Lingerie: Sky blue and white lace bra and undies

In closing this year's Stashbusting Sewalong lingerie month, here is my last lingerie make of the month, a new bra and undies set. After finishing my last lot of underwear, I was really keen to have a matching bra out of the same fabric, and starting plotting straight away how I would achieve that.

The Bra
Apart from wanting a new, pretty bra, I decided to try out a few different things with this one. The first was my attempt at using stretch fabrics for the entire bra. I was hoping that interfacing would be enough to stabilise the cradle section of the bra, but it still managed to stretch a little. I thought about using an additional layer of tricot or interfacing, but already had up to 7 layers of fabric plus underwire channeling to sew through, so left it at that.

The second thing I was trying, in preparation for my leap into trying a sports bra (see what I did there: leap - sports?), was making padded straps. This is the first time that I have done straps out of anything other than strap elastic. Flowing on from this, it is also the first time that I have made a bra sewing along both sides of this kind of strap with fold over elastic.

For the pattern, I started with my basic self drafted pattern (following Beverly Johnson's method), and then made a stack load of changes. Not that you can tell what any of these changes are from the outside of the finished bra.

(Top left) Original pattern (Bottom right) New pattern

I wasn't sure about how my changes would affect the fit, so I made up one cup from calico, and smoothed it over the top of the bra I was wearing at the time, which incidentally was the bra made from the original pattern that I was altering.

I just needed to take a tiny sliver out of one seam to make it fit (and sit) better.

You can see better from the inside the shape of each of the pieces.

I stuffed up a few things in the process of putting this bra together, and actually made a bit of a mess on the inside of the bra, so I won't show you close ups in case you think less of me. Seriously though, I love how this bra looks.

Matching Undies
When the inspiration for this bra was in fact making a G-string from this combination of jersey and stretch lace, it would have been remiss of me to not make a pair of matching undies. Nothing new to add here, they're the same self drafted pattern as the last pair, but with lace this time, as per the G-string that I made.

Fit
As amazing as I think this bra looks, it does have some shortfalls in terms of fit. Firstly, I made the back band slightly longer than my previous bra, as the last one feels a bit tight. This one feels too loose, so I need to use the middle hooks. Let's blame the slight stretch of the cradle, shall we?

Secondly, the top of the cup is a bit loose, mainly under the arm. I know the reason for this too. My other bras usually have elastic sewn under the arm, which I measure at 85% of the length, pulling it in slightly. As I only have fold over elastic in this area, it doesn't pull it in.

The next issue is that the underwire rides up. When wearing a new bra for the first time, I generally don't spend any time needing to adjust the bra. The first time I wore this one I must have pulled the bra down by the wire at least a dozen times. The reason for this, is that the underwire casing was not sewn over the edge of the elastic. The cradle pattern is the same as the previous bra, so this too seems to have been caused by the fabric of the cradle stretching out slightly. There's barely even a gap between the underwire casing and elastic, so it wouldn't have taken much to miss.

Despite these shortcomings, I'm sure this will still become one of my favourite bras. I really love the look of it, and having a matching set is always a bonus.

Well, that's it from me for another Lingerie month for the Stashbusting Sewalong. Our theme for June is unselfish sewing. Keep an eye on Sue's blog for more information.