Hello all! As you can see, I've made another soft bra. Pretty much the whole of the design of this bra is down to the supplies I had on hand at the time and so it's very basic and minimalist.
I traced the cup from a soft bra that I already had, pinching out some excess where I knew that it gaped a bit. This gave me all of the pattern that I needed to make my bra. I decided to make the cups from the fabric of my old prom dress, which is a blush coloured crepe back satin. It is a woven fabric and the cups of my original bra were made from a jersey knit, but I was convinced that if I cut the pattern on the bias, all would be well.
The first step was to sew the darts, and then I encased the top edge of the cup in foldover elastic, stretching slightly as I went so that the cup wouldn't gape.
The next step was to encase the edge of the other side of the cup, starting at the bottom and working upwards. The foldover elastic then continues as a strap.
Using the existing bra as a reference I measured how much plush back elastic to cut, which acts as the band. The cups were then sewn onto the band and I pinned down the straps, again referencing the existing bra. I only had wide hook and eye clasps so I ended up just trimming them so there was 1 row of hook and eyes instead of 3, and zigzagged the raw edges. I tried on the bra and ended up unpicking the band right in the centre so I could cross over the cups just a teeny bit more for a better fit.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I quite like the juxtaposition of the sporty elastic and the luxurious fabric. I think that the cups did stretch out a bit at the top edge which isn't ideal. It is really comfy to wear. I'd like to try this pattern again, perhaps with some black lace for a completely different look.
Thanks for reading!
Lauren xx