Hello, my name's Leanne Burgess. I'm a self-taught bra maker and I make bras for women who can't
buy bras to fit them. Bras that might vary from a triple A in the cup size to a H or
an I cup size. I've written this book, Making Beautiful Bras, and now I'm producing this
video with the aim of helping Australian women sew their own bras and sew them very successfully.
I want ladies to be able to sew beautiful bras that not only look exquisite but that
fit beautifully and support them wonderfully. Bra making is the ultimate challenge for the
home sewer. It's not a field of sewing that I would recommend for a beginner sewer, but
any proficient and motivated sewer can sew their own bras and sew them successfully.
For far too long Australian women have assumed that making their own bras was an impossibility
and we've paid large amounts of money for our bras, little realising that we can sew them
ourselves from fabrics and materials costing about a quarter of a bra's retail price. My
book and this video are investments. They're investments for our future because once we
sew our own bras and sew them successfully, we'll then be sewing bras for our family and
our friends and we'll be able to pass these valuable bra making skills on to our daughters.
A homemade bra can be individually designed and tailor made to suit our particular body
shape. We can sew bras for ourselves that last longer than manufactured bras and that
are just as supportive and attractive. Here are some bras that I've made for three ladies
sized 16EE, 12D and 14D. I have selected these models to show that bras for larger busted
ladies can be just as attractive and flattering as smaller cupped bras. My sincere thanks
to Lyncraft for supplying me with many of the stunning laces and fabrics in these bra sets.
I'm sure you'll agree that these bra sets are very pretty but a successful bra not only
has to look beautiful, it has to be a perfect fit or a very good fit at the very least.
And we all want our bras to fit well. But what does that mean? Let's examine exactly
what we're looking for in a bra. Firstly, the cups should have a pleasing or a flattering shape.
They should complement or enhance the natural shape of our breasts. Our breast shape by the way
is as individual as our fingerprints. Secondly, the bra should produce a good breast uplift
and hold the breasts in that uplifted position fairly firmly. This is what is meant by a bra
being supportive. The breasts shouldn't be drooping in the bra at all. There should be adequate
breast separation. Not so much separation that the breasts are pushed way out under the arms
but not too little separation so that there's skin against skin down the cleavage. And this
is a common problem faced by many large busted ladies who wear non-underwired bras.
These ladies often get heat rushes in between their breasts because their bra pushes their breasts
together. The cups should be full enough to contain the breasts. This is an extremely important point
because I'm finding that many women are wearing bras that are far too small in the cups. The
breasts should be able to go right down and out into the cup. There are a few telltale signs
that the cup is too small. The breast bulges over the neckline or the armhole edge and there will
be skin against skin up under the breast. If the cup is too shallow the breast will be compressed
downwards against the chest creating a hot moist airless area which is a common site for heat
rashes, scalding and fungal infections. The shallow-cut minimiser bras often produce this
skin against skin problem and many larger breasted women suffer cruelly in our Australian summer.
A lovely friend of mine who wears bras about, they'd be 14g bras, said she spent last summer
getting her husband's folded up handkerchiefs and tucking them up underneath her bra.
As she said the skin underneath there was just like raw meat and it was bleeding.
When she ran out of her husband's handkerchief she'd go and raid her children's handkerchief
drawers. The straps of a bra shouldn't fall off the shoulders. Ladies with sloped or round
shoulders are forever pulling their bra straps up only to have them fall off again a moment later.
Some give up and actually let them stay there wearing their bra around with the straps around
their upper arm. Very uncomfortable. But this whole problem can be overcome to a large degree
by reshaping the top of the cup so that the straps are attached to the cup a little closer
to the centre front and the centre back line of the body, the middle of the body.
Reshaping the bra back so that the straps are attached very close to the midline of the body
will ensure that the straps stay put. The backs of many sports bras are designed this way
so we can add this practicality to our own very beautiful bras. The shoulder straps should be made
of wider, good quality, strap elastic that will hold the breasts firmly without being tight and
digging a ditch into the top of the shoulders. These ditches can be so bad that they can cause
medical problems, neck aches, headaches and nerve compression causing shooting pains down the arms
and numbness and tingling in the fingers. The straps should be made of a wide, good quality
strap elastic that will prevent these problems occurring in the first place. In this case,
prevention is definitely better than cure. Because once these shoulder ditches have been dug,
they can't be magically filled in. The bra back shouldn't ride up. If the bra is too loose around
the ribcage, this annoying problem can occur. By mid-morning, the hooks and eyes have worked
themselves halfway up our back and at that stage the bra is wearing us. We're not wearing it.
Another cause of this problem is the shape of our ribcage and torso.
Ladies who have hourglass type figures never suffer with this problem because their ribcages
get larger as they go up and their bras don't ride up simply because they can't. But for those
ladies who have narrow shoulders and fairly up and down types of ribcages, they suffer with this
problem a lot. The solution is to angle the back of the bra downwards towards the centre back
so that its position is a lot closer to the waist. Angling the back down like this will
utilise what little tapering there is in the ribcage to stop the back riding up. Making the bra
back a very firm, substantial shape with a deeper bank of hooks and eyes will also help a lot.
In underwired bras, the underwire should sit where the breast meets the ribcage
in the wireline crease. The centre uprights should sit flat against the chest
instead of sticking out. And if they do stick out, this can also indicate that the cut is too shallow.
The underarm uprights shouldn't press into breast tissue. They shouldn't rub against the inside of
the upper arm and they shouldn't be so high that they skewer the arm kit. How do you begin to make
a bra? Firstly, you need a pattern and there's two options. You can buy a commercially available bra
pattern or you can draft your own using my method. Drafting your own bra pattern sounds like a very
daunting task to undertake, but as I'll demonstrate shortly, it's not that hard to do once you know how.
Drafting your own bra pattern is often far more successful than using a commercial pattern
because with a commercial pattern, it might be the right size that you make up, but there's no
guarantee that the shape of the bra cup will suit the shape of your breast. That's why when you
draft your own bra pattern, you get in a guaranteed bra pattern, one that has a very
good shape and one that has the correct cup shape for you. Most women have a favorite bra
that fits them like a glove. It may be an old bra that's had it but they can't bear to throw it away
or it could be a newer bra and it's that bra we use to cut a pattern from or to draft our own pattern.
Obviously the better fitting that pattern bra is, the better the pattern is going to be. So choose
the bra that fits best in the cups, the cups especially, because that cup fit is critical.
It's very easy to alter the lengths of the straps of the bra and it's very easy to alter the shape
and the size of the bra back, but the cup fit is critical and getting a perfect three-dimensional
shape out of two or three pieces of flat fabric, that's much more demanding.
If your pattern bra has minor problems with it, these can be corrected in the way you draft your
pattern and in that way you can fine tune your own personal bra pattern so that it's perfect for your
body. When you sew your own bras you can use wonderful delicious laces and fabrics, so let's
have a look at some of those laces and fabrics. These little galoon laces they're called are often
used along the tops of the cups, just there. They've got a deeply scalloped edge that goes down
into the cup and a flatter edge that goes along the top of the cup, just like that.
Obviously these narrow galoon laces are more suited to a smaller cut bra
and the larger galoon laces with the deeper scallops are more suited to larger cut bras,
where the lace isn't going to invade the shape of the cups too much.
There's the narrow ones, there's some larger ones and you can also buy what's called double galoon laces.
That's this one here and this one here. It's like having two layers of galoon laces all joined together
and using a sharp pair of scissors you can simply cut down the midline like that.
Around the scalloped edge so that you're separating the large band of lace into two halves
and once you've got that done you can use one part of the lace for that cup
and you use the mirror image of the pattern for the other cup.
Here are a few more non-stretch laces. This one here I would describe as quite a bit of a
open weave lace. In other words it's got lots of holes in it and that's similar to the sort of lace
that some of the manufacturers are using in bras such as these. You can see that there's holes in
the lace and those holes are very important because they allow the fabric to adjust itself
and to move to just follow the beautiful rounded curve of the breast. Some of the laces are
embroidered onto nylon net. Most laces are actually. They've got a synthetic net backing
and they're embroidered onto it and if you look very very closely you can see the net in behind
the flowers in this lace. But this one yet again is very very different. It is embroidered onto a
nylon knit. It's knitted synthetic fabric that has one way give a little bit the other way but it does
have a bit of movement in it and that bit of movement is important when you come to select
your lace. If you were going to be copying a bra such as this it has a nylon knit lace here along
the edge and so you would choose a similar lace when you constructed your bra. Just as we saw the
non-stretch laces we can get single balloon lace and double balloon lace in stretch lace as well.
These laces are embroidered or knitted with lycra within them or elastic in elastic substance.
You can get the single balloon and the double balloon lace in the lycra laces. You can get a wide
banded type of lace. All these laces generally have better stretch in one direction than the other.
These ones, it's a lovely cotton one, these ones that have the beautiful scalloped edges
are very very good for running along that neckline edge. It gives a very pretty effect indeed.
So you can make very good use of these gorgeous edgings. And when you've got a very wide lace
like this they're excellent because you can sometimes get a full upper cup or a full lower
cup all dovetailed in out of this gorgeous lace. Both non-stretch and stretch laces can be bought
on the roll by the meter. That's what is related by the term lace by the meter. It means you're
buying the laces fabric. But with stretch laces you've got to be very careful because some laces
stretch more than others. Have a look at these two samples. This is a very nice and
beautiful pattern. Have a look at these two samples. This, they're both stretch laced but this stretch
lace fully stretched only stretches to there. Whereas this one fully stretched goes right out to there.
So stretch laces differ, they vary in terms of their quality, their thickness and their stretch
properties. And all of this is important when you're selecting lace to use in the cups of your bra.
After a while you'll get to know what sort of lace your pattern requires.
One of the laces that manufacturers use a great deal is what we call bonded lace. And this is it
here. It's a non-stretch lace that's been stuck to a backing fabric. And you can see here they've
used a nylon knit as the backing fabric. And I've just peeled the two away from one another there
to show you. And that's what happens when we wash our bras. They get a real pounding with the washing
and wearing process. And when you've worn your bra and washed it a few times the backing actually
lifts off the outer layer of lace. And looking at that bra you think, oh they've lined the cup with
this nylon knit. They haven't. It was originally bonded or stuck together like that and with the
washing and wearing it's separated off. But that doesn't matter because the bonding is still
protecting and strengthening the lace cup, which is its function. Now that is a manufacturer's
fabric, that bonded lace. And it's not readily obtainable to the home sewer. So we make our own.
This as you can see is a transparent non-bonded lace. It's actually curtain lace
that I got. It was so pretty and it was about half the price of the lace in the fabric shops,
twice the meterage in the width of it. And I've picked it up. But its problem is it's a bit
transparent after a few washes. And if I picked it up roughly I might put my fingernail through the
lace. So to strengthen and protect that lace and make it more durable, I'm going to bond it
bond it using a good quality iron-on interfacing. I'm going to place the lace face down,
right side down. I'm going to place this bonding fabric against the back of the lace with the little
plastic beads that melt and fuse the two together onto the back of the lace. And then I'm going to
use a medium to hot iron and I'm going to iron the two together. We're smoothing it out very gently.
And when I've done that, I've got bonded lace. The white is compatible to the ivory of the lace
and it's a lovely bonding that makes the lace a lot stronger, a lot more durable and strong enough
to hold up and support heavy breasts. In a similar way, if we've got a very brightly colored lace,
we can iron a black iron-on interfacing onto the back of it to make a bonded lace.
And there is the bonded lace, which again is much stronger and more durable than the original.
It's very beautiful, but it tends to be quite vulnerable, this lace, without the bonding.
A good quality iron-on interfacing can also be used to bond any woven fabric.
Here's a silk check fabric and I've ironed a good quality interfacing onto the back.
Now by good quality, I mean either a knitted or a woven nylon one, not one of the tissue types
because these fluffy furry ones can disintegrate in the wash and bras get a real pounding in the
washing and wearing process. So we want an interfacing that's not too thick, not too thin,
but a really nice bearing process. So we want an interfacing that's going to last.
Interfacing and using interfacing to bond fabrics has one drawback in that it's only
readily obtainable in black and white, which is fine if you've got cream or a strong color.
But what if you want another color behind your lace to enhance the color or create color contrasts,
another process. Now this same lace can be used with a colored background.
There it is against the pink and here I've made, well I've bonded this pink lace with a blue backing.
They're still bonded laces and I've actually fused the lace to a single knit trico, which is
petticoat fabric and I've used double-sided bonding fabric and this one's called Blyzerfix.
It's just a very, very fine plastic webbing that melts when you iron it.
I'm going to demonstrate now how to do that. Here's my pink lace that's going to be the top
layer and I'm going to put it right side down onto the ironing board. I'm going to get my Blyzerfix
and I'm going to put it, there it is, there I'm going to put it paper side up so that I'm going to
melt the plastic onto the back of the lace and the sole plate of the iron is going to be against the
paper. Again with a medium hot iron I'm going to wait a few moments for that to cool off
and then I'm going to peel this paper backing off the back.
There it is and if you can just see there the little plastic webbing is being melted onto the
back of the lace I'm then going to place over the top of that my nylon trico.
I'm going to use a pressing cloth over the top so that the sole plate of my iron doesn't touch the
nylon. Get my iron and very, very gently just press like that. Not a lot of scrubbing. I'm using a
steam iron to do this but you could use a dry iron if you wished. Take the pressing cloth away
and what we have there is a pink lace with a pink backing using Blyzerfix to fuse the two
and that's the other alternative to using the iron-on interfacing because this way we can get
a coloured backing to our lace. If your favourite bra is a padded bra you might notice that the
manufacturers use a wadding or a padding that has a nylon knit fused to the back of it.
The two are together there and that nylon knit is against the skin and acts as a cut lining.
Now we can't buy at the moment, we can't buy that sort of padding with that nylon knit fused to it
but we can make our own using again a good quality iron-on interfacing. Simply by the particular
thickness of wadding that you require place it on the ironing board, use your interfacing
with the little plastic beads down onto it, it's going to melt onto the back of that wadding and iron.
And in that way we're simply bonding the padding
and the bonding or the interfacing is going to act as the lining in the cup.
So instead of having to cut out an enormous amount of all these little layers we've got
the outer cut fabric, we've got the padding and we've got a separate lining layer. We're doing
away with that whole lining layer by ironing the lining onto the padding itself and the two
are then treated as one, cut out as one and sewn together as one. It's much better to bond where
possible because if you line and you don't treat your lining layer and your outer cut fabric as one
there can be puckering and pulling occurring. So where possible I always interface or bond and
that way I'm actually ironing the lining onto that outer cut fabric. And in this case with the
padded bra I've ironed the lining onto the padding itself so that the padding and the interfacing,
the two of them act as one layer of lining. It's very important to understand the stretch qualities
of the cut fabric in your pattern bra because the cup relies on any give or stretch in its fabric
to support the breast and provide a good fit. It's not only important to understand how much
give or stretch there is in each cup section but also in what direction the main give or stretch
runs. The direction of give or stretch affects the shape of the breast in the cup.
Now when deciding what kind of cut fabric to use in our bras we should look for fabric that has
the same kind of give or stretch as the cut fabric in our pattern bra. That way we can reproduce the
manufactured bra successfully. What's the difference between give and stretch? Well
this fabric here, this tricot, it's a double knit tricot, it has give simply because it's a knitted
fabric similar to my jumper. It gives in one direction simply because it's a knit. Whereas
this lycra, it's a nylon lycra, has multi-directional stretch. It's got rubber knitted into it
and it bounces back beautifully in nearly all directions. Different fabrics can have different
amounts of give or stretch. This bonded lace has low give, just a little bit, primarily in one
direction. So that's a low give fabric. This double knit tricot has a medium give, one direction only,
nothing in that direction. And this sheer nylon tricot has excellent give. You can see how much
that's giving and again one direction only, only across like that. A fabric with stretch could have
low stretch, not very much there, a medium stretch or a high stretch. Let's analyse some possible cut
fabrics that you might find in your manufactured bra. This is our bonded lace that we saw before.
It's one that the manufacturers use a lot and it has slight give in one direction and just a tiny
bit, hardly any movement at all in the other direction. If you want to know how much give or
stretch there is, don't get a tiny little bit, get a big bit and just see what it does. Give it a good
yank and see how much yank there is in it. So as you can see with the bonded lace, slight give in
one direction. Next, this is a double knit tricot. It's a very silky nylon knit and it has medium
give in one direction only, nothing that way, medium give in that direction. But double knit
tricot, it's just like a single knit tricot which is petticoat fabric, only it's thicker.
This is actually sports bra cut fabric. It's a single knit nylon tricot
fused or bonded to a very fine cotton single knit which goes against the skin.
It has all the properties of the double knit tricot, medium one way give, nothing the other
direction and it's an excellent fit for the
medium one way give, nothing the other direction. And it's an excellent sort of fabric to use
because that cotton lining against the skin or the bonding against the skin absorbs perspiration
in your cup. Now there's no reason we can't buy a very fine single knit cotton fabric and using
Vlyzerfix, bond or fuse it onto the back of a nylon tricot, having all of the give in the cotton
knit running in the same direction as the give in the tricot outer layer. That's a bonded tricot.
Then there's a cotton interlock or t-shirt fabric. This is actually an embroidered one.
It has medium give in one direction only. This is an embossed single knit tricot. They sometimes
call single knit tricot simplex. It has quite good give in one direction, nothing at all in the other
direction. Actually the embossing or the printing on this fabric, I don't know if you can see it
there, there's a slight pattern. It's actually cutting down the give in that, but it's still got
good give. Your single knit tricot has got excellent give. This is what they make half slips out of.
Good one way give, nothing the other direction. Now these are transparent nylon knits with the
excellent give in one direction. One direction only. There's nothing in that other direction.
Sometimes the manufacturers use these. There's a black one and here's a white one. They use that
to line the stretch laces with, sometimes even the licorice, because the excellent give in these
fabrics doesn't impede the stretch in the licorice and in the stretch laces. Then we're getting into
our stretch now. Obviously stretchy is more stretchy than give. Now this is a stretch lace.
It's a very, it's quite a lightweight one. Good stretch in that direction, hardly anything in that
direction. Now this gorgeous fabric, it's one of my favorites actually, it's called mirror satin
lycra, sometimes called stretch satin. It has one way stretch and it's excellent stretch. Look at that.
And it's mirror sheen. It's just beautiful in brass. And you can see there's no stretch in that
direction, beautiful stretch. So it's a one way stretch that fabric, a one way stretch lycra.
Then you have the cotton lycra. Cotton lycra is mainly used in crop tops for young girls to do
aerobics with. It's got good one way stretch, not too much in the other direction. The better the
quality cotton lycra, the better the quality and the more multi-directional stretch it will have.
Good stretch that direction, not too much in that direction. And the most stretchy of all are the
nylon lycra's. Excellent multi-directional stretch. As you can see, there are many different types of
cup fabrics, all with their own particular stretch qualities. And it's very important to be aware of
this. If you have a bra pattern designed to have nylon lycra with all of its stretch in the cups
and you use, for instance, a very rigid bonded lace, your cups are going to be much too small.
By the same token, if you've got a bra pattern, a cup pattern that's meant to be made up using
a rigid non-stretch bonded lace and you use one of the lycra's or one of the nearest satin lycra's
in the cups, your cups are going to be far too big and sloppy and allow the breast to droop in them.
In order to draft a pattern and sew a bra, we need to understand the structure of a bra.
Obviously, a bra is made up of the bra cups and the rest of the bra, the bra back and the centerpiece.
And this bra back and centerpiece here, I call the bra body. There's the cups and the bra body.
The bra back is this part here. It's mostly made of spandex or power knit.
There it is there. It's a low stretch fabric. And so that our bras don't cut us in half when we eat
a full meal or heavens above, put on another kilo, we always have the greatest stretch going
around the body. This is very important. Spandex is this satin knit fabric in this bra here.
Whereas power knit has a more dull or a matte finish. Here it is here. Rather than being a net,
it's a net and you can see the little holes in it. It has a low stretch as well.
And women who live in parts of Australia where it gets really, really hot, say they prefer power knit.
Because of its holes, they say it can breathe a lot better than the spandex.
I myself prefer the satiny, lovely, silky knit feel of the spandex. It's very much an individual
thing and neither one's better than the other. A lot of sports bras have their bra back made out of
the power knit. And you can buy different weights and qualities of both fabrics. Some of your
power knits and spandex is a very, very strong low stretch in quality, very heavy quality ones.
And they will last a lot longer in a bra than one of the lightweight ones. Have a look. Here's a very
firm, good quality, low stretch power knit. And here's a much lighter quality one. And you can see
how much more stretch there is in the lighter quality power knit. By the same token, here's the
very firm, good quality spandex that was in that pink bra there. And here's a lighter weight spandex,
which is more like lycra. So you can see there's different weights and qualities in both types of
fabric. In smaller cut bras, they sometimes, the manufacturers, use a cotton or a nylon lycra in
the back of the bra or a stretch lace. Thinking maybe that greater support wasn't needed, but
that's what happens. Bras really get a pounding in the washing and wearing process. So I always use
a good quality spandex or power knit in the bras that I make if I go to all the trouble of making
a bra. I want it to last. There's two main types of bra backs. There's this one that I call the T
intersection style. And you can see here, the strap comes down and meets the bra back at an upside
down T. That's the design of it. Whereas this one is a far more substantial style, where the strap
comes down and runs down the edge here to the closure. And it's this style of bra back that
I prefer to use where I need lots more support for large heavy breasts. Because of the work a bra does
and the pounding it gets in the washing and wearing process and the perspiration, it's a good idea,
especially if you've got larger breasts, if you self line the back of the bra using two layers
of spandex or power knit instead of one. And you can see here, there's actually two layers of spandex.
This will make your bras last longer as well as adding greater support. If you do self line the
back, it'll firm up the whole of the back, which will make it tighter around the rib cage. So you'll
have to extend the length of the pattern piece a few centimetres or so to allow for this.
Always extend the bra back by lengthening it in the underarm region here. Never just add length to
the centre back where the closure is, because what you'll be effectively doing is moving the back
strap attachment points sideways out towards the arms. And then the straps can fall over the
shoulders. The closer those back strap attachment points are to the centre back, the better.
There are two main types of bra backs in their design. The first type is what I call the T
intersection back, where the strap comes down and joins onto the bra back at right angles
in an upside down T. And then there's this more substantial style, which is much stronger.
Where the strap comes down, joins onto the bra back and comes right down here, leading to the
hooks and eyes, the closure. And this is the style I prefer to make most of the bra.
The centre piece, as its name suggests, is in the centre of the bra, the very heart of the bra
in between the cups. And depending on the style of the bra, the centre piece can be in three shapes.
Firstly, we've got the Y centre piece, which looks like an upside down Y.
Secondly, there's an extended centre piece, where the centre piece goes right under the cups and
right around to the side of the cups. And it's this style where we get all these lovely lace overhangs.
And the third style, which is very different from the first two, is a small centre piece style.
The centre piece is tiny and it doesn't go underneath or around the cups at all. It's
just sitting right in between the cups. The centre piece is the substantial heart of the bra.
It has to be strong and it has to be non-stretch in the horizontal direction.
If you mistakenly make this centre piece out of very stretchy fabric, such as nylon lycra,
when you put your bra on, the cups will stretch apart. And instead of the cups being at the front,
they could end up in your armpits. So, to summarise, the centre piece is made of non-stretch
fabric in the horizontal direction. And to make it even stronger, I always line it using a fine,
often woven fabric that's not going to stretch or move at all.
That's always non-stretch in the horizontal direction and it's always lined with a very fine,
often woven fabric. There are various styles of cups. You've got your basic horizontal seam line
on the cup. Then, to add greater shaping into the lower cup, they sometimes split the lower cup.
So, there's a horizontal seam line with a split lower cup. Sometimes there's a diagonal seam line,
a vertical seam line and then a multiple piece cup. Now, these three piece or more cups,
they include some of the more complicated non-underwired styles. Some bras have moulded
cups which have no seam lines. Here's one here. As you can see, there's no seam lines
and the fabric is in the cup shape. Now, how they make this cup, in the factory,
they stretch the fabric tightly over a breast mould and heat treat it so it stays in that position.
Now, we home sewers can't imitate this process, but we can make exactly the same shaped cup using
a seam line. I've found that with these cups, they best translate into one of the diagonal
seam lined cups. Just before we draft our bra pattern, we need to know that a seam line is where
two pieces of fabric meet, not necessarily where there's top stitching. Have a look on this bra.
This line here is where the two pieces of fabric, the cup fabric and the spandex,
this is where they meet along here. And this here is where there's top stitching.
The top stitching simply shows us in which direction the raw edges of the seam line have
been flipped. And in this case, because the seam lines here in the top stitching is on the outside
of the seam line, all the raw edges have been flipped out of the cup and top stitched down.
Now, I'm going to cut up this bra and draft its pattern. Cutting up a bra is a fast, easy,
but above all, the most accurate way of drafting a bra pattern. Although I'm sacrificing this bra,
I'm going to make many others identical to it, just as good, if not better. And so this bra is
going to pay for itself many times over. To prepare the bra, trace over the seam lines and all around
the outside edges with a felt pen, remembering that a seam line is where one piece of fabric meets
another piece of fabric. These black lines will make it far easier to see all the bra sections
through the pattern making fabric. If any outside edge of the bra is being gathered in or pulled a
bit tight with that elastic, it's a good idea just to get a sharp pair of cutting scissors and nick
that elastic through about one centimeter intervals, just to allow that whole piece to sit flat.
I'm now pinning a piece of pattern making fabric, or do-sew, over this extended center piece,
and I'm going to trace that. And because it's semi-transparent, I can see through it beautifully.
I can easily see those black lines that I've marked. I'm going to get a sharp pencil and trace
over those black lines. Now I've only traced half of this center piece, one side of it,
and the center front fold line. And the reason why I've done that is so that I can fold the pattern
along the center front fold line, like that, put it down, and trace the other side of it so that I
get a symmetrical pattern piece. I've now got my completed center piece traced, and I'm going to
now add seam allowances, one centimeter everywhere, except along the lower edge, which is where I add
a seam allowance which is about one and a half centimeters wide. The seam allowance is equivalent
to the width of the lower edge elastic. So one centimeter everywhere and one and a half centimeters
around the bottom edge. I'm now going to trace the back of this bra all the way around the outside
edge where that black line that I marked was. Here's the completed bra back, but it doesn't
have any seam allowances yet. Here's the shape of the bra back that I've traced. The closure edge,
up along the strap, top edge, side seam, lower edge. And here's the seam allowances that I've added.
You'll notice that around the lower edge again, there's a one and a half centimeter seam allowance,
which is the width of that lower edge elastic. There's a one centimeter seam allowance up the
side seam and a one centimeter seam allowance across the top. But I haven't added any down this
edge where the strap lies. And that's because there's no fabric along there that's folded under.
Now just pretend that this here is the edge leading down to the closure. The strap's simply
laid across along this edge and sewn like that. So I don't need any extra fabric to turn under.
And along the closure edge, the flaps of the hook and eye tape simply wrap around that raw edge.
So again, I don't need any extra fabric along there either. And this is the completed pattern piece.
Here's the extended centerpiece pattern piece. And here's the bra back. And when I overlay,
the side seam on the side seam line of each, you can see how the bra back joins on. There's a side
seam and joins onto the extended centerpiece. It's now time to take an underwire out of the bra.
And to do that, I've just snicked the casing with a sharp pair of scissors there. And I'm going to
slip this wire out of the casing. Now take note of which colored tip is the right one.
And which colored tip goes to the center of the bra? Because underwires are rarely symmetrical.
And so we have to know which end of the wire is at the center of the bra and which colored tip
goes towards the side of the bra. There's no arbitrary rules to follow here. And if we're
not recycling these original wires in the bra, we're going to need to match these wires up as
closely as possible in shape and size to ones we can buy in the shop. So that's the shape and the
size of the underwire. Underwires come in all different shapes and sizes. It's no good saying
I want a 14C wire because there's no standardization of size throughout the bra making industry.
I sell half a dozen to a dozen 14C wires. And they're all very different in size and shape.
So if your wire, there it is out of the bra, take it to a fabric shop and try and match it up with
some of the bra wires they've got there. And if you can't get a good match, like there's my good
match that I've got. But if you can't get a good match, do a tracing of your underwire. There we
are. And fax it to me. And I'll see if I can get one that's almost identical in size and shape to
it. Now when you're matching your wire up, choose one that doesn't come too high, especially at this
underarm area here. You want one that comes no higher than that point there, about a centimeter
short or underneath that finished off armhole edge. If it comes any higher up, you're not going to
have enough fabric to turn that elastic and raw edge underneath there and sew it down.
Because machines don't like sewing through metal wires, unfortunately. We're just about to cut the
cup out of the bra body now. But before we do, we need to label the different cup sections. The cups
have to go in the bra the right way. And so that we don't get all the jigsaw puzzle pieces mixed up
and the wrong way around and upside down. What I do on the different cup sections, I put a C to
denote the center of the bra pieces and S to denote the side. And especially on this fish shaped or
elliptical shaped lower cup piece, I put a T to denote the top of it. It's now time to cut one of
the cups out of the bra body along what I call the wire line seam. This dark seam line here that I've
already marked. So I cut that cup out of the bra body. I only cut one cup out simply because I don't
need the other cup. I'm making my pattern from this cup here and I've left this other cup here
intact so that I can see how the pieces all fit together just in case I need something to refer to
later on. For cutting your cup out of a bra and for all the trimming involved in bra making,
a good sharp pair of cutting out scissors is an excellent thing to have. These are duckbilled scissors
and they are wonderful for bra making. Very sharp, very accurate. Now that I've cut the cup out and
I've cut it along this horizontal seam, you can see that that upper cup joined to the lower cup
all the way along there. There it is. But I should have already knitted this armhole edge here
with my scissors because that's where that elastic is gathering that edge in to stop gaping at the
side of the upper cup there. Now while I've got my scissors you can see here this upper cup isn't
sitting flat, it's curling up. Now that's an indication that an easing stitch was put along
there because that edge there was longer than this one here. So when I join the lower cup to the upper
cup I'm going to have to ease that longer edge in to sew it onto the shorter edge along the bottom
of the upper cup. But to get that flat for my pattern I'm just going to sneak through that top
stitching there that's pulling it tight and you can see how that's making it sit a lot, lot flatter.
There it is, it's sitting flat. Now the next thing I'm going to do I'm going to iron these pattern
pieces flat so they sit lovely and flat and then I'm going to trace them. Now this is the lower
cup piece and this is it here traced. You'll notice I've all the time putting the C for the centre,
the S for the side and the T for the top and there's the lower cup there and this is it here
with its seam allowances one centimetre all the way around added to it.
These markings can be used to indicate the centre and the side and that's the top there and similarly
I can do, I can trace this top cup pattern piece here, here we are.
Just like that, there it is the centre of the side that's the armhole edge and the neckline edge
and here we are with the one centimetre seam allowances added all the way around
all except for up here where the upper cup itself goes through the ring.
Now that our pattern pieces are completed there's only one thing left to do.
We've got to analyse the degree of stretch or give in the cup pattern pieces. Now in this lower cup here
it's actually made of bonded single knit trico. Normally you'd have a good lot of give in this lower
cup but the bonding has actually substantially reduced that give and that's all the give we've
got left and there's absolutely nothing across there, no give at all and in the upper cup the
slight give runs diagonally and you can see on the cup pieces and on the pattern pieces
here I've put arrows and I've labelled them slight give or give and that's exactly the same way
that we have to align the give in the upper cup and the lower cup. Now instead of using a bonded
single knit trico I've actually chosen to use Mirasat and Lycra which has one way stretch and
I have cancelled out the stretch, the significant stretch in this Mirasat and there it is. I've
cancelled that out by ironing a good quality interfacing onto the back of it so instead of
that amount of stretch I've got only a little bit of give left, just the same as in the original
lower cup and in the upper cup there it is there, I've only got a tiny bit of give left running
diagonally like that so you can see how I've imitated the stretch or the give in those cup
pieces in the pieces that I'm going to be using to make the bra up. Now we'll put the cup pieces
out of the way, we've got them all worked out, here's the back that I've cut out, I've used a
good quality spandex and I've got the main stretch running around the body, always, always have it
running around the body. Here's the extended centre piece, I'm going to make it out of a bonded
single knit trico, again I've ironed the interfacing onto the back of the trico to stabilise it and
I'm going to be lining it with a fine satin-y, just a satin line, and I'm going to be lining it
with a fine satin lining. Here's the other side of the side back just there and that's all ready to go.
Before I sew this bra together I'm going to make sure that I've got a stretch needle, a medium-sized
stretch needle in my machine. Stretch needles are Teflon coated ballpoint needles and they're the
best, by far the best for bra making because they handle the elastic and the spandex type fabrics
really well. Polyester thread is terrific, it doesn't rot because it's not a natural fibre and
I'm going to be using black thread for all of this sewing so that you can really clearly see my stitches.
Now because I've used 1cm seam allowances all throughout this bra except for that lower edge,
you've got to sew with accurate 1cm seam allowances, otherwise the cut won't fit.
Now if you're not sure what a 1cm seam allowance is, get your cut pattern piece and place it
underneath the presser foot, lower your needle into that seam line, there it is there, and lower that
presser foot and it'll just show you where what will be the edge of the fabric will be in relationship
to that edge of the presser foot or the markings on the bed of your machine. On my machine here
there actually is a 1cm mark and you can see that it's running right along the end of the
edge of that pattern piece. So with that worked out, I'm now going to sew the first part of the bra
which is to line the centre piece. This is my extended centre piece and it's lining and I'm
going to place those two right sides together, pin them just along where that seam line's going to go
and I'm going to sew a straight stitch so I'm seaming them across in between the cuts.
Using my duckbill scissors, I'm now going to grade these seam allowances so that I'm going to reduce
the bulk. I'm going to turn it out the right way and I'm going to top stitch across there
just to hold it nice and securely. So here's my line of top stitching.
Again, a centimeter in from the raw edge, from that same edge.
And the centre piece is lined. I'm going to pin that centre piece all together now so it's nice and flat.
I've now lined the centre piece and the centre piece and its lining are all pinned together nice and flat.
I'm now pinning the bra back to the centre piece right sides together along that side seam.
I'm now sewing it with a small straight stitch a centimeter in from the raw edges
and I'm trimming off the raw edges that belong to the centre piece.
They're the ones that are going to be enclosed and I'm going to pin them together.
They're the ones that are going to be enclosed when I fold both raw edges towards the front of the bra.
Using a small stitch, I'm now pin stitching those raw edges down.
And now I'm top stitching them a centimeter or so in from the seam line.
I'm going to use a walking foot in order to stay stitched around the wire line edge.
And the reason why I'm putting this on is because it will feed the upper and the lower layers of
fabric through together so I won't have any puckering or pulling occurring.
So that I don't have to use all of these pins to hold the centre piece and its lining together,
I'm going to stay stitch around this wire line edge using a zigzag, using the walking foot as well.
And then I can take all of those pins out.
So now we've lined the centre piece and seamed it onto the bra back.
I stay stitched the wire line raw edges to hold the centre piece lining and the centre piece fabric
together so I don't have to use all those pins. And the centre piece and the bra back together makes
the completed bra body. So now it's onto the cups. Because this edge here was slightly longer
than this lower edge of the upper cup, and because they're going to get seamed together,
I've got to run an easing stitch around here just to grab this whole edge in so that its length
matches the length of the bat.
With this easing stitch completed, I can now join this lower cup onto its matching upper cup.
I'm going to turn the upper cup down on top of the lower cup, and I'm going to
pin all the way around the central cup seam, right sides together.
With these cup pieces pinned together, I can now sew this central horizontal cup seam using a small
straight stitch. I prefer to use a small straight stitch rather than a medium or a long one
because there's a lot of stress placed on cup seams and they have to be very strong.
I'm going to part these raw edges, pulling the upper cup apart from the lower cup so there's
a lovely crisp seam line on the right side of the garment. And I'm going to top stitch
close to the seam line. The raw edges can then be trimmed back hard.
To trim them safely back, with the least risk of nicking the cup itself, turn up the raw edge that
is closest to you and fold everything else down hard. That way you can't accidentally cut into
the fabric behind because that's folded right down and you can clearly see everything at the front.
We now have two completed assembled cups.
We have a left breast cup and a right breast cup. And the next step is to finish off each
cup's neckline edge. To do this, we've got a few choices we can make. We can either use lace,
or we can use narrow-solid elastic, or we can combine the lace and the narrow-solid elastic.
Narrow-solid elastic is used to finish off the other edges of a bra, and either narrow or wider
-solid elastic is used to finish off the lower ribcage edge of a bra.
This scholar-padded bra is made of a single piece of fabric,
and the
elastic is called plush lingerie elastic. This is called plush lingerie elastic because it has a
beautiful, firmy surface that ends up against the skin. The scallops end up peeking over the edge.
Whether narrow or wide, this scalloped elastic is put on in the same way.
And I'm going to demonstrate the method on this sample. Place the fabric right side up.
Place the elastic along the edge to be finished off, furry side up, with the scallops facing away
from the raw edge. Using a medium zigzag sewn at the base of the scallops, sew the elastic unstretched
along the edge. Turn the sample over. Trim back the fabric to the zigzag stitching so that it
doesn't protrude. Turn the elastic to the underside of the fabric. And using a large three-step zigzag
or wave stitch, sew the elastic again, making the line of stitching sit on the flat edge of the
elastic. If this second line of stitching bears over into the middle of the elastic,
the elastic has an opportunity to roll over, which isn't good. This second line of stitching
should anchor the elastic to the back of the fabric. When deciding on the stitch width
for the wave stitch or three-step zigzag, I choose the maximum stitch width.
Concerning stitch length, on my Bernina, I choose a fairly small stitch length,
about a one, but your machine might be different. If your stitches are too far apart,
the stitching will tend to break. But if your stitches are too close together,
stitch drag or thread drag occurs. Every time the needle penetrates the fabric,
the threads interlock. And because there are too many stitches per inch, the thicknesses of all
that thread builds up and stretches the edge, all slack and out of shape.
Look at a manufactured bra to determine what form of stitch to copy.
To finish off the neckline edge using narrow-scollet elastic, do it exactly the same way as I did on the
sample. Place the elastic furry side up, with the scallops facing away from the neckline edge,
and do a medium zigzag right next to the scallops, all the way down.
Next, turn it over and trim that raw edge back to the scallop, the zigzag stitching.
Then turn the elastic to the back of the cup and finish it off with a three-step zigzag.
To finish off the neckline edge with lace alone, we need to miter the lace.
So that it can go along the neckline edge and up into where the ring is positioned.
Place the lace along the cup, making its top edge run along the finished edge of the cup,
not the raw edge. Pin it in that position and sew the top edge of the cup.
Pin it in that position and sew a small zigzag all around the bottom of the lace, that deep scallop
edge, all the way along. Once that's done, the fabric can be very carefully trimmed away from behind
the lace. But I leave a little extra fabric just at the top where the lace goes up and goes through
the ring. And this strengthens the whole area of the cup so that we haven't totally compromised
the strength of the cup by cutting the fabric away from behind the lace.
To finish off the neckline edge with lace and elastic, simply lay the lace right across the cup.
It doesn't have to curve, it doesn't have to do anything. We're just simply going to sew the lace
to the cup using a small zigzag all around the bottom edge and the top edge.
And then we're going to treat the cup, the lace, and the fabric as one, as if the lace wasn't even
there. And finish off that neckline edge with narrow scalloped elastic just the same way as we
did before. We lay the narrow scalloped elastic all the way along the cup neckline edge,
a medium zigzag next to the scallops, turn the cup over, trim the raw fabric edge back to the
stitching line, and three-step zigzag the cup. We've got two complete cups and we've finished off
the neckline edges. And we can insert these cups into the bra body, but they've got to go correctly
in so that the right breast cup goes into its correct cup space and so does the other one,
not the other way around. That would be a disaster. Pin one cup at a time into the bra body,
right sides together. Start pinning from the center, making sure that the finished top edge
of the centerpiece exactly meets the finished top edge, the neckline edge of the cup.
You really have to fit the cup right into the curve. Make sure the raw edges stay level
and that you're pinning right on the one centimeter seam line.
When the first cup is pinned into the bra body, sew it in using a one centimeter seam allowance.
As you sew this cup in, make sure that the bra body underneath is flat. Otherwise puckering can occur.
Once one cup is seamed into the bra body, pin the other cup in.
And then sew that in exactly the same way.
The next step is to sew the wide skull of the mastic unstretched all around the lower edge of the bra.
This lower edge elastic can be pinned all the way around the lower edge unstretched
in just the same way as I showed you before. There it is there.
Remember how we used the wider seam allowance? Well, underneath the cups here,
there should be just enough room to sew the elastic on
so that it can be turned over and topstitched down before that wireline seam there is hit.
There's our wireline raw edges. So it just tucks in there with a little bit of space left
underneath the cups. And you sew that on as to normal.
Once the cups have been sewn into the bra and this lower edge elastic has been sewn on,
it's time to put on the underwire casing. Now underwire casing performs some very important
functions. Firstly, it covers up these awful wireline seam raw edges around here.
Secondly, it sits in the crease between the breast and the rib cage and absorbs perspiration,
making the bra more comfortable to wear. And thirdly, in an underwire bra, it contains the
underwire. And because it's such wonderful stuff, I even use it in under, in non-underwire bras.
I use the underwire casing to cover up any of these raw edges from the seams. When the casing
is initially sewn to the bra, it is sewn to the wireline raw edges alone. It's not sewn to the
cup, nor is it sewn to the bra body. It is sewn to these raw edges. It's not sewn to the cup,
it's sewn to these raw edges. It can be sewn to this cup side of the raw edges if the raw edges
are to be flipped out of the cup, or it can be sewn to the other side of the raw edges if the edges
are to be flipped into the cup. The only style of bra requiring the raw edges to be flipped into
is the small centrepiece bra. In this style, there's no bra body underneath the cup to flip
the raw edges out onto and topstitch them down. So they have to be flipped into the cup to be
topstitched. And you can see that here. There's the topstitching and there's the seam line.
The way these raw edges are flipped is important, because the wire is contained in the casing,
which is sewn to them. If the raw edges are meant to be flipped out of the cup,
the casing and the wire will end up sitting here. If I sew the casing to the incorrect side of the
raw edges and flip them into the cup, the wire will end up sitting inside the seam and the cup
will be too small. In this bra, the casing and the raw edges are to be flipped out of the cup.
The casing has to be sewn to the cup side or inside surface of the raw edges, so that when
the raw edges are turned out of the cup, the casing covers them up. If I mistakenly sew the
casing to the other side of the raw edges, it won't cover them up when they're turned out of the cup.
I'm going to demonstrate underwire casing application using this sample.
I'm going to pretend that this little seam here I've sewed is the wire line seam.
That this is the inside surface of the cup. The yellow part here is the inside surface of the bra
body and these raw edges here are the wire line seam raw edges. The casing has to be sewn to this
side of the raw edges. So I'm going to isolate these raw edges by folding the bra body back against the cup.
Lay the casing along the seam allowance. With this stitching here on the casing, directly over the seam line.
And sew along this line, directly over the wire line seam.
Now you can see that the line of stitching I've sewed is directly on top of that wire line seam.
Trim back the raw edges quite close to the stitching. Fold the bra body out flat and pull it away from the cup.
Fold the casing right out of the cup and top stitch along the other line of stitching on the casing itself.
When top stitching, make sure that you pull the cup and the bra body away from each other so that
there is a lovely crisp seam line on the right side of the garment. To give a really professional finish,
I insert a sharp universal needle into my sewing machine and sew a line of pin stitching,
a pin width away from the seam line. I'm now going to sew the casing to the bra.
Pull the wire in.
Push both faster than the 좋아요 andмотря out of the
See another one and this one.
I've just used thiska oil for a second.
You'll notice that under the cups, the casing is folded down and topstitched over this lower
edge elastic.
And this stops any flipping up or folding under of that lower edge elastic when the
bra is worn.
Once the casing is topstitched down and the pinstitch in the zone, the centre ends of
the casing can be sealed.
At this stage, a sharp needle is still in the machine and it's still needed.
With a tiny straight stitch, sew back and forth across the very top of the centre piece,
using the low gear on your machine if you've got one.
Because of the thicknesses here, needle breakages can occur, so you may wish to hand wheel your
machine over all these thicknesses.
And if your machine doesn't handle sewing through thicknesses well, you may wish to
sew across the casing alone, just slightly off the edge.
If wires poking through are a real problem for you, a dab of washable waterproof glue
can be squeezed just down into the central channel of the casing before you sew across.
The glue combined with the stitching makes a stronger bond.
Trim back the wire casing flush with the top of the centre piece.
The wires can now be inserted into the central channel of the casing under the arm.
Because wires more often poke through the casing on the inside of the bra, rather than
on the outside, and because of the thickness of the outer fabric, I always insert the wire
into the channel so that there are a few more little layers of the casing between the wire
tip and the skin when the bra is worn, adding extra cushioning.
To keep the wire stationary inside the casing, it's a good idea to sew across the casing
above the side tip with a tiny straight stitch.
Trim the casing end back at the side so that it's one centimetre short of the fabric raw
edge.
This is so that the underarm edge elastic will be able to fold neatly over the end of
the casing.
Without us having to fold the casing over itself, creating needle breaking bulk.
Once the wires are in the underwire casing, it's now time to finish off this total arm
hole edge with narrow scalloped elastic.
This style of bra back is a regular style, and we've simply got to sew this narrow scalloped
elastic from the top point of the cup to where the elastic meets the strapping.
If the style of your bra back is a T-intersection style, the narrow scalloped elastic will have
to be sewn in its correct position so that where the elastic meets the centre back closure
edge, that vertical height will match exactly to the height of the hook-eye tab.
All hook-eye tabs differ in the spacing between the hooks and the eyes.
Some are very close together and others are further apart.
The raw fabric edge can now be trimmed back.
The three-step zigzag topstitching completed, and the rings can be attached.
If you can't buy rings or slides in the correct colour for your garment, consider spraying
white ones or black ones with a quick drying enamel spray paint.
I'm not going to stretch the elastic at all along the top of the spandex bra back, but
I'm just going to stretch the elastic slightly around the arm hole edge of the cup, just
to gather it in slightly to stop gaping in this position.
The straps can now be assembled.
Wrap the end of each strap around the central lug of its slide and stitch securely.
I like to begin with a zigzag and straight stitch then through the middle of the zigzags.
It's nice and secure.
With the front of the bra facing you, thread the other end of each strap face downwards
through the ring towards you, under the front bar of the slide, up and over the central
lug and down under the back bar.
The strap can then be sewn to the bra back using a three-step zigzag along its lower
edge, being careful to position the strap at the centre back edge with the height of
the hook I tab in mind.
Just to finish off this back section, I'm going to trim the strap off, cutting it to
the right angle.
I'm going to turn it over and I'm going to trim off all this excess fabric back to the
line of stitching.
You have a very neat result.
The I tab is sewn to the right-hand side of a bra when the bra is facing you.
The flaps of the tab simply part and wrap around the raw edge of the fabric.
And then you do a single line of straight stitching through all the layers.
The cut edges of the tab across its top and bottom can be secured with a line of straight
stitching right on the edge of the tab.
The hook tab is sewn on in two lines of stitching.
It too wraps around the raw edge of the fabric.
Trying to sew through all three thicknesses as well as wrapping the tab around the end
is too much to do all at once.
So I turn the bra upside down, place the tab on the right side of the fabric with the hook's
facing away from the garment and the middle line of stitching on the tab just past the
raw end of the fabric.
I straight stitch down the end of the tab.
Next, turn the garment the wrong way up with the inside facing you.
Wrap the tab around the raw end, shift your needle position on your machine to the far
right or put a zipper foot on.
Put a line of straight stitching down the other edge of the tab.
Using this method at no time should the hooks be facing downwards so that they can get caught
or meshed up in the feed dog teeth.
We've now drafted a pattern from a manufactured bra and produced a replica of that bra.
Making your own bras is an exciting venture to embark upon.
Bra making is a wonderfully creative and rewarding hobby.
Once you've made your first bra, you can fine tune your pattern and hone your sewing skills
and techniques and before long you will have a drawer full of lovely creations.
If you encounter any problems, either refer to my book or contact me personally on the
following numbers.
Good luck.
Thanks for watching!