Doctor T Designs

I was inspired to try the Willowdale after watching the Riff Your Willowdale class at the 2023 International Bra Sewing Bee. I’ve tried a few other Cashmerette patterns but I haven’t gotten past the muslin stages with those, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to fit. But, I am happy to say that after following a lot of the tutorial steps from that class and making several fit mock ups I now have my new favorite bra!

I don’t have a lot to say about this one; most of the trials and tribulations have been documented in my previous fitting posts, and I followed the construction order and techniques from the original Craftsy tutorial classes, with the exception of having fully lined cups using sheer cup lining and enclosed seam techniques.

I will say I am pleasantly surprised at how much I like the pale peach color – it’s just so pretty. One issue I ran into was that I realized my findings in this color were for 1/2″ but my strap elastic was for 3/4″. Now, I could have made an order and waited a week but I was too impatient for that so I ordered some rose gold findings in bulk from Amazon and I’m really pleased with how they look! I think they add a nice bit of flare to this bra.

For those interested in my fitting saga, I tried the Porcelynne Vertical Long size 42 wire in this pattern. Although the fit felt great when first putting it on, I think the wire is too long, as it tends to poke my underarm when I’m sitting in a car or not standing perfectly straight, and the bottom of the wire drops down towards my ribs. It is still a much closer fit than any of my previous bra patterns or wire styles, but it’s not quite right yet. I feel the wire sizing was better with the 40 Vertical Long on the Bravo Bra #2, but even that was a bit big. To try and help illustrate the fitting issues I have made the following diagram:

With both the Willowdale and Bravo Bra, the wires felt a bit too long, like it slid down my ribs because it didn’t have anywhere else to go. For my original Ruby and Freja bras, I had the opposite issue with the wire being too wide – in these the bridge stood away from the torso and the cups felt compressive, even when sized up for more projection. The goal (as I understand it) is to have a wire that sits in the inframammary fold with the bridge against the body. With the Willowdale and Bravo Bra I’ve achieved one of these fit goals, but I’m still having issues with wires not sitting at the IMF. Arguably this is something where the common advice is the band is too big and the cups too small, but I’m not sure if that’s the case here. I can tighten the band, but it’s not comfortable. Possibly the cups are too small, but when I made my original patterns before adjustments they were far too big and offered no support, so I’m a bit perplexed there as well. I think it’s just a wire sizing issue because going from the 42 to the 40 did seem to help a bit, and I will hopefully be testing out some different wire sizes soon to test this theory. It may be that I (still) started with too large of a wire line on these patterns and that I need to find an even smaller frame to start with and re-adjust the fit in that way. More to come with this, I’m sure.

Official Pattern Review

Pattern Description: The Willowdale is a full frame underwire bra with a 4-piece cup design. View A is solid with a stretch lace upper cup and View B is for all over lace. I used the pattern as a starting point and then made my own design alterations, so I guess you could say I generally started with View A.

Pattern Sizing: From Cashmerette: “Band sizes 28 to 54 and cup sizes C, D, DD, E, F, G, H, I, and J; includes full bust 31″-65″ (79-165 cm) and underbust 28″-55″ (72-142 cm)”. I decided to try blending band and cup sizes to get a better fit, so I started with a 36F for the band and wire line and a 36J for the cup sizes. I had to do quite a bit of alterations after that but it did give me a good starting point for the cup fit and wire sizing. The rest of my pattern adjustments are detailed below.

Were the instructions easy to follow?  The instructions are very detailed. I think if you have never sewn a bra they will be very helpful. I do like that they include information about stitch types and sizes for the different parts of construction. However, since this is not my first bra, I already had some other techniques which I preferred and generally didn’t follow the instructions exactly. I did follow the general construction order and it was fine.

Did it look like the photo/drawing when you were done with it?  Generally, yes! I think that my version of the Willowdale is very similar to the pattern, though I did not use the lace upper cup and I made mine a bit more full coverage as I was trying to get a good full coverage basic bra pattern. Aside from my design changes, the overall shape looks very much like the cover images and line drawings.

What did you particularly like/dislike about the pattern?  I really like the style and shaping of this bra. I’ve never worn a foamless bra that I really liked until I made the Willowdale. The pattern is also very easy to adjust because of the number and position of the seamlines. I think that this pattern gives a very round cup, which is something I have been looking for in a bra pattern and was really pleased with in this pattern. I did not like how much fabric was under the cups as part of the frame (in hindsight I am realizing the pattern is drafted for 3/4″ elastic and I was using 1/2″, but even with that the band was super long on me and keeps rolling and flipping up), and I felt that the opening was a bit wide across the back (reducing the support and making my straps want to slip off), but these will be easy adjustments to correct on my next version, so I’m not too worried about them.

Fabric used: I used duoplex with sheer cup lining for the cups and the front frame, with powernet for the back bands. I used the standard picot and strap elastics to finish the edges.

Pattern alterations or design changes you made:  I started with the 36F band and blended together the 36F and 36J cup pieces to come up with my starting pattern. It was interesting because the overall volume was probably “correct” but none of it was in the right place. I needed to raise the center front bridge by 5/8” twice for a total of 1 1/4” and raise the under arm wire line area by 7/8”. I later went back in and raised the under arm area again another 1 3/8” to also include elastic allowance, so it was 2.25” adjustment overall. To fix the volume of the cup, I took out about 1/4”-1/2” from most of the cup seams, and a 1” dart near the top inner portion of the cup. I also had to increase the height of the upper cup to match the new wire line from the increased bridge height. I took 1/4” out of the top part of the band side seam, and raised the lower part of the band by about 1/4” to reduce the fabric roll that happens there. By the end most of my pattern pieces were pretty drastically different from both the 36F and the 36J, yet the overall shape and character of the bra was very much like the original image. I am very pleased with how these changes impacted the fit.

Would you sew this again?  Would you recommend it to others?  I will definitely sew this pattern again. I have been on a quest to find a TNT bra pattern so I can make dozens of fun and well fitting bras (and completely overhaul everything in my undergarment drawer) and the Willowdale is definitely the front runner in that goal. I do need to make several fit adjustments for the next version: I need to make a narrower band in the front under the cups, I was a bit over-zealous in raising the underarm and need to lower it a bit again, and I need to move the strap attachment point on the back more towards the center of the body. Making a bra with these adjustments will probably be my next project, but after that I want to try self-drafting a pattern. I did recently get a bra drafting book, so I do want to try drafting a fully custom pattern before I settle on a TNT pattern to modify for style variations, but even if I do custom draft a band for myself I expect I will modify the Willowdale cups to fit it because I really love the shape and style of this pattern. I would definitely recommend this pattern to others – the drafting is excellent and precise and the instructions are comprehensive. While I deviated from the instructions because I have watched other classes and seminars with techniques I prefer, this pattern is great for someone who wants to get into bra sewing.

Conclusion:  Overall this is a great pattern and I really like my Willowdale bra! This is by far the best fitting bra I’ve ever had. I’ve never had a bra that properly sat against my front chest until I did a very extensive fit on the Bravo Bra #2 and on this pattern, so my recent bra sewing adventures have been a bit of a revelation. I’m very excited to make more versions of this bra in the near future.

Is this garment a “Triumph of Individual Style”? While I don’t think this very basic bra is a “triumph of individual style” it is pretty and definitely a triumph on the road to making a bra that fits!