We are excited to announce that the Bra Bee will be hosting BRAugust this year on both Instagram and in our Hive Community. BRAugust is a daily photo challenge that occurs over the entire month of August with a focus on bra making. Each day there will be prompts that encourage sewists to share in either a photo post or a video. It is a fun way to encourage sewists to share and make pretty lingerie and a way to meet others who share the same interest.
A hook and eye is a part of nearly every bra project, and it can be tricky to sew! I’ve certainly wrestled with it over the years, but I think I have found a secret weapon – a little stack of Post It notes!
I know it’s a common practice for most people, but for those of you who are newer to bra sewing, start out with a fully made bra. Lay this out on your table so that you can see which side of the hook and eye goes on which side, and which side faces up and which side faces down. Then just match it, easy peasy.
I like to trim the very corners of the hook and eye if there are any little sharp edges. Even the hook and eyes that are stitched instead of heat sealed often have a little bit of heat sealing on the corners.
Then, open up the flaps that cover the area where the band fabric inserts into the hook and eye. This might be a little fused together with the heat seal, but it’s easy to open it up anyway. Pin or clip the “public” (the side that faces out) side of the hook and eye out of the way. You’ll be only working with the band and the side of the hook and eye that lays against the body at this point.
Sew the band to the side of the hook and eye flap which faces the body with a straight stitch. You can use a longer stitch length to baste it into place, and you can move your needle to the right (if your sewing machine allows this) so that you’re definitely sewing these two pieces together. If your presser foot wants to slip around and fight you, use the tricks in the next section to level out the presser foot with Post It notes.
Now you’re ready to sew the side of your hook and eye that faces out. You’ll do all your sewing from the public side (the side of the fabric and hook and eye that faces away from the body).
Remove the pins or clips that held the flap out of the way and allow the flap to cover the band fabric that is nicely secured to the private side of the hook and eye. Set your machine to do a zigzag stitch that is 1.3mm wide and 1.0mm long.
Place the hook and eye/band assembly under the presser foot. This is the magic trick – figure out where the presser foot is not flat and even. Generally, this will be either (or both!) on the back of the presser foot or on the side of the presser foot that is not on the hook and eye. Use a small stack of Post It notes under the low places to level out the presser foot.
Begin sewing along the edge of the hook and eye with the “public” side of the garment facing up. You can easily scoot or move the Post It note stack to stay even with the needle or to make the foot stay flat from front to back. The needle should land in the tiny space between the hook and eye and the Post It note stack.
The public side of your hook and eye will look perfect, and there will be an extra line of stitching on the private side. I just live with this. If you prefer, you can use water soluble thread in the bobbin and dissolve the line of stitches. You can also carefully remove the stitches with a seam ripper (this is where those long stitches are helpful). Or, you can be like me and just let it go.
This trick can also be used on long lengths of hooks and eyes like on the Odessa Corset Top. Just sew the private side first (you might actually need Post It notes on the first pass since the fabric can be thin and the hook and eye is thick). Then do the public pass with the small zigzag and the stack of notes. You can also use the notes to even up the foot when you finish the top and bottom edges of the hook and eye.
Let us know if this works for you, and post any refinements to the technique in the Hive. We’ll update this post as we gather these great ideas!
Alison Smith from School of Sewing joins us as a guest on the blog:
A corset is the ultimate fitting band. It can reduce your waist easily by 5cms or more if worn regularly. I’m teaching how to draft an underbust corset this year, but let’s take a look at what a corset is, where it comes from and where it’s going.
Women’s bodies have always been restricted or bound in some respect since Minoan times (a corset-like garment was discovered in a tomb made of linen and wool). Fast forward to the Middle ages and Catherine de Medici introduced the French court to a corset that gave a tight elongated body. This style of corset, and variations of it, were popular for over two hundred years and featured a wooden ‘busk’ to give rigidity at the centre front.
The corset shapes we think of today, date from the Victoria era. With the industrial revolution the wooden busk was replaced by a steel busk and the boning which had been wood, reed or whalebone was replaced by a flattened steel spring. When the bra was developed in the early 1900’s the corset went to an underbust garment that gave an hourglass silhouette. This style of underbust corset was worn by most women until the 1960’s when the mini skirt, tights and power net type undergarments made their debut.
Corsetry today
Today corsets are still popular, whether it be for cosplay, vintage style fashion or bedroom wear. So what do we need to make a corset?
Fabric
Traditionally corsets are made from a fabric known as Coutil. This is a tightly woven cotton or poly cotton with a herringbone or jacquard weave. The fabric has little or no ‘give’ on either the warp or weft grain.
However some modern corsets are made from laminated lace, drill and specialist non stretch lingerie fabrics.
Boning
A corset should be stabilized with metal boning for strength and to reduce and contour the body. It’s normal to bone the majority of the corset with spiral steel bones that are approx. 7mm wide as the bones bend in every direction. Spiral boning is available in pre-cut lengths or can be purchased in a continuous length that is then cut to size. The back of the corset next to the eyelets is boned with white flexi steels that only bend back and forth. There are many other types of boning on the market, but they are designed primarily of underwear and special occasion wear as they don’t have the structure to contour the body.
Busk
The front of a corset, whether it be a full length corset or an underbust, may feature a busk, which is a steel hook and stud fastening.
Corsets are fun to wear when made to fit you!
In the class at the 2024 International Sewing Bee Conference, we will be making a fitting toile/muslin of an underbust corset.
Here are the supplies you will need:
For the pattern:
For the toile:
From Anita on the Bra Bee Team:
There are several different options for supplies on the Amazon shopping list for this class. You do not need all of them! It is also not an exhaustive list of the supplies for this class, it is just there to give you a jumping off point.
For example, there are two options listed for pattern paper. Choose whichever is available in your area or feel free to find something similar (even plain paper will work in a pinch!)
I listed several styles of rulers. You really only need a straight ruler and a french curve. If you are just going to get 1 french curve I recommend the 24”. The 12” curve is great for smaller curves but you can get away without it. The clover curve rulers are great for adding seam allowances but are also not necessary.
I included zip ties on the list because they make an excellent substitution for plastic boning and are easier to find. But, here are some links for more traditional boning supplies too. You can use either traditional boning or rigiline (sew-through) boning (or the zip ties).
Hi friends! I’m Kat, and I’m guest blogging today to tell you about one of the things I love to wear – partial band bras!
I started my own bramaking journey in 2016 – like so many of us, it was a product of my frustration at the lack of bras that fit me in stores. In particular, I have a very small band size and a comparatively large cup – my last RTW bra that actually fit was a 30F. In addition, my sternum doesn’t lay flat like most folks’ – I have a bump that is sometimes irritated by underwires that come up too far at the centre front. I know so many of us have similar stories, but the silver lining of those frustrating hours spent in fitting rooms is that it directly inspired me to go home, google ‘how to make a bra’ – and the rest, as they say, is history!
Through a lot of trial and error, I discovered that I’m most comfortable in partial band bras. I like them because they don’t extend down onto my ribcage – the lower edge of my full band bras always feels like it’s sitting too far down on my torso even when, objectively, the fit is correct. Here are a few reasons you might prefer a partial band bra:
Or, you could just like the way a partial band bra looks! Even if you adore wearing full band bras, you might wish to try a partial band bra as an experiment, just to see what you think!
Bra bands are a critical component of fit – without a stable, structured band, the bra would be a garment that sat on top of the chest, rather than something engineered to provide the support we need – so how does this work when part of the band disappears?
Essentially, the ‘work’ of the cradle is transferred to the wires, in their channeling – complemented by the wings and bridge, which are retained, albeit in a different format. The straps also do a little bit more of the work in a partial band than they do in a full band – not lifting, but supporting the cup to stay upright when it has less structure underneath.
As there’s such a difference in the structure of the band, there’s quite a bit of difference in the way these bras feel when worn, and honestly the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to make one and try it out. You’ll either find, like me, that you love it – or you’ll find that something about the fit doesn’t quite jive with how you prefer your bras to feel.
Additionally, I find partial band cups can be quite fun – they offer an excellent canvas for experimentation, and they stand out differently than full-band cups because they’re not visually framed by that cradle. One of the bras I made I played into this sort of separate look, and modified my cup pieces to look similar to the ridges of a seashell, with seams covered in velvet ribbon. It’s still wearable as an ‘everyday’ bra (even with the harness I added!) but the seaming gives it something a bit extra, which would very much have disappeared into a full cradle!
Partial band bras aren’t for everyone – in the same way I’m not a fan of the way full band bras feel, you may not prefer a partial band. In general, since a bit of that band material is removed, they can be less well suited to the larger end of the size spectrum, and they do require the structure of the underwire to create support, so if you have a preference for wireless bras, they may not be suitable. That said, the conversion from full to partial band is pretty straightforward (you can check out my tutorial on that modification here!) so you’re only one bra away from finding out whether you like how you feel in a partial band bra!
If you’d like to sew a partial band bra, fitting the band is still the best place to start – just like it is for full band bras. This year, I’m teaching a class specifically on this aspect as part of the Bra Bee! It’s all about ‘partial band fitting bands’ – that is, creating a fitting band when the band itself doesn’t fully exist in the traditional sense. You can use this fitting band to create a well-fitting partial band bra, and make the experience of trying, modifying, and experimenting with different cup pattern configurations and styles even easier. I’d love to have you along for the class!
If you’d like to keep up with me and my projects, I’m kat.makes on Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube, and my blog is katmakes.com!
Many busty folks come to bra making after years — even decades — of frustration, having never found a perfectly fitting bra at the shop. Our underwires poke our armpits and sternums. Our tissue spills over. Our straps fall off our shoulders. So, determined to give ourselves what the big brands can’t (or maybe just won’t), we jump into making our own bras.
But here’s a mistake I see new bra sewists make all the time: jumping straight to making a full bra, and then getting frustrated when it doesn’t fit.
Bra fit is more complex than band and cup size alone. That’s why most of us busty folks have to try on multiple bras at the shop before finding one that sort of works. It’s the same with making bras — fit is a complex, iterative process. The difference is, unlike with shop-bought bras, fitting your me-made bras is a process of which you are in charge. But you usually can’t just make a full bra and expect a perfect fit on the first try.
My first fitting band! I made this out of cotton muslin, which I actually don’t recommend, as it will stretch on the bias and result in a less accurate approximation of how your final bra will wear. Instead, use sheer cup lining as an affordable, but more realistic option.
So what’s the better approach? I like to approach bra-making as a step-by-step process. Among the first steps of this process is creating a fitting band — essentially, a bra without cups.
A bra without cups? I’d never wear that!
Well, yeah. But it’s not meant to be worn! Instead, a fitting band allows us to isolate fit issues that may exist with the band and fix those before we start worrying about the cups. Fitting bands also leave the wire line seam allowance free so that test cups can later be added for further fit analysis.
A fitting band lets us:
The upper figure shows a fitting band where the wire does not fit the wearer — you can see the wire sitting fairly far back from the individual’s breast root. The lower figure shows a fitting band with a well-fitting wire and frame — you can see the wire sitting firmly within the wearer’s inframammary fold (breast root).
Checking wire fit is one of the most important aspects of fitting bands for busty folks. The ready-to-wear bra industry wants us to think bra fit is only about band and cup size, but in reality, wires come in different shapes and sizes too! So many folks need different underwires than those that are available in shop-bought bras. Those with large cups and small bands, like myself, are especially likely to have been failed by wires in store bought bras, as we are often narrow-rooted or even omega shaped, meaning store bought bras will often have wires that are just too wide for our frames. And when the wire is too wide, it can’t support the breast tissue the way it needs to.
Once these things are confirmed and you have a fitting band that fits well, we can then add tester cups to our fitting band — using that free seam allowance at the wireline I mentioned earlier, and preferably using washaway thread in the bobbin so we can easily remove and replace test cups — to see how the cups fit. For the most part, since we’ve already confirmed the fitting band fit, new fit issues can be attributed to the cups, and we can then make necessary adjustments mostly just to the cups.
Test cups made of sheer cup lining, before they are inserted into a fitting band. Here, I was testing a variation on a pattern using my go-to fitting band. Using wash away thread in the bobbin to sew test cups into your fitting band means you can use it over and over again.
Now, I don’t mean to imply that you won’t touch your band at all once the cups are in. Some critics of fitting bands rightly point out that cups affect the fit of the band such that a band that fits perfectly without cups may not fit perfectly once cups are in. That’s true, but, in my opinion, for busty folks, a fitting band does get us much closer to a well-fitting bra than just sewing up a pattern and hoping for the best.
But some tweaks might need to be made. For example, you might find that you need to increase the tension of the upper part of the band once the cups are in because the cups may result in a slight forward-pull that needs to be balanced by a slight backward-pull.
For the most part, though, once you have a well-fitting fit band, most additional fit issues can be attributed to changes that need made to the cups. For example, when you put on a bra that doesn’t fit and the band feels tight, this could be caused either by the band being too small or the cups being too small — too small cups will “steal” length from the band, making even a too-big band feel too small. But when you’ve already confirmed band fit with your fitting band and you put it on with tester cups only for the band to feel tight, even though it felt fine before you put the cups in, you can be pretty sure that the problem is the cups are too small or a shape mismatch, not that the band is actually too small.
I know that having the patience to take bra making step-by-step is a huge challenge, but I promise that us busty folks will find true fit quicker and with less pain when following this process, starting with a fitting band.
In addition to attending the Bra Bee, you can learn more about making a fitting band and sewing bras for big busts in Sew Busty’s Bra Making Guide.
As a boobalicious person, Lindsie knows first-hand that busty sewists have specific needs. She created the Sew Busty Community as a place for busty sewists of all sizes to come together for inspiration, resources, and support.
There are so many free online resources for bra making. Several of which I didn’t discover until I was far into my bra making journey. I love these resources for learning new skills, learning how to make a specific piece of lingerie, and some just for having on in the background. Today I am going to share my top 5 resources.
Emerald Erin
Erin has both a Youtube channel and a blog. I used Erin’s Youtube channel a lot in the beginning of my journey because I wanted to get the perfect Jordy bralette. Her videos make sewing her bralette a breeze! She has a lot of information on materials and other sewalongs. Erin’s blog deep dives into making a lot of different bras. Erin did a bra a week challenge so there is so much content on her blog.Liz Sews
Liz Sews has an amazing YouTube channel. I didn’t discover Liz until later on in my bra making journey but I wish I had discovered her sooner! Liz shares so many different tutorials, my favorites are when she shares ways to encase all your seams to get a professional look on your bras. I use her techniques daily as I make bras. She also shares how to change your bra cups into darted cups, 3 piece cups, etc. She offers a lot of valuable bra making information for free.There are so many resources out there. I would love it if you would share your favorite resources with our audience in the comments!
We are excited to announce that the Bra Bee will be hosting BRAugust this year on both Instagram and in our Hive Community. BRAugust is a daily photo challenge that occurs over the entire month of August with a focus on bra making. Each day there will be prompts that encourage sewists to share in […]
A hook and eye is a part of nearly every bra project, and it can be tricky to sew! I’ve certainly wrestled with it over the years, but I think I have found a secret weapon – a little stack of Post It notes! I know it’s a common practice for most people, but […]
Alison Smith from School of Sewing joins us as a guest on the blog: A corset is the ultimate fitting band. It can reduce your waist easily by 5cms or more if worn regularly. I’m teaching how to draft an underbust corset this year, but let’s take a look at what a corset is, where […]
Hi friends! I’m Kat, and I’m guest blogging today to tell you about one of the things I love to wear – partial band bras! I started my own bramaking journey in 2016 – like so many of us, it was a product of my frustration at the lack of bras that fit me in […]
