Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along... cheating nature a wee bit.

For our last post we attached our lining and I promised that the next day I would post a quick trick for cheating nature a bit. Well, 2 days later, and no sleep later (huzzah for medication side effects!) I'm just now getting my act together!

The pattern we're using...

Sarah however, has been more responsible than I and has another great post up on the ling line version on attaching the back of the corselet and adding elastic to top and bottom. Her bra is so gorgeous!


On to stuffing bras:
A long time ago I went through a phase where I wore nothing but soft stretchy elastic bandeau bras from urban outfitters. This was well before I learned to sew my own and I chose them particularly because I have scar tissue on my ribs, right where an under-wire would rest, and these were the only comfortable option for me.

Someone eventually (very kindly) pointed out to me that they looked somewhat unflattering on my figure so I got rid of them, but not before I had purchased several of each color. They had a great bra cup lining in them so I saved those and stashed them away in a drawer before throwing the bras out.

It turns out that they're perfect for adding a little extra definition to my somewhat miniature top half.

For my bra, I did a little experimenting with where I wanted it to rest, then simply centered the bra insert over my center seam on the lining side, and top-stitched it in place.

Then I folded the outer bra over the insert and pinned that in place matching my bra and lining center seams.

A simple and careful stitch in the ditch of the bra outer center seam and the insert was nicely secured in place at the center.

Then all I did was add a couple of invisible anchoring hand tacks to the outer edges of where the insert met the cup seam to keep it from moving about.

Voila! Nature cheated and my barely a B cup now looks like a full B cup!

I looked and couldn't find anything like my inserts for sale anywhere, but these would also do nicely:

Next up we'll be sewing our bra back closures. As discussed earlier I'm using a vintage French bra back closure. If you'd like to use one like mine, then you're in luck! My beautiful plush lingerie elastic arrived in the mail and I've been dying to show you what I was planning for it!

I LOVED how my vintage closure came out and I thought it might be nice to have a few reproductions available if anyone else liked them as much as I did. So far I have them in black, nude, and nude/ white with more colors coming soon.

How about you? Are you adding any unique notions to your bra?