There are a couple of new bras around here + two new bramaking courses too! Until now I was teaching my underwired bra classes with the Simplicity 8229 pattern but now I’ve made a change and I’m using the Black Beauty bra by Emerald Erin.
The Black Beauty bra has a bigger size range and multiple options to use different fabrics and trims. I also really like that the foam cup option is directly included in the pattern. And supporting an independent patternmaker like Erin is a plus too of course :)
While preparing my new course I made a couple of different bras to show the options. The first one I made was with the peach + pink strap elastic combination. In that version I omitted the power bar (it’s a very easy alteration, you can follow this tutorial by Liz Sews to do it correctly). The second was the light blue lace with white findings and it’s the version B as described in the pattern instructions. For my third bra I used version A with foam cups and this time I used a very stretchy polyamide knit over cut and sew foam together with this nice wide fold over elastic.
Black Beauty bra + Eva panties
So both two new courses are based on the same pattern but you can choose between the regular cups or the foam cups. When using foam I’m also teaching how to have pretty finishings both on the inside and the outside. Both courses last about 8 hours and we cover measurements, correct sizing, wire sizing and of course all the cutting and sewing. This course is focused on construction, but I talk quite a lot about fitting and how to get to a point where you make a well fitting bra. As you can probably imagine, sewing bras is similar to shopping bras: the same size in different models/brands can result in a very different fit...and it’s not very common to try on the very first bra and have the best fit. Getting a custom bra to fit you well takes some time but with some patience it’s of course doable.
To help students with fit I’ve sewn up all the sister sizes that are included in this pattern (many different cup + band size combinations have the same volume and take the same wire, you can read about sister sizing here) and we first measure and try on different cup sizes with their corresponding wire. This step helps to save up lots of time in class! Once we’ve done the initial fitting it’s time to cut everything and to sew the actual bra.
I already teached my first class with the new pattern (and the brand new + upgraded dossier with all the helpful information) and I was super happy with the result. All three students finished their pretty bras and the fit was really good. In these classes you don’t really know until the very end if the bra is going to fit well (I’d say that it’s the only downside in bramaking, everything else is just amazing, haha) so when the result is that good it makes me very very happy.
If you`re making this bra at home (I’ve got plenty of pretty kits at the shop that are all perfect for this project!) make sure you follow the sizing information provided in the instructions. I usually always use a 36A for my bras, both in other sewing patterns and in RTW lingerie but in this pattern I’m a 32C and it’s the correct size for me (both sizes actually use the same wire size 34 so the cup volume is the same but the band is smaller). I know it might cause confusion but it’s always best to follow the pattern makers instructions as they have used their size charts and if you just go and make your “usual size” you can end up with a bra that does not fit you at all (I really liked that blog post by Emerald Erin where she writes about different bra sizing systems!). I’d first make a muslin in the size according to the pattern and you can just go and tweak from there :)
That said...if you’re in Madrid (or wherever I’ll be teaching the class, see my calendar here) you can come to learn how to make this bra with me (there are still free spots for this weekend, see all the information here!). And if you’re somewhere else I’d definitely recommend you to try out this pattern at home, no wonder it’s such a popular one among lingerie sewers on Instagram. If you’re looking for a kit to make a bra like this one (or any other bra) you can find a lot of them in the bra kits section of my shop.