the fit of this cup far less than I had to do for my Sophie swimsuit cups. So, if I all I need to do is add a centimetre or so to the band next time, that’s really a pretty good fit outcome for a first bra!!

The other reason that this wasn’t as enjoyable as I’d hoped is that my old sewing machine kept trying to gobble all the tiny little pieces down! And I ended up demolishing a few pieces and having to recut them. Again, no fault of the pattern here!

My Harriet Bra

I sewed the Harriet Bra in a size 36D. I used a floral scuba from Fabworks Mill for the pretty parts, lined with duoplex and used power-mesh for the band and 15 denier for the bridge. As for my Sophie Swimsuit, B-wear was my saviour for supplies and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without their gear!

It all came together pretty well, although I have to say that there were still some areas where, as a total bra-making newbie, I would have liked some more information. The instructions provided great information about the kinds of materials you would need for different areas of the bra (a real minefield for bra newbies), but once it actually came to sewing, I felt a bit unsure of a few basic things. I wasn’t sure if I should be sewing with a zig zag stitch or a straight stitch. And when I had to attach elastic to the band and underarm, I wasn’t entirely sure if it should be elastic of the same length as the piece I was attaching it too or if it should be slightly shorter.

In all honesty, I’m not sure I could have done this if it weren’t for my Sophie Swimsuit experience. When sewing the Sophie Swimsuit, I took Closet Case’s Sew Your Dream Swimsuit online workshop. The most useful lesson of that class, worth it’s price alone, was the one about actually sewing the underwire bra part. Having seen that entire process and having done it once before, is really what enabled me to get through this!

And some more smalls…

The thing I was most excited about with making my own bra is that I could make multiple ‘bottoms’ to go with each bra. Because, seriously, no-one wears a bra for just one day, right?

I sewed up the Rosy Ladyshorts, a FREE pattern, from Cloth Habit.

But, I have to say, I’m not really a briefs kind of a gal. This is a post about my underwear, so there was always a risk of verging into the field of ‘too much information’, but here goes. My butt is so, well, over-sized, that it eats every pair of underwear I’ve ever worn. Seriously, I’ve never worn a single pair that doesn’t give me a wedgie.  As a result, I prefer thong style underwear. You know, less for my butt cheeks to eat=more comfort.

I tried to make a thong by copying one I already owned. And, I seriously messed this up. This is basically the most uncomfortable underwear I have ever worn!!!! Since I’ve already gone total too-much-information anyway, I literally took these off halfway through a workday because I couldn’t stand wearing them for a minute longer…

I messed up the elastic attachment, meaning that I had one leg smaller than the other (which I have tried, unsucessfully to disguise for the sake of pretty photos here), which makes for some major weird pulling. And well, my triangle here is evidently just not the right kind of triangle cuz there is something seriously not working here…

Can anyone recommend a good thong sewing pattern?

I guess, it’d probably be worth the investment to just spend a bit of time tweaking and playing with this one. Cuz there is a pay out to arriving at a pair of underwear which is just right for the peculiarities of your own body, right? But, since I was overall feeling a bit uninspired by my slightly-too-small bra, I wasn’t really feeling like putting in the effort that requires.

Maybe another day…

Lingerie sewing – Yay or Nay?

So, in the end, I thought I was going to fall head over heels in love with bra-making. And…

Well, even though bras are pretty quick to sewing, I find them a lot of work in terms of sourcing supplies and doing finicky work. It’s obviously even more disappointing than usual when it doesn’t quite work.

But I’ve still got supplies for a few more bras, so I will be back. But I maybe need a bit of space to recover first.

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all!

And, you know what, I think that this whole experience is also a lesson in sewing humility. From reading this post, you probably get the impression that I’m a little surprised that my first ever attempt at sewing lingerie wasn’t a brilliant success. But, my first ever attempt at sewing anything new is rarely an outstanding success! Just as garment sewing more generally has taken me years of practice to feel confident with (most) end results, I guess it was pretty naive to just imagine that my first bra was going to be a winner. Sometimes, it’s good for me to remember that “beginner feeling”…

And, finally, sorry for the lack of in-person photos on this one. I know it makes it infinitely more useful for people contemplating sewing the pattern if they can see photos on  a range of body types. But, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. These give me about as much coverage as my Sophie Swimsuit – at least the shorts do, but it just feels different. I kept imagining someone finding the underwear photos googling me when I go for a job in ten years time. Because we still live in a stupid world where a woman in a professional environment could be judged for sharing photos to help fellow sewists. Grrrr!!!!!

Oh well, you probably didn’t really need to see the bra strap muffin top from my too-small bra anyways!!

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.