Sewing bra in scale by hands
Thank You So Much
Dear , thanks for the tasks that you completed in the previous lessons.
After our previous tests and assignments, I’m sure we speak the same sewing language.
And if I say that now we need to cut out a pattern, sew a seam of the bra cups with diagonal basting stitches or ironing the fabric with walking movements, you will not have any questions, because you understand what I mean!
Let’s hand-sew a prototype of a 1.5-scale bra.
Look how cute it is, not even finished and made of fabric for sheets. Imagine that very soon you will be able to draw pattern and sew any bra on your own!
Let’s Go
You have a printed pattern
You also have a prepared fabric that you ironed in the lesson about first ironing skills.
1
On the printed pattern, you see red arrow-lines on the details. This is GRAIN line.
Almost all fabric is made from weaving threads together. This weaving technique means that the fabric has a grain. The grain will affect how the fabric moves as it’s pulled.
We will use the grain of the fabric in the pattern drafting. And you will see that for different fabrics, we will place the GRAIN line in different directions.
Types of fabric grain
- WARP – lengthwise grain
- WEFT – crosswise grain
- BIAS – diagonal grain
- WARP is the vertical direction, parallel to the edges of the fabric. This is height of fabric
- WEFT is the horizontal direction, perpendicular to the edges of the fabric. This is width of fabric
- BIAS is the diagonal direction, at 45 ° of the warp or weft directions.
- GRAIN LINE is line on the details of the pattern and it means how to put the pattern on the fabric. GRAIN line is always a parallel to the WARP line.
This is how it looks on fabric
Fact
BIAS is stretch on any fabric, also on non stretch fabrics
You may have come across a situation when in a store you touched a fabric and it seemed to you that it was stretchy. But in fact, the fabric was not stretch. This misconception happens because you touched the fabric along BIAS grain and you saw that the fabric was stretching.
Where and why there should be GRAIN line on the details of the pattern, we will study in the process of drafting patterns and in the process of cutting on different fabrics.
For now, we will just use GRAIN line that is marked in the pattern.
2
Cut out the bra pattern. We have 4 details: 2 details of a bra cup and 2 details of a bra band
3
This time we joining the two pieces of the bra band into one detail. I use paper scotch
Dear , each of us perceives information faster or slower, depending on our experience in each topic. Lessons contain tex, photo, video. If you have read the text or looked at the photo and you understand what you need to do, you can skip the video. If you are not sure about some step, please watch the video.
4
So we have a bra band detail in our hands, but this is half of the detail and we need to cut a whole band on the fabric with a fold in the center.
Do you remember ” Seam allowance” in lesson with sewing glossary?
We need to fold the fabric, and put the bra band detail in position that we have space for allowances around the detail. I will make an allowance of 8 mm ~ 5/16 inch around the band detail.
We remember: GRAIN line is parallel WARP grain
You can first fix two layers of fabric together with pins, and then pin the pattern. The fabric should be flat under the pattern. There should be no folds around the pattern.
5
We pinned the detail to the fabric and now let’s outline the detail and draw allowances around the perimeter of the bra band detail. I used a marker to make it clearly visible on the photo. Of course, the marker does not look very neat, You will use a pencil, soap or chalk, and your work will be more beautiful↓
For draw the allowances, you can use PRYM ruler
You can use my handmade rulers allowance I printed them on thin cardboard on a home printer
I made an 8 mm ~ 5/16 inch allowance around the bra band detail. Why exactly this number? There are several answers to this question. Today I will say one thing: almost all household machines have an 8 mm ~ 5/16 inch foot. It is very convenient to make an allowance that is equal to the width of the sewing machine foot and move the fabric along the edge of the foot while sewing.
For now, let’s continue drawing the allowance around the detail of the bra pattern.
6
Let’s cut out the first detail
Hold the fabric with your hand around the pattern. You can fix the fabric around the pattern with additional pins, so the fabric does not move during cutting.
7
Let’s place the detail of the bra band and two details of cups on the fabric. We place the details of the pattern using GRAIN line
Don’t forget about space for allowances.
8
Draw an allowance around the details of the cups and cut them out
After several years of regular practice, tailors draw allowances without the help of rulers. Or they cut the fabric by making an allowance for the eye. You may already have this skill or talent: try drawing an 8 mm ~ 5/16 inch allowance without rulers. If it didn’t work, take your time for get this skill.
9
Join together the bra band details, right sides to each other. What is right side|wrong side? Lesson “Sewing Glossary”
We fixing the two details together with pins, along under band hem. What is “under band hem”? Lesson “Bra Anatomy”
And make straight basting stitches 5-7 mm or 5/16 – 1/4 inch. How to make hand basting stitches? Lesson “Stitches on paper”
If you have a question in your head: why are we now basting the details by hands, if fabric can be fixing with pins and a seam can be sewn on a sewing machine? I answer you: when we will sew together the stretch lace, non the stretch mesh and elastic, it will be impossible to fix it all with pins and sew on a machine without hand basting.
We need to be able to work with our hands and feel the fabric. If this task is simple for you, then you will quickly complete it. If any nuance is difficult for you, please write to me about it at the end of the lesson.
10
We have the under band seam ready. Guide the allowance over one of the bra band detail and fix with diagonal basting. Before basting, you can pin seam allowances
This sewing operation is used in luxury tailoring. In next sewing lessons, you will understand why. For now, just repeat after me!
11
Now we will fix together the parts of the bra band with large diagonal basting stitches, the right sides are outside
As I said during hand basting, we do not need the perfect stitch length. We just have to understand and be able to make small, large, straight, diagonal.
12
Now we will sew together the details of the bra cups. First, put together the details of the cups and make small straight stitches. Then we will direct the allowance to one side and make small diagonal stitches on the front side
Finally, the piece of fabric starts to look like a bra!
13
And the last step for today is to connect the cups and the bra band
Do you know that there are different ways to connect the cups and the band of the bra? And yes, we will study them! Today you will see and try the method used in sewing bustiers and corsets. All depends on the fabric and sewing technology. I am sure that the more ways we know and are able to, the higher the level of our professionalism and the easier it is for us to work.
Dear , thanks for the lesson today. Every day we go to our goal. In the next lesson, we will learn machine stitches and settings that can be made on your machine for sewing lingerie.
I will look forward to your photo little bra prototype and answer for question! Thank you for your attentiveness in the lessons and for completing assignments!
Please note, that this task will be approved manually after reviewing your work. If your work needs to be corrected, you will receive an email with instructions.
Sincerely, Ela
Please, upload your photo of bra