A bra! Madalynne x Simplicity 8228

February 15, 2017 Lauren Digby

Hello all! A bit of a departure from the usual today, but when I saw New Craft House offering bra kits I wanted in. I sent a cheeky link to my Mum and 'lo and behold it turned up in my birthday present pile.

I was a bit smaller than the smallest size so I cut out a trial band to quickly check that all was okay. The fit seemed alright so I went ahead and cut everything out. I only just had enough lace, and definitely not enough to recut anything so just had to pray that I didn't have to. The powermesh was disgusting to cut with shears, and would have been a smoother process with a rotary cutter.

Luckily the only adjustment I needed to make was to take in the band a bit at the back which was easy to do. I might take the halterneck in a tiny bit at the back for a little more lift and support.

In the instructions I couldn't see any elastic joining the powermesh to the elastic at the bottom of the bridge, but I thought it would be worth doing, so did that anyway. I didn't add the channelling because I wasn't quite sure what purpose it served and instead pressed the seam allowances up into the cup and whipstitched them into place. I didn't topstitch the seam allowances down in the cups because I was anticipating having to alter them but they seemed alright so I whipstitched those down as well.

All in all, I'm very pleased with my first attempt at a 'real bra'. It was quite a quick sew and a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday evening. Please don't hesitate to give me any tips or advice because I'm very new to this side of clothes-making. In retrospect a darker coloured lace would have worked with my skin tone better, but the pale pink works very well as a neutral.

Thanks very much for reading and to Rachel for taking photos!

Lauren xx