More on the vintage bra

So Folks, 

I'm working my way closer towards the bullet bra in complication, today you find me working on a circle and spoke bra, again from an article on the Foundations Revealed website. They really are useful articles for helping me with my understanding/ability of drafting these 3D shapes.  

My very first attempt at a vintage bra was a pattern from MrsDepew on Etsy and as usual the cups were for a much smaller size girl, but the explanation of how to increase cup size that came with the pattern resulted in these things, they have very little 3D to them and definitely did not fit, may be I went wrong somewhere. I even tried darts in the bottom but that did nothing to help. Also, as you can see from these pictures I have a bad habit of rushing in feet first and thinking that the first attempt will be the finished product, such a waste of a lovely material, just as well you don't need much for a bra.  I am learning to curb this 'enthusiasm' but I do find it hard to be patient.  

Well the circle and spoke bra was patented in 1950, but as the hairstyles suggest it was made for quite a while afterwards. 

As you can see from the pattern pieces this is a 2 piece cup pattern and stitching should be easier to master, before attempting the 4 piece bullet bra with it's complicated concentric circle stitching. Wishful thinking, I hope not!

One thing I do keep thinking with all these patterns is that I must buy some A3 paper rather than keep sticking 2 bits of A4 together.

Well moving on, here are the bits of material cut out, a nice plain cotton to 'test' the pattern on. I'm saving the good stuff till I know it works this time.

Well first attempt at the circle stitch resulted in this, too much puckering I think you'll agree, so I went down to a thread tension of 1, through a number of slower steps, I kept thinking that it can't be any lower, but it was, and even at 1 there is still some puckering.  Incidental just like me I went straight ahead with the circle stitching on the proper cup not the thinking to do a practice number first, when will I learn.  

Testing the stitching on a spare cup (I seem to have a few around now)

But here we go I think there may always be a little puckering because it just one thickness of quite a light cotton, so I'm hoping that there will be none when I attempt it on thicker more realist bra material.  Hopefully later I may get on with the straps and other bit, but I will as always keep you updated.

Bye for now, ally x