1940's Bra Sew-Along - Adjusting Bra Cups

It's time to talk about the bra cups! At this point you'll have chosen your size and sewn your muslin (don't worry, no deadline! I'm just posting this now per request). Some of you will find that the bra fits pretty well on the first try (lucky you!).

Here is how the pieces are meant to rest on your figure.

Others will find that they need more or less room in the cup area. That means we need to make adjustments to the seam between pieces A and B.

Above is the seam we're looking at highlighted in blue. For reference, the top of piece A should be about 7" from where a shoulder seam would sit on a t-shirt. The pattern doesn't use cups sizes, as we discussed earlier, but that doesn't mean we can't make cup adjustments. For our purposes, it's a good idea to only adjust cup size one size at a time. This pattern is approximately a B cup depth-wise, and the increase (or decrease) rate is 1/2" per cup.
Warning: adjusting the cups beyond a DD can really change the shape of the bra and it might not look the same after. I'm talking about uni-boob, a very real threat.

This is how you will need to add or subtract allowance from the seam:

Due to the shape of these pattern pieces, I recommend adding the brunt of your changes to the seam on piece B. First trace your pattern pieces onto a new sheet of paper (leave some room around them to make adjustments. To increase the cup size, add 3/8" to uppermost curve on piece B. Add 1/8" to piece A. This will equal 1/2" in total.

Note: If your girls tend to rest more to the side than front and center (some of us carry more fullness an inch or two nearer to the side), then you can shift the added bit to sit closer to your fullest point.

From this added bit, you'll want to smooth the new line to nothing until it blends to touch the side and center front seams at the ends, as illustrated above.
As you add this change, you want to make sure that the seam edges on the left of this diagram stay the same height. These still need to match up to piece D later on.

Now, by adding allowance to this seam, you're actually lengthening the seam line and piece B won't quite match piece A any more. This can be fixed by walking the pattern pieces together to match them up. Measure the difference between the pattern pieces and then add the difference to piece A as illustrated above in pink. If you make any changes to the sides of piece B, keep in mind that it still needs to match up with piece C.

Do the same to remove too much room at the cup seam by subtracting rather than adding the 1/2".

And just like that, you've adjusted your cups! Now it's time to test it again in muslin to see if that sucker fits better.

Happy sewing,

Sewing 610... Spiderweb Silk Rosettes

And we're back with the next installment of Sewing 610!
I'm sorry that our quick break lasted a bit longer than the week I was in Nebraska. The trip back was not as painful as I had expected, but I found that I still needed at least a week of sleep, tea, and Downton Abbey to recover what's left of my peace of mind and get back to work.

So today, peace of mind in place, I'm going to show you how to make spiderweb silk rosettes.

These were added as an afterthought to my first bra.

If you decide to sew one of these bras, your options are really endless as to how you can add embellishments. Me though? I'm a bit of a stickler for historical accuracy, and just about every piece of vintage lingerie I have from the 1930's has some sort of delicate silk rosette on it.

Case in point: a gorgeous 1930's lace bra from my collection.

You'll want to make the rosette on the right side of your bra before you've sewn the bra and the lining together. If you don't, you'll have the ends of ribbons and thread knots tickling your cleavage all day long. Have you ever had a stray hair slip down into your shirt? It's like that - and it should be avoided for the sanity of all involved.

Here is what you'll need:

• a ridiculously small embroidery hoop - mine is about 2 /12" in circumference.
• about 12" of 7mm or 4mm wide silk ribbon. I bought my 7mm here and am thrilled with it.
• sewing or embroidery thread in similar color to your ribbon.
• 1 sewing needle
• 1 large (size 22) chenille needle (or a really massive embroidery needle, if you have one.
• a small button
• scissors

I highly recommend that if you haven't made these before, do a practice version first. I've gotten a lot of practice at this and I still do a test rosette nearly every time.

To keep the top of your bra from getting a bit deformed during this process, it's a good idea to run a simple line of stay-stitching across the top. Then mark a small dot where you want your rosette centered.

Place your bra (or practice scrap) in your embroidery hoop, but do so loosely and gently. It doesn't need to be drum-tight for this.

Place a small button or other round object the size of your desired rosette centered over where you marked. Holding the button in place, gently stencil a circle around it using a pencil or tailor's chalk.

Next, thread your small needle and using a straight stitch, sew 5 evenly spaced spokes radiating out from the center.

Thread your large needle with the ribbon, knot one end, and bring the needle up through the fabric very close to the center.

Give your needle a twist to curl your ribbon a bit, then draw the needle carefully first over, then under each spoke, repeating and twisting the ribbon as necessary.

Tip: to avoid piercing or snagging your fabric, use the dull end of the needle to do the threading, keeping the pointed end towards your hand.

Finally, when your rosette is as full as you wish (you'd be surprised how much ribbon you can jam into those spokes) simply bring your ribbon and needle through to the other side (piercing slightly in and under your rosette to hide it), gently knot your ribbon, and you're done!

If you wish to have a contrasting bit of stamen or pollen in the center of your rosette, you can do the following:

Bring a yellow thread, knotted at the end, up through the wrong side of your fabric and into the center of your rosette.

Moving on to the rosette on my bra now...

I used a small French knot for my stamen. To make a French knot, wrap your thread around the tip of your needle about 3 times, holding it all very firmly.

Pardon my nails, I'm in need of a bit of a spa day.

While still holding your thread securely wrapped, pierce back into the rosette almost exactly where your thread comes out to start with. Using the tip of your finger, keep the wrapped thread, slowly forming into a knot at this point, pressed down as you very carefully pull your thread all the way through to the other side.

Then simply knot off your thread on the wrong side and voila! A lovely little silk rosette!

I'll be back with more Sewing #610 when my much awaited, and much belated silk fabric comes in the mail. The fabric that I had chosen to line this fine little beauty with turned out to have snags and runs galore (a fit of epic proportion and duration was thrown) so I'm in holding pattern mode at the moment.

Happy sewing,

Finished UFO: My 1930's Silk Bra - Depew #610

Hello lovely readers. In our last post we talked about my getting back to sewing as a bit of therapy. I have been working with my hands for the last 4 days now and it has helped enormously! I finished a UFO project from before my mother passed away and also got started on a beautiful embroidery project. I'm feeling just a little bit more myself today.

The bra pattern that was sitting unfinished was about half done and was waiting for a fitting so that I could put my closure at the back. The bra is made using my any size draft-at-home pattern, Depew #610 and I'm so happy with how it came out. (Keep in mind that it fits me perfectly, though it's a bit off on Lusty Lulu - she's a bit more symmetrical than I am).

I used silk crepe de chine for the main fabric, and I re-purposed a soft silk vintage scarf (cutting around a few pinholes) for the lining.