I'm writing this during times of the covid-19 pandemie where our government advised us to stay at home and socially distant from other people. It's a tough time but of course I don't want to risk my life or the life of others so I stay home and try to make the best of a hobby which I'm still able to pursue.
And because I have a lot of free time now as I don't work right now and my university is kind of on hold I thought I could tackle what I thought would be a more difficult project from my #makenine2020 plans. So I decided to sew my first bra!
As pattern I chose the Black Beauty Bra by Erin from Emerald Erin. Well I didn't chose this pattern in my original plans for 2020 but when the time came that I wanted to buy a pattern for my first bra, I decided on this one.
I discovered Erin on Instagram a while ago and really enjoy following her during the process of making different bras and underwear. And even if the Black Beauty Bra is not the same style as my ready to wear bras I decided to go for it and try something different.
It was kind of difficult to find all the supplies I needed for this because on the one hand the pattern and also the material list is in English and on the other hand I did not know any fabric shop that sells underwear supplies. So I tried my best with translating and googeling and discovered the german shop "Deine Dessous" where I found everything I needed besides the outer fabric (that was already in my stock - see my sports bra Bali).
Following the pattern step by step was easier than I thought thanks to the illustration Erin added to every step. Also choosing the right size was a piece of cake with her instruction - I sewed a band size 36 and a cup size DD based on UK sizing and it turned out great!
It kind of bothers me that the outer fabric got stretched out when sewing the cups and the cup seam is therefore a bit wavy. Also I decided to only have one instead of two straps connecting with the cup and powerbar and I'm not that happy with the transition. And third I ordered kind of the wrong underwire and it turned out a bit to short for the channeling but that's something I might change later.
Because in total this is my first attempt to sew a bra and it turned out wearable and has a really comfortable fit!
As the bra turned out that great and was kind of easy to sew (not bragging here just easy to follow the instructions) I decided to sew some matching panties out of the same fabric. And it might sound crazy but that turned out way more difficult!
I have to say that the fabric has a bit of a stretch but is not really a stretchy fabric. So when I first cut out a pattern which was designed for stretch fabric the panties turned out way to small and not at all wearable. Fortunately my boyfriend gifted me a small book with different panties patterns - Knickers! by Delia Adey and Erika Peto. So I just chose a pattern for cotton panties out of this book and cut a size 14 (also UK sizing).
The funny thing is these turned out way to big then. I really don't know why as I cut the same size I would have regarding to the comparison of German and UK sizing in this book but also there is no measurement chart included which is kind of strange for a sewing book. But making something smaller is much easier than making something bigger and it seemed like only the back piece was to big as the front sat quite well.
So I decided to try working with kind of a dart in the middle of the back piece and it turned out I had to remove 15! cm of the width at the back waistband to make it fit. Therefore I sewed a dart from the back waistband to the start of the gusset all the way down which for sure changed the shape of the panties back but also made them fit.
In conclusion I now have a matching bra and undie set out of this beautiful fabric and realised two more projects of my #makenine2020 plans. The making process was really different from what I expected (I thought the bra would be more difficult and the panties more easy) but this was for sure a learning experience.
And this won't be my last pair of matching sets - maybe next time with the stretch panties.
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