The Lace! Halter Bralette
A Search For Fabric
This was a lot harder than I bargained for. I was hoping for a cute shop tucked somewhere in the shadows of Red Deer but nope! The only place is Fabricland...but that's a whole other post.
This is what I wanted. A lace bralette (the cute lace something from the Gowns To Lace post). I'm currently in the making of mine, but without a sewing machine it's taking a very long time (I can't lug that beast everywhere with me sadly). To sew this by hand, a whip stitch is perfect.
I would love to show you how to do this stitch on lace myself, but can not, at all, see the stitches on the lace. I matched the fabric colour to the thread colour pretty well. The link I inserted above is perfect though. The tutorial is done on felt, but other than having to do much smaller stitches and be a but more gentle, it is the exact same as when done with lace.
This is the seam from the bralette I am working on. The first image is seam out, notice how little the seam allowance is, you can hardly see it. The right image is seam in. As you notice I am not lining mine. I felt that my lace has a small enough knit so no 'nips' will randomly be able to escape as talked about in the video. I am also adding elastic for the band. To do this, I am going to make a 'sleeve' out of the lace to go around the elastic to keep it looking pretty. I am not at this stage, but I will share on here when I make it to that point (probably near the end of December, beginning January).
The reason I want elastic is because I want to be able to slip the bralette over my head rather than have to do it up in the back. If you are wanting the clasps like in the video, I would highly recommend going to Walmart and buying a cheap bra. This is cheaper (usually) than going to Fabricland to buy them. Also, you get underwire for any other projects, which is very expansive from a fabric store along with cups (depending on the type of bra) which are also very expensive in a fabric store to buy.
I am a C cup rather than a B which this video and pattern is designed for. I've done a few patterns like this before so I could eye ball is, but I will be sharing the measurements with you as soon as I get a tape measure to do so.
I ended up adding more of a curve than the pattern had and also raised it up higher as you can see. This makes the cup larger and more comfortable. An easy, non measuring way, it taking the pattern from the video, tape it lightly (you will want to be able to un-tape it) together as if you were sewing it, and place it on one of your own bras. This will allow you to see where extra room is needed. The reason to lightly tape is so that you can undo it and add in more paper for you to get the correct fit you want. For example, you may need to add a triangle piece at the bottom of the bust to add more room. You can also hold this pattern up to yourself to see how it fits and feels. Remember though, paper is different from fabric so it will feel odd no matter what. This just gives you a better, gneral idea if you'll be falling out or not.
As soon as I am don, I will definitely be sharing the final project on here! Maybe I'll be able to find a sewing machine to speed this up.
