The term "brassiere" seems to have come into use in the English language
as early as 1893.
Manufacturers were using the term by about 1904,
Vogue magazine first used it in 1907, and by 1911 the word had made its
way into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In the 1930s, "brassiere" gradually came to be shortened to "bra".
Today bras are in all kind of shapes, colors and sizes; lacebras are the most favorite type of bras. |
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beautiful
lacebras
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Part 2 of sewing a custom bra with a 3-piece bracup
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Bra with a bra-band and a “cut-and-sew” bracup (3 pieces)
there are basically 3 types of stitches,
Have a new stretch needle, a full bobbin of good quality thread |
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Take your underwire and underwire channeling
(casing)
put your wire in the channeling |
Cut 2 pieces of the underwire
channeling (casing)
the length is the length of the underwire + 1 cm at each side,
remove the wire from the channeling |
Sew the channeling on the bracup edge
seam stitches
leaving some channeling past the bra edge free ( 1 cm
above the bridge ) in the centerOr if you prefer this
Along the
bracup edge seam stitches
stitch in place as closely
to the seam of the bracup, as you can,
stitching along the channeling seam allowance
Leave a tail of about 1 cm, so you can feed later the wire through.
The underarm edge will have the
channeling “short” by 1 cm |
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Trim
away excess fabric, be careful, do NOT cut the extra 1 cm
of the
underwire channeling (casing)
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Leave this part of the bra, we are
going to stitch the elastic first. |
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Before you stitch your elastic, check the length of the bottom of your bra band.
Note how long the band is, than
take 80% of this length for the elastic. ( lingerie elastic )
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Pin down elastic ( lingerie elastic ) following
your pattern and measurements,
and divide the elastic equally over the length,
there is less elastic ( 80 % ) than length,
Now start at
the back of the band
First step; stop at the blue arrow.
Use a zigzag W 1.5 L 2.0 for first stitching,
stop at the blue arrow,
trim away excess fabric.
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Fold and pin down for second step; repeat this at the
other end |
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now pin down elastic ( lingerie elastic ) following
your pattern and measurements,
at the centre, at the bottom of the bra band ( between the blue arrows )
try to pin the elastic 1 cm below the underwire channeling (casing)
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Use a zigzag W 1.5 L 2.0 for
first stitching |
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Topstitching
- stitching with a elastic stitch
on the
outside
for the 2nd stitching
( topstitching )
from beginning to end, over the total length of the band |
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Now we have to sew the channeling down
the channeling must be at the center of the bridge; and just 2
channeling's wideStarting just on the inside of the bra, stitching with a
straight stitch the inner
curve down first,
If you're adding underwires, sew the
channeling down so it
also acts as seam tape on the bracup-to-chestband seams.
You'll want the inner curve stitching
to be along the bracup edge seam stitches |
The second row of topstitching can be done from the inside of the
bracup,
the outer curve
stitching to be about 1 cm away, on the chestband side of the bracups.
Or you can do that one
on the outside of the bracup, staying parallel to the first row.
You’ll usually sew on the
channeling guidelines
that are woven into every channeling tube.
Being careful not to make the stitching too narrow for the wires
to fit through so you get them inside. Stretch as you sew. |
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Underarm or armhole-and-back
Elastic length is aprox. 80% of the length of the bra underarm edge
measurement.Finally, finish the bracups top edges
and the top edges of the back panels with edge elastic.
Apply the elastic to the top (underarm) edge of the bra,
the
edge of the elastic should be next to the top end of the channeling.
The
elastic should not sew through the channeling - sew with a zig-zag
stitch, just
above it.
When the elastic is turned ( folded ) and sewn for the second time, with an elastic
stitch,
you
will sew through the channeling and cover the raw edge nicely.
The elastics went on over the channeling
and the boning and underwire channeling, went in. |
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I have a crème closing and a light
green closing with comparing rings and slidings, so I choose green |
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International Bra Size
Calculator
International Bra Size
Conversion
Bra Size Information |
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I have no matching
bra shoulder-straps
I will sew my own, by taking 2 length of yellow lingerie elastic
and 1 length pink shoulder-strap |
This will be a firm shoulder-strap Sew like this, attach the yellow
lingerie elastic on the pink shoulder-strap |
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The bra shoulder straps ( aprox. 50 cms
each. including the back length )
Measure your bra back length
take a piece of shoulder-strap, the length must be 80% of the length of the
back + 2 cms |
Stitching with an elastic stitch and
leaving 2 cms at the end Attach
the strap ring to the bracup top at the blue arrow |
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Fold this
2 cms end under and bar tack it in place (2 rows of
elastic stitches ). |
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This is how it look likes, the ring
is almost invisible ( at the blue arrow ) |
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Sew slides to the ends of the shoulder-straps
stitching with a zig-zag stitch.
Putting elastic through slide and ring to make it adjustable |
Pull the other end of the
shoulder-strap, the end without the slides,
through the ring on the bra, at the back
with right side in front of you, pull from back to front, towards you,
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Then through one side of
the slide en down the other, so that is done |
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Attach that same end of the
shoulder-straps on the front of your bra, at the blue arrow
under the lace fabric and
take care not to twist the shoulder-strap |
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Fasten hook-and-eye tape or other kind of
closures to the ends of the back panels.
I
prefer to use a 3-hook closure.
Attach with a straight stitch first,
(Hooks on the right, eyes on the left) to hold it
onto the bra back.
Put the bra on and check the correct length of the closure,
if correct, then zig-zag.
If not, adept the back
width and repeat above.
Very carefully stitch this in place as close
to the eyes as possible.
I use a zipper foot to attach the hook closure,
I find the regular foot is too awkward to
handle this task. |
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Sew the eyes at the other end and use zig-zag
stitch. |
The back of the bra looks like this.
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This is where you put the underwires in, this looks like a big daffodil |
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And use a straight stitch at each end of
casing, just before the end, to stop wires from popping out. |
Now you may cut the ends of the
underwire channeling (casing) just under the edge |
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The front of the bra, the bridge,
looks like this, notice that
the underwire channeling (casing) is 2 pieces width at the center,
the white elastic is very thin lingerie elastic |
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Sew thin lingerie elastic, close to
the top of the bracups, at the inside,
to have a perfect bracup, laying flat on your boobsmany women have one breast larger than the other
most women have some degree of asymmetry (difference) between their two
breasts
sometimes by nature and others after a breast surgery ( like mine )
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sew on a tiny bow or tiny embellishment of your choice to centre front
seam
this fabric is far to colourful to put anything on it |
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check the outside of my bra ( click on thumbnail to enlarge )
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I hope you enjoyed my bra making
tutorial, I had a lot of struggle to translate in English sewing
abbreviations.
If you find something incorrect, please email me, and I
will change it.
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