Bras Bras Bras

Seven bras in various colors hanging from a rod. Some are foam lined and some are plain duoplex
Bras! My creations since August

One of the hardest things to purchase off the rack (at least for me) is bras. I recently re-measured and tried to order some using the r/abrathatfits subreddit instructions, and aquired one whole bra that mostly works for me, at the (dicounted) price of $60. I decided that enough was enough and it was time to go back to bra making. I did make several bras years ago, using the Pin Up Girls Shelley pattern and the Boylston bra from Orange Lingerie. Both required a fair amount of modifications to work for my shape.

It turns out the bra making world has changed fairly significantly in the intervening 6 years. I ended up using the Labellum bra from LilyPaDesigns, on the grounds that it's shaped similarly to the Shelley, and is drafted for a fair amount of projection. I used the fitting instructions from Sew Busty for sewing a fitting band and getting the cups corrected for my shape. I ordered some dissolvable thread, which is pretty great for test fitting. Brush a little water along the seam and it comes apart!
 
 
Picture of a pink duoplex fitting bra with 1" seam allowances sewn to the outside. The seams are clipped to fine tune the fit in the upper cup
Sew Busty style fitting cup with clips adjusting the seams
 
Photo of the back of a bra, with the left side high (as drafted in the pattern) and the right adjusted lower
Reducing the band height (right)
 
I really like the Labellum, and both the sewing and measuring instructions are really good. With the exception of the wire size - while the instructions for measuring and making a tracing of your breast root are great, the pattern doesn't actually note the wire size anywhere. It says "compare your favorite wire to the wire chart" and that's it. Which was frustrating. I think the idea is that wires from different places are different, but they're fairly standardized so knowing what it's drafted for is actually really helpful to know whether wireline modifications will be required. 
 
 Measuring I have a 4.2" bottom cup depth, 11" horizontal hemisphere, and 44 wire. Underbust is 38". This puts me in the 4.9 size based on HH, but that has a BCD of 4.9" which is significantly higher than my measurement. The instructions suggest starting with the HH size and not grading between sizes, so that's what I did, using the Sew Busty instructions for pinning out the extra fullness and then transferring those changes to the pattern pieces. In the end it was fairly straightforward, and I did one full duoplex bra and then two foam lined. Pretty successful! 


Photo of a pink duoplex bra with fold over elastic at the upper cup edge and underarm.
Wearable muslin/first try of the adjusted bra

Photo of a dark blue bra spotted in pink and cream dots, lined in foam, with pale pink findings
Completed bra!
 
Then I decided that maybe they weren't as good as they might be, and went back to adjust the pattern to grade down to the smaller BCD. This involves adjusting the bottom cup pieces but leaving the horizontal measurements the same - so the upper cup piece is unchanged, and the lower cup/power bar is adjusted to match the smaller BCD pieces. Once I'd done that I made another fitting cup and tried it on. It fit great - no upper cup fullness to pinch out! (this makes sense, because the maximum horizontal fullness of the pattern is now at the correct vertical height from the wireline, but it still felt like magic). Again I made a duoplex bra and then a few foam lined ones (well, three in a week - I was a little obsessed). I used the bamboo jersey kits from Bra Builders, and they're lovely! I used some best press sizing to stiffen it up a bit, but I think next time I might try gelatin. 
 
Altered pattern pieces

Photo of a teal blue bra in duoplex
Blue duoplex bra (lined in shear cup liner)

Photo of a bra printed in yellow lemons and green leaves on a pale blue background. Findings are a matching pale blue
Bamboo jersey bra lined with cut and sew foam

I mostly buy bra supplies in kits, since I don't need a huge amount of any particular finding or fabric. Of the kits I used, one was from Emerald Erin (the pink duoplex), one from B.Wear (navy blue with dots) and the rest from Bra Builders (both blue duoplex and two kits of bamboo jersey, the lemons and one printed with swallows). I found that I could have gotten two cups out of the Emerald Erin kit, but it only had enough power mesh for one back band. The Bra Builders kits seemed to have plenty of powermesh, and the jersey was more than enough for two bras even with covering the back band to match. I don't know that I'll be able to get a full second bra out of the duoplex kit, but if I did a lace upper cup or a contrast band I'd probably be OK. I have enough of the swallow jersey for one more foam lined bra, but with seven new bras in the last three months I'm not in a huge hurry to make it up. I also have a shear bra tulle kit with dots. One of the jersey bra kits was $36, and with an extra finding kit at $5.50 I was able to get two bras for less than one store bought.

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