Doctor T Designs

As soon as I finished my bralette patterns I immediately set to cutting out my full Sahaara Bra kit from Bra Builders. I ordered this kit shortly after the Bra Bee and I’ve been waiting to sew it up. Now that I feel I’ve gotten a decent fit on the Sahaara pattern, it seemed like a good time to give it a try!

I had heard that the microduoplex could be challenging to sew and many people recommended using a microtex needle for this fabric, so I decided to start off with some stitch samples. Maybe my machine is weird, but I actually had the totally opposite experience and found that using a microtex needle caused a lot of skipped stitches, whereas using a relatively new ball point needle gave no problems.

I did use my very fine pins on this fabric though, and I think that helped quite a bit. I was really happy with the kit except the twill tape seemed oddly large and there wasn’t enough of it, so I swapped it out for some I had in stash, which worked a lot better because I had a lot and because it was completely encased by the fold over elastic.

For the construction I followed the written instructions, but I also watched several video tutorials, including the Bra Bee sew alongs and some of the video tutorials on YouTube. This is a really popular pattern and might have some of the best video tutorial documentation available for a specific bra pattern, aside from perhaps the Black Beauty from Emerald Erin which has also inspired a lot of internet tutorials and sew alongs. The only part of construction I found challenging was the center front point, but the rest of the bra came together really easily and the results look pretty good!

I decided to add sheer cup lining to the inside of this bra, and the insides are really clean and nice looking:

When I ordered the kit I didn’t have the foresight to add in a matching panty kit, but I recently ordered some jersey from Spandex World (only $4 per yard!) that matched pretty well. I didn’t have enough matching elastic, but overall I thought this wasn’t bad as a set, even if the bottoms are giving slightly Rapunzel-ish vibes:

Overall I am very happy with how this turned out. I’ve already worn it a full day and it doesn’t feel like I’m wear anything at all! It is more supportive than I was expecting, though not as much as in a wired bra. I still have some tweaks I want to make to this pattern to take the fit from good to perfect, but I definitely need to make more Sahaaras soon as part of my work from home under-wardrobe.

Official Pattern Review

Pattern Description: A wireless bra pattern with a triangular two piece cup and band and fabric options. From the designer: “Our new Sahaara 2 pattern is a beginner friendly, wireless bra featuring sheer tulle, solid or lace cup options. The light weight fabrics, low cut neckline, and minimal design gives the perfect relaxed look without compromising comfort and support. An optional waistband hem offers extra comfort and support.”

Pattern Sizing: Pattern sizes 24-46 AA-F or 26-46 F-N. I started with a 38K based on my measurements, but I decided to make a 1” FBA to the cup pieces and a few further adjustments (detailed below) to fit from there.

Were the instructions easy to follow?  Yes – I think the instructions are very clear. This is also a very popular pattern so you can find multiple tutorials for all of the views on YouTube, either through the Rubie’s Bras YouTube channel or on Liz Sews or Nikki G’s Sewing My Style channels. One thing to be aware of for the instructions is that they go through each step for all of the different views in order, and they offer some steps with alternative methods, so I would recommend reading through and perhaps adding a sticky note tab to the relevant steps before you start sewing if you are worried about getting confused. The instructions also offer tips for some advanced techniques that are detailed on the Rubie’s Bras website. I followed the basic instructions except I added a sheer cup lining layer so I mixed some of the instructions from View A and View B depending on the step.

Did it look like the photo/drawing when you were done with it?  Yes! I am a larger cup size than many of the promotional pictures, so probably that skews “the look” somewhat, and it’s a bit hard to give a full impression of the fit of this bra on a dress form because it is supportive but not structured with underwire, so the dressform’s shape sort of takes over, but overall everything looks very much like the line drawings and photos.

What did you particularly like/dislike about the pattern?  The only way to describe the fit of this pattern is “stupidly comfortable”. It’s soooo comfortable. It doesn’t feel like you are wearing anything at all, especially in the microduoplex and sheer cup lining fabrics I used, and that is really really nice. I also love all of the finishing techniques in this pattern – it gives a very professional finish. I did like that this was a fairly easy project to sew – the only tricky bit is the point in the center, which didn’t quite turn out perfect for me but I got it as close as I could. I also love the wide waistband elastic finish – it’s so clean looking and also so comfortable. This pattern is very different from the other bra patterns I have tried because it is wireless and does not have the typical round/circular wired cup shape. I like the style of this pattern because it can go from feeling very sleek and modern in solid duoplex fabric to being very delicate and pretty when made in lace. I really loved how the cups were stabilized with twill tape – it does a lot to help provide support without wires. I did not like that the pattern pieces were all on individual pages in the PDF. I find that it’s a lot harder to make size edits and adjustments when I have to print out a bunch of sizes individually, whereas I can more easily grade between sizes or make alterations when I can see several sizes nested on the same paper. Although I can understand that having single pattern pieces is probably easier for new sewists, personally I prefer to have multiple sizes per page to help make pattern alterations while I’m tracing out the pattern.

Fabric used: I bought a Sahaara bra kit from Bra Builders in one of their seasonal colors (Phlox, according to my order history). I had previously made a fit sample as a sleep bralette out of a cotton spandex, but since this is not drafted for very stretchy fabric I am only basing my review on the “real” version made from the kit, which was the options for View B (larger size) and contained microduoplex for the cups, regular power net for the back, and wide band plush elastic because I opted for that sort of a band. It also came with all of the necessary elastics and findings. I opted to add some sheer cup lining from stash (also purchased from Bra Builders) to add an additional layer of fabric and use the construction and finishing techniques from the View A pattern (I followed the View B instructions in my test sample, but knew I wanted a double layer of fabric for the final version). The kit came with twill tape for stabilization but it wasn’t quite long enough to stabilize the inner and outer cup as per the instructions and was very wide (maybe I was supposed to cut it?), so I supplemented with 1/4” twill tape from my stash, which was perfect because it was fully hidden by the fold over elastic. As a side note, I have heard a lot of people recommend using a Microtex needle to sew microduoplex but that actually gave me the worst results. I used a (relatively fresh) size 11 Ball Point and it sewed perfectly fine with that.

Pattern alterations or design changes you made:  I started with the 38K based on measurements, but the cups were too small in my first fit sample. I did a 1” FBA by lengthening the cups an inch and also adding about an inch total to the apex. After a second fit I had to dart out some of the extra length along the under arm and center front edges, and I took about 1/4” off the addition to the apex because I was over-zealous in my original adjustments. For a third version I did a 1” FBA by slash and spread. I preferred my outer cup from the third version and my inner cup from the second version, so my final pattern was a mashup of both of them, along with some darts taken out of the armhole edge and neckline, and a slight reshaping of the cup seam curve to better match the original. I will admit that I have a very challenging (omega) bust shape to fit, so it is not unusual for me to have to make these types of alterations; and honestly the changes on the Sahaara were not as extreme as I have had to make on some of my wired bra patterns. I also took 1/2” off the back band width and narrowed the center gore by 1/8”. Next time I would want flatten the apex curve slightly and perhaps take in the back band just a bit more, and I am considering changing the angle of the cup/band seam on the inner cup piece to rotate it forward slightly (essentially taking out another dart), but otherwise I was very happy with the fit after making my adjustments.

Would you sew this again?  Would you recommend it to others?  Yes, I am sure I will sew this again! I would like to try the lace version and some of the other finishes. I have other projects that I already have materials for that will be a bit more of a priority to sew at the moment, but I will take a look at my stash and see if I might be able to come up with a kit for another Sahaara soon. I would definitely recommend this pattern to others – it is well drafted and has a very extensive size range, good instructions, and beautiful finishes. I think if you are a smaller cup size you will likely be able to use this pattern right out of the envelope without issue as the style is very forgiving. I am already going to be recommending my sister to try this pattern as I think it could be a new favorite for her.

Conclusion:  I think the more I make bras, the more I realize that in terms of visual appearance, I prefer underwire styles where I can create a lot of structure, and the Sahaara is definitely the complete opposite of that. However, I will say that I like the finished bra from this pattern a lot more than I expected I would. This is the first time I have ever been able to wear a V-neckline in a bra (wired or otherwise) and not pop out the sides or center front, so that is really exciting to me because it opens up a lot of opportunities to wear this with different styles. I am very happy with the finished version because it is very comfortable, but I do think I want to work on making some minor alterations for next time to make it even better. I really loved using the Bra Builders kit materials – the final bra just feels expensive and luxe, even though it is relatively simple in style and construction. I’m very happy I made this pattern and I’m looking forward to adding more to my wardrobe in the future!