on with the bra

Well folks,

if you have looked at my tatting blog at all then you may have seen that I am a little obsessed with attempting to make the perfect cup size vintage style bra to wear under my vintage and reproduction clothes.  I thought I would update you on my progress as last Saturday I actually went out in a bra style top that I had made from drafting my own cups.  I have been using articles from www.foundationsrevealed.com an absolutely wonderful site that has all sorts of help in the bra and corserty making areas, and the start of the bra drafting stuff is free, you don't even have to become a member to see it, see the ad on the side to visit the web site.

two size 12 cups

various drafted pattern pieces

To start with you draft a size 4 cup and then work out what your cup size is and increase or decrease.  During my first attempt at measuring I went a little wrong and made a cup out of the size 12 measurements. I have to say how relieved I was when I realised this didn't fit as it looked huge, not that big boobs are in anyway bad, but when I was younger I had a reduction due to back problems and if they had grown back that much I would have been mortified.  When I worked out I had miss measured and these huge cups were in fact too big it was quite a relief, so then I redraft a size 9 cup size and these were much better.  I haven't got round to drafting the underneath bit or back yet, so I just attached the cups onto a bit of material I hoped would work and with a bit of jiggery pokery it did.  The main lesson I learnt from this first bra is that I didn't round off the bottom cup enough so had a bit too much of a point, this I disguised by a little dart and some bows, it was for a fancy dress outfit so it was ok, and secondly accurate measuring is very important in bras.

I just added 3 oversized buttons for fastening on the back which worked nicely, the side was boned for support, and I lazily covered the edging in bias binding to save heming, no really I thought the contrast was good.

Now I am looking at getting bra making supplies, you know the sort of things hook/eyes elastic and the like, and drafting up the rest of the bra for my first real attempt, with less point though, and once I have that I am on to the bullet bra pattern, exciting.  

I'll keep you post on how I get on, you never know it could be another part of Honey Pot Creations - vintage bras, made to measure, it's the only way to get your vintage frocks to hang with the darts in the right place.  Let me know what demand would be like, or any other comments, I love to read them all.

more soon,

ally x