Doctor T Designs

For those following along on my Bra Sewing Adventures, I recently experimented quite a bit with self-drafting some bra patterns. I was really excited to try making a bra using my self drafted band pattern to see if I could reduce some of the fitting issues I was dealing with after working through the Bravo Bra #2 patterns and my first few versions of the Cashmerette Willowdale. Although I was pretty happy with the basic draft of the cups, I decided that I would want/need to re-draft them to include a power bar and some other features that would help support my larger cup volume, so I decided to go ahead and use the Cashmerette Willowdale cups (since I really like the shape and style of them) and then alter them to fit my self-drafted band for the next step in my bra fitting adventures.

What I’ve ended up with I’ve dubbed my “Vanilla Latte” set because it’s come out as a really basic bra in the Emerald Erin Latte color-way. (Personally, I’m of the opinion that categorizing vanilla as “basic” is sort of odd because it’s a really complex flavor, but I digress. I’m willing to run with the metaphor here because food puns are fun.) For the bra I used almost entirely materials from Emerald Erin; the duoplex cups, powernet mesh, elastics, findings, and 44 Bliss (vertical) wire were all from Emerald Erin. I really like how the super wide fold over elastic looks on the upper cups. The only materials I used from elsewhere was the sheer cup lining, which was from Bra Builders. Since I’ve been really needing to overhaul my entire underwear drawer, I decided to make a matching set with my self-drafted panty pattern. It’s always useful to have some really basic undergarments available, and I have a nice collection of some really soft rayon jersey that I ordered from Spandex World that is super soft and very stretchy, so that seemed perfect to use here. It’s not a perfect color match, but it’s not bad considering it’s a very different fabric.

I made another Gothic Arch with thin band style with enclosed seams like I had done with my previous Willowdale because I really liked those construction details. The rest of the construction is pretty standard with how I’ve been making things, generally following the techniques from the Bra Sewing & Construction Craftsy class.

Overall I’m really happy with how this turned out. It’s not completely perfect, but all the things I want to tweak are pretty minor changes. At this point I want to redistribute the height on the band under the arm – I’d like it about a half inch higher on the upper edge but also about a quarter inch higher on the lower edge. I’d also like to try the technique outlined in the Bra Makers Manual to rotate the back hook downward so that it counteracts the back band riding up (it’s not bad, but it could be a bit better). I also think I need to adjust the area under the cups a bit – I already have a thin band but it’s still having issues flipping up, so I think I need to go super aggressive in creating a super thin band under the cups. Up to this point I’ve been using 1/2″ elastic but I should probably try 3/4″ elastic in my next version, just to see how it feels. I also need to remove about 1/2″ from the width of the back (powernet) part of the band and take out a slight dart from the upper cup piece. I think that the upper cup feels a bit loose because the previous pattern was using the Long Vertical wires from Porcelynne, so there was more tension higher up in my previous iterations. The bridge is sitting pretty flat against my chest and the wires finally feel like the right size, so I’m pretty sure the 44 Vertical is going to be my basic wire size moving forward.

As a side note, astute readers may have noticed that I’ve changed up the padding on my dressform a bit. I actually haven’t removed any of the padding from the bust, but I took off the larger form cover; it never really fit right because it was too stretchy and probably too large. I was having issues where the larger cover wouldn’t “suck in” to the form, and even though I tried using different ways to try and correct this, the overall form was just stretched too big in areas that it shouldn’t be because the cover was expanding out to the size of the largest padded area. I think I’m pretty happy with how the form is right now but I think I might need to get some additional bust padding for bra blog photos, even if it is just externally added to cups to fill them out for pictures.

I think I’m going to try another iteration making the minor fitting tweaks I listed above, but I’d like to play with some fun design elements on the next version since I’m pretty confident about the fit at this point. After that I’d like to do at least one foam cup version because although I’m pleasantly surprised with how the fabric cups are working for me, I still want to have some foam cup options. After that I’m probably ready to move on from the Willowdale and would really love to try some different bra patterns (I’m a bit obsessed with some of the vertical seam cup styles at the moment), but I’d also like to go back to fitting the Sahaara wireless bra pattern, since my first attempt on that pattern was a total bust. I feel like I can use my self-drafted band to expedite the fitting process quite a bit since I now have a really good pattern to compare to determine starting sizes and wire lines. Even though this bra wasn’t perfect, I’m really happy with how far I am on my quest for the perfect fit and I am super excited to move forward with my next few projects!