Learn to sew your own Lingerie - Bra making (class 4 of 4)

1. Bra making Intro : Hi there, and welcome to the last class of the laundromking series. In this class, we are going to be sewing a wide bra. This really completes the set. You've got your foundational skills, which we did in class one. You've got your knickermking skills that we did in class two, and you've got your bralet making skills that we did in class three, and now you'll have your wired bra making skills in class four. I know that everyone really loves doing the wide bra making skills. I feel like this is probably the most exciting one. You're new here, then definitely catch up on the series because we would have learned other techniques throughout the different classes and then you can apply these to the Bami in this class. Just as before, I'll be guiding you through all of the steps to create your own wide bra. By the end of the class, you will have all the skills to be able to make your own rosette. I would absolutely love to see what you have made. So definitely upload those in the project files. And now you'll have the skills to be able to take these where you want, whether you want to create more of laundro for yourself, whether you want to create pieces for friends or family, or you could even start your own business. There are so many things that you can do with these skills. So just like the last classes, I'll be going through all of the steps that you will need to create the bra. And like the last classes, some of the steps I won't go over as much because we would have done them in the other one. And so definitely check out the others first. Just like with my other classes, there's a lot of focus on the lingerie materials because there's so many different materials needed to create the bra. So don't worry about that because I tell you all about the different materials that you'll need. I'll also be going through the Y that you need for the bra, and there's also a video on comparing different Ys because you get different o shapes. So I've really thought about every step. For these classes. So, yeah, I hope you really enjoy the class. Like I said, definitely poked up your project makes. Love to see them, and I really hope you enjoyed this series. 2. Fabrics for Bras Skill Share: Okay. I have a table full of different fabrics. For the daisy brra, we'll be working with basically three different areas, I would say, where you potentially need three different types of fabric. So let's start with the back band because that's the easiest one. The back band needs to have a stretch fabric and it needs to have a really good stretch retention. If you use, for instance, cotton jersey, even with elastine because there's so much pressure in that area, the back band bra really does create most of the support in a bra and therefore has a lot of pressure on it. You need a fabric that's going to be able to handle that. A sy, even with elastine it's not going to be able to handle that. You could line the jersey with a power mesh or power net. This is, as we've spoken about before, power mesh and power net. This is more of a power mesh because it's lightweight one, but actually it does have quite a good stretch retention. It's not a fine flimsy one. It's quite strong. Something like this, you could use by itself, or you could use it to line another fabric as well if you want the continuity throughout the garment. The back band is really important to get right. If you do use something it doesn't work, it doesn't have that stretch retention, isn't really strong, then you're going to really notice that when you wear it. I would say probably the most important part. Here is big power mesh, and I've got a few different versions as well. This one is, as you can see, a lightweight, bit strong one, which is quite handy. This one here is actually a bit more flimsy, it's not a stiff. Again, it's quite transparent. It's actually a little bit thicker than that other one, but it's not actually as strong. But again, this would be perfectly fine. This is a light to medium weight power mesh. Then I only have remnants of this one. I've used a lot of it. But this is a thicker power net Powernet power mesh. Even though it's thicker, it's not necessarily stronger than the fine one here. But again, perfect perfectly fine to use for the back band because it has that great stretch of tension like all power nets and power measures do. The last one, I've got to show you is a very strong power net. It's really, really strong. This would be used for larger cup sizes. If you have a larger bust, you will need extra support to be able to support the weight of the breast. Like I said, because the underband or the back band, particularly holds that pressure, it needs to be really strong. This is a really strong power net. If you have large bust, that would be what you would need. Let's go on to the cradle. The cradle of the bra, is this area here? So you've got the bridge, the center front and you've got the cradle and that's the underarm area. The cradle always needs to be rigid. If the cradle isn't rigid, it's not going to hold the wires right. The wires will move around and it just won't work. The wires won't work as they are supposed to work. It might feel twisted. The wires might be slipping everywhere. For the cradle, you really do need a rigid fabric. There are specific technical fabrics. That we use to stabilize the cradle. I'll show you what I have. Here is a brass stabilizer fabric and it is completely rigid in both ways. However, it is very fine. For this fabric, you would definitely most likely have to get it from a lingerie specific supplier because it's just not the type of fabric you would get from your average fabric shop. They probably wouldn't even know what it is to be quite honest because it is very specialized. So this fabric would be a liner. You wouldn't really want to use this fabric as the outer fabric because it's not particularly nice to the eye. You would basically line another fabric that you wanted to use with this stabilizer. You could potentially use a stretch fabric and stabilize it with this, but that could be a little bit tricky, but it completely doable or you would use another rigid fabric. You've got a tule here, you've got lace, ace is obviously very common in bras, that could be rigitized and used as the cradle. Here, you've got another type of lace and all over lace, that could be rigitized. Here we have a simplex fabric which is actually a knit fabric. And it just has a very low stretch on it, which is actually perfect for making bras and I'll explain why in a minute. But you could rigitize this for the cradle as well. There's lots of different fabrics you can use for the cradle because you know that you can rigitize it with the brass stabilizer, that's really great. The other one you can rigitize it is Batule. It's basically a rigidule fabric, as you can see, has that honeycomb structure to it. It's not quite as rigid as the brass stabilizer, but it can still definitely be used because this way, along the grain, along the salvage, it doesn't stretch at all. It's completely rigid. Then along the width, it has a tiny give to it, but you can work with that. Cradle the priority of the rigidness needs to be across the body. Potentially, you could have a little bit give or a little bit of stretch on the vertical. But the most rigid you can get it is best. But the priority is around the body. You can use this to line other fabrics as well, or you could just use it by itself, if that's what you wanted, nice transparent fabric. But you would have to make sure that you cut it so that the completely rigid way, so along the grain is going around the body. That's another option, slightly nicer because it is just a slightly nicer look on the brass stabilizer fabric. So that's the cradle. We've done the underband and we've done the cradle, and then we go onto the cups. The cups need to be rigid because this is a rigid pattern. Generally, most bra patterns you would need rigid or low stretch fabrics. The reason why we don't use stretch fabrics on the cup is because it won't hold the breast how it should do, won't act as that support. But if you want that relaxed look, then you can. It's not a written rule. Few wired bras with stretch fabrics or a low stretch in them. I actually really like the more relaxed fits. It's not like a written rule. But obviously, the pattern is made for a particular type of fabric, you might have to adjust the pan if that's what you wanted, and this one is made for a rigid or low stretch fabric for the cups. The fabric that you can use for the cups, you could use this tule here and you would have the slight mechanical give going around the breast so they can fill out the roundness more. You could even potentially use a jersey fabric and line it with a stabilizer fabric like the tool or the stabilizer to make it rigid. Or you can use a rigid lace again. But because it's not a very stable rigid fabric, as in the middle part here has a lot of mechanical give, but then the end where there's more decoration doesn't have quite as mechanical give, then that would need to be rigidized as well. You'd need a liner with that. A til would be absolutely perfect to use rigid til and a rigid lace is a really good combination to use and the stabilizer as well. So you really can use a lot of different fabrics for the cups. Here I've got this is a viscose lawn. Yeah, you could make the cups out of this, and you can see that this fabric is rigid. Along the width, there is just slightly more give. When you cut out your pattern pieces, make sure that the give is going around the breast. Um, that way. The other one that is potentially really quite good to use is a low stretch knit fabric. This is a simplex fabric and it is a Trico knit. You can also get a duoplex as well, which is polyester and this is a nylon. Although it does have a bit stretch as you can see, because it's a really tight stretch, it really does hold its form because it does have a tiny little bit of stretch, it can actually improve the fit of the cups as well because it can allow the breast to stretch out a very tiny amount within the cups and make a more rounded look. The simplex and the duoplex is a really good option for that. I know it's not particularly pretty especially the garish white, but you can then put a rigid lace or a stretch lace on top of that. That would almost be your liner like that, and then you would have a bra that just has a tiny tiny but very strong stretch to it, that could fit the breast really well. There's lots of different options when it comes to making bra cups. The only fabric I'd stay clear from is very stretchy fabrics for the cups and thicker fabrics are made for outwear. In my past, I did a lot of experimentation with the different types of fabrics. I have created bras with fabrics that you wouldn't usually expect. They're not your usual lingerie fabrics, but I did, and they are still wearable, but because of the thickness, they are a bit clumpier underclothes and it was definitely harder to work with harder to make. That's something to bear in mind as well. 3. Elastics and components for bras Skill Share: So now we get onto the components and elastics that you'll need for the bra pattern. You need three different types of elastics. These are very similar to the bralet one. I won't go through them really detailedly because you can catch that in the last module. You'll need your bra strap elastic in whatever width that you choose, and then you'll need the accompanying rings and sliders for that. And then you will need your top edge elastic. The top edge elastic needs to be something that has quite a good strength, and so either won it's called bra plus elastic. It's plush on one side and it's plain on the other. The plush side goes next to the skin, which is why it's called bra plus elastic. We can use a knitted elastic, but make sure it is quite a strong elastic because there will be a bit of strength and especially if you are larger bust, you definitely might want to go for the woven elastic instead. You could also potentially use a strong foldover elastic. This is actually quite a strong one. You could use that on the top edge. Make sure it's not too thin as well. This one is a 16 mill width. That means it's eight mill on one side, you wouldn't want to go any less than that. Some foldover elastics are really flimsy, they're not made for lingerie, don't use those ones. Then we have our underband elastic. Now the underband elastic is a bit different to the Bale one because we're going to be flipping this elastic under like we do with the top edge as opposed to having it on the top, you won't be able to see the elastic. You'll just be able to see the decorative edge. This is called a bra plus elastic. It has a plush on one side and it has plain on the other. The plush goes against your skin, so it's all nice and soft. It's a woven elastic. Make sure that it is a woven elastic or has a really good strength to it because the knitted elastics won't be strong enough for the underban. The underband is a place where I hold a lot of pressure. Um, and if your elastics aren't strong enough in that area, the bra won't function how it should do. The minimum width for the elastic for the underband is ten mil would not go any less than ten mil. If you are larger bus size, then you go um to 20 mil. I think this one is a 14 mill. Um and this one's actually really quite soft on that side as well. Up to a 20 mill, you could go depending on your size. Generally, if you are over a double D cup, then you need to go for a slightly wider underband elastic. Then the other bits and bobs that we need for the bra is, of course, the underwires. I'm going to do a few videos, explain all about the underwire. They won't go in it too much, but you will need the underwires for this bra and these are plunge underwires. Then you will also need a continuous plastic boning. Plastic boning goes in the side seam to support the material there to keep it upright. This is cut to size, but usually it comes in lengths that you can water by the meter. It's just a plastic boning, so it does have flexibility to it, so it can move with the body. It's not completely rigid. But yeah, it really does help with that structure on the side seam. Then with that, we will be inserting our underwires and our boning into this thing here, what we call is underwire channeling. Underwire channeling is basically a tube of fabric. It has a hole in the middle so you can insert the wire. I could see a bit better like that. This side here that's really fluffy, that goes against the skin, so it's really nice and soft. It's really thick so you won't feel the wire pressure on you. You can get different widths of these. Usually, it's about eight or ten mil. I would try to go for the ten mill because they are just easier to use to be quite honest. So so this is underwire channeling and we'll be inserting the boning into this as well. And then of course, you need the hook and eyes. We didn't do the hook and eyes on the bralet. Hook and eyes are the back fastener. You've got the eye part and you have the hook part. This goes on one side of the band and this goes on the other side of the band. You can hook your bra at the back and at different lengths as well because the body does change throughout the day, so you need that flexibility. You can get different colors of hook and eyes so you can match them up with your fabrics as well. This one is more of a fluffy texture, which is really soft. Whereas this one is just a plain texture, which isn't quite as soft, but they always have a plush side on the back. They're always super soft on the back. Then the last thing is seam tape. Seam tape is used to finish off the seam allowance on the inside of the bra. I'm going to be showing you how to do that as well. This comes in a cut length by the meter. It's not always pre pressed. If yours doesn't come pre pressed, then you'll have to press it yourself, or if you've got a biased binder maker, then that would be really useful for this as well. Yeah, this isn't an essential for this pattern because the way we're going to be making the bra is going to be slightly different. I am going to show you how to use this as well, so you can do it that way. I think that completes all the things that you will need. With the boning, I just wanted to say you'll need two of these. I've only got out one, but you need two of those. Or if you've got it by the length, then you'll be cutting it down to size anyway. Yeah, I think that completes the components and elastics that you'll need for the bra pattern. 4. Analyisis of different types of wires skill shar: So here we have a selection of bra wires. Now, bra wires are pieces of very fine metal, usually coated in a plastic or resin material. They are placed around the cup area. This is called the inflammatory crease of the breast and their function is to keep the fabric close to the body at this area. So by doing that, you can then get a much more accurate fit in bras and that's why the breasts are have a much more defined look with wide bras. Contrary to popular belief, they do not actually support the breast anymore. Imagine just having underwires under your breast, you'd still need the fabric to give it that support. They work together with the fabric to create a really defined look of the breast and potentially extra support as well that you might not get in a soft bra. So you get different types of bra wires. Here this is your average wire. This kind of wire would be perfect for an everyday bra. Then we have up here, we have some plunge wires. Now plunge wires are a bit shorter. In length than the day wear wise. If we just take this one away because that's the same size, I can show you can see, put this one on top, but that is a lot shorter and it also has a tiny bit of extra width as well here. So that is common of the plunge wire look. The plunge wires, they can direct the breast tissue inwards more. Then we have another wire here. This wire is slightly longer than the daywar wire. If I put this against here, you can see that this is even longer. Now, this would make this perfect for a strapless bra or something that hasn't got much support when it comes to the straps. And then here we have a monowire. A monowire is basically two wires put together, but it is joined at the center front, but as you can see, is very flexible and it's not actually sitting flat on the table and that allows for movement on the body. These ones in particular, they are quite high at the under arm but they obviously are very low at the center front. If you have a sensitivity to bra wires on your sternum, then a monowire is a really good wire to use for that because you really don't feel the wire as much as you would do if something like the day were wire. So when it comes to knowing which way they go around, you can generally see sometimes they're a bit harder depending on the wire. This here is the center front and this here is the underarm. You can see the underarm if I put my hand there, it's just slightly more splayed out. That's how you can tell that's the underarm area and also it is higher as well, and that's usually a common feature as well. Here we have the plunge wire and this is what we are using for the bra that we are going to make. I've got three different sizes of the wire here so you can see, all of the different sizes. But this is the size that matches these ones. So as you can see, they are a lot shorter and they allow for that plunged look. 5. Choosing size and wire size skill share: So now we get on to choosing the right size for you. You'll need to take three different measurements to determine your size for this pattern. Firstly, you take your underbst measurement here. And that's the same measurement as we took for the Brat pattern on the last module. You need to hold the tape measure around under bust, under your breast and measure the circumference. Then you need to take that measurement and match it up to the bondsize. If you measured let's say 75 centimeters, you would be a bond size 34. If you measured in between, if you measured say 77 centimeters, I would still go for a 34. If you measured 78, I would go for the 36. Then the other two measurements are measuring the volume of your breast. The first one is the bust depth, which is from under your bust here, also known as the inflammatory crease to your fullness of your bust, which is usually your nipple point. So we call that the point of bust. Ideally, you need to be wearing a fairly supportive bra to be able to measure this accurately. Don't wear a padded bra. It's good if it is a wired bra because then you've got the definition under the breast, which you might not get with a soft bra. Yet, if you can take it as precisely as possible. The best thing to do is measure both of your breasts and go with the size that's bigger. When you're taking the measurements, wear a supportive bra, no padding, possibly wide if you have a wide bra, and this is even more so if your breaths don't hold the faunas themselves because the breast tissue needs to be lifted up into the cup to be able to be measured accurately. Take that measurement and write it down. The third measurement is the horizontal hemisphere. That is, again, we're taking the volume of the cup here, but we're taking it horizontally instead vertically. So you need to take the measurement from the center front, not the center front of your body, but the center front of the breast, where the inflammatory creases. Were the breast tissue starts at the center front and then where it ends at the underarm as well. You should now have three different measurements. Let's come on to the second page. You've already determined your band size. Then the next thing you need to do is to determine your cup size. The cup sizes are one to seven. You need to match up your measurements to the cup sizes. If your bus stepth measured 85 millimeters and your horizontal hemisphere measured 200 millimeters, then your cup size would be size three. Then you would take your band size and your cup size and put it together, so you've got 34 and three. That is your size for this pattern. If for instance, you've taken your measurements and say you have 85 millimeter bus depth, but you have 224 millimeter horizontal hemisphere, then I would go with the middle, so the average one, then you would be a size four. The last thing you need to determine is the wire size. Here are all the different sizes and I've also put the UK bra sizes in brackets as well, just so you can make that reference. For instance, we measured, what was it three and 34, that's a 34 B. So the size of the wire that you need is a 34. This is the wire size. Even if you measured a three and 30, your wire size will still be 34 because it is based on the cup size of the bra, not the band size. You're probably wondering, why is this number 34? I just wanted to explain about this because it is a little bit confusing. These numbers here are based on the cup sizes. However, they are based on the B cup sizes. A 34 B, we've got the 34 wire, 36 B, 36 wire, 38 B, 38 wire. 40, 40 wire, I probably don't need to go on. This is because all of these sizes here in the same line, they're called sister sizes. With bra sizing, you need to have the band and the cup size to determine the volume of the breast. You can't just go off the cup size, which is what a lot of people do. You can't just say, I'm an A cup, because as you can see, the 32 A is cup size one here. But you've also got a 40 A, which is a cup size five, which is a lot of difference. So when it comes to the white sizing, these were all based on the B cups because at the time, when this when wire sizing was invented, the B cups were the industry average. That was actually a really long time ago. It was about 1940s, 1950s, I think when they done the wire sizing. All of the wire sizes are based off the B cups and these are the B cups here. That's why you wouldn't think the 40 wire size would be related to a 34 D because this is actually the sister size of the 40 B. The sister size is basically the same cup size. It just has a different band size. Yeah, I hope that makes sense. I wanted to explain the wire sizing because it can be a bit confusing when you're trying to find the right wires. The wire that this bra is based off is the oh nine wire. And I actually got this wire from sewing chess dot code at UK. I want to mention that because sometimes you can have the same number wire, but it's made by a different company. Therefore, it is slightly different. I'll put the link under this video so you can find the correct wires for this bra. That is what this bra was made to fit for. You'll also be able to print off a sheet on their website. Where it shows you all of the different size wires. I'd only have three sizes here. They'll be able to show you all of the different size wires and then you can match it up to the wire you have, if you do think it would work. That's really handy. If you do get a wire and it's not quite the correct length, you can cut them down yourself. It's not something I've actually ever done, but you can cut the wires and then you can actually get this resin stuff to put on the ends of them as well. That is a possibility if you're having trouble finding the wires in your country. But if you can't find the exact wire, then get something that's close as possible to this wire. But like I said, I'll put the link to the place where I get these wires so then you can get the exact ones if you want. 6. Pattern Intro SKill share: Okay, for this module, we are going to be creating a wired bra. We are going to be creating the Daisy bra, which I do have a sample of. As you'll be able to see from the promo of the course, she is the star of the show, and this is a wired plunge bra. In this module, we're going to learn all about how to create a wired bra. I've created a creation guide for you so you can look at these as a quick reference where I will tell you all the fabrics, components, and elastics that are needed, as well as the elastic tension and the stitches that are needed as well. I've also added some details on the illustration because I will be mentioning names as I go in the module, underband center back, backstrap Apex. You can see on the illustration what that is and where that is on the br as well. So this is the pattern for the wired bra. It's only actually five pat pieces, which isn't too much for a wired bra, so it is fairly simple for a wired bra pattern. It is a plunge style, so we'll be using a plunge wire as well, which means it is slightly shorter at the center front here, um, and it also can create that plunge style in the bra where your breasts are scented more inwards as well. Plunge wires are really good if you have a sensitive sternum because there's less irritation because they don't come quite as high. It's a nice alternative to use. If you do like to wear a wide bra, but you do have a sensitive sternum. So our pattern pieces. I won't go over how to print them off because it's fairly easy and because you've already done the other modules, you'll know the basis of how to print it all off. There's just a contents page on the pattern and after you've measured for your size, pick your size and then it'll tell you on the contents what pages to print out. You'll need the cup size for the pattern, which is to send a front cup, the underarm cup. The front bridge or front cradle and the underarm cradle here. The band will be from the band size, which is this pan piece here, and when you do print out the band size, do make sure that the cup size is also on the band size. For instance, here is the size three cup size, it says size three on all of the different pattern pieces. It will also say size three on the backbnd pattern piece as well, as well as the bond size. This has to match your cup size. If this was say a five and a 32, then it wouldn't match up, it has to match the same number. And then with this pattern, you also have the SEM allowance around here. If you do need to make any changes, for example, it is really easy because you can see where the seam allowance is. Again, that is all six mill as standard on my patterns. 7. All materials used for the bra Skill Share: This version that I'm going to be creating in the module, these are all the fabrics, elastic components that I'm going to need to create the Daisy plunge brra. Let's first start with fabric. This lovely lace here. This is a rigid lace. It's a lace pattern, and as you can see, there's no stretch. There is a mechanical give that way though, we're going to be stabilizing the cup. For this fabric is going to be used on the cup. So these center front and the underarm cup, we're also going to use it on the front cradle and then also the underarm cradle as well. I think that pattern will look really pretty actually it is an ivory color. So instead of using white elastics, um, I've decided to use, like a beige, which is a really good match for my skin tone. Um, so this is going to be the outer fabric because it does have that mechanical give, we are going to need to stabilize it a bit, we're going to be using this stabilizing fabric here when this is on me, this is more of an invisible look because it matches my skin tone color, as you can see. That's going to go underneath as a liner. We're going to have that as liner on the cuff and cradle. This is a bra stabilizer fabric. As you can see, it's really fine, but it's completely rigid in both ways. You can either use a stabilizer fabric that's rigid in both ways, or you can use a stabilizer fabric that has a slight give on one way. If you were to use a fabric that had slight give on one way, then make sure the give is going around the body on the cups, this way and this way. However, around the cup on the cradle needs to be completely rigid. So if your stabilizer isn't completely rigid both ways like mine is, then make sure the give is going upwards on the vertical direction as opposed to the horizontal around the body. That's really important. Um, this is what we're going to be stabilizing it with. Then here we have this is more of a power mesh fabric, but it's really lovely, transparent fabric and the color I thought just looked really nice with that really matched. It has actually got quite a lot of strength in it, which is why I'm using it. For the back band, you need to have a good stretch retention and this is what it has got. We're using this lovely transparent power mesh here. Then let's go to the elastic. That's all the fabrics. Here, this is what I'm going to be using for the elastic. This is a woven elastic and has really good stretch retention. It has a plush side here, that's really soft on your skin, and it's just a plain edge for that one. Then for the neckline, the underband is here, as we know at the bottom, then the neckline, we need the elastic here and around the top edge as well. So for that, I'm going to be using this ivory elastic here, which is actually a knitted fabric, but it has a lot of strength in it, so it will be fine for the top edge. If you use a knitted elastic that doesn't have enough strength in it, then it's just not going to be a very good elastic, especially for the under arm area here. The size that I'm making isn't too large and doesn't need that much support, then this elastic will be fine because it's quite wide as well, that helps. Okay. Then for the strap elastic. Unfortunately, I couldn't find this in a 16 mill wide because I do prefer a 16 mill wide strap elastic. I'm using a ten mil, and then that matches all the other elastics and components as well. So those are all the elastics. The underbad elastic, here, the strap elastic, and the neckline and top edge elastic. The other things that we need are the underwire channeling or underwire casing. The underwire goes inside here and then this goes around the cup like that. I'm using a nice beige color to match all match my elastics. This one is a ten mil wide as well. And then of course, we will need our bra underwires these are the plunge style. So, really important we have them. Then the bra fastenert. I could either use this ivory one here, which is, which is the right size for the pattern, or this one is bit wider so I'd have to adjust the pattern, which is really simple thing to do. Yeah, I'll see what I think about that whether I want the ivory or the slightly wider Bige one. And then of course, the rings and sliders. As we know from our last module, we need them for the straps and I've just realized I will need the Tamil. Rings and sliders, not the 16 mil wide because I've changed the elastic I was going to use. Tamil ones to match my strap elastic. Here we have the continuous plastic boning. This goes in the side seam. This one doesn't have it, this goes there to keep that up. Well and give that part of the bro strength. We'll have two of these. Then that's it for the bro that I'm going to be making for the example. But also, I do have this seam tape here, this pre folded seam tape, and I will show you an example of how to attach that as well and how to use that. Yeah, I've got that out ready as well to show you. So there's definitely more you need for a wired bra, um, so make sure you have all those bits and bobs. I know it's a bit more than making knickers because you do need lots of different elastics, components and fabrics. Then if we did want anything else, like decoration like these ones here, have a daisy on. You could have that or you have bows, just to make it extra pretty. But yeah, that's all of the things that is necessary anyway, apart from the aesthetic things that you might want to add on. 8. How to tell the right and wrong way of fabrics ss: So a lot of people struggle with knowing which way is the right and the wrong way of fabrics like these, like this delicate lace here and with the power mesh, it is really hard to see sometimes and I do think that sometimes they are actually the same on both sides. It is really tricky to know, but generally, if we're talking about power mesh, power net, um if you rub your nail or finger on one side and then rub it on the other side, you'll notice that one side is slightly smoother. You can also look at this as well and you'll see there's just a tiny bit more depth on one side, whereas the other side is completely smooth. I would say that the right side of the fabric would be the slightly textured side. However, when it comes to placing on the body, I don't want the rough side against my skin, I want the smooth side against my skin. I always try and put the smooth side against my skin. Um, I'm not actually sure whether the rough side or the smooth side, which one is the right way up, but I have always put the smooth side against my skin because that makes complete sense to do that. Then similar thing with the lace, again, it's really hard to tell. Especially this one actually is really quite hard to tell. But what you'll notice is on the right side of the fabric, the side that is facing up is that the thread, if you can see this thread that makes the pattern, it has more depth to it on the right side of the fabric, it appears slightly raised. If I turn it around, it is completely flat in the fabric. It's not raised and also the pattern is just clearer on the side where the yarn is just slightly raised up that creates that pattern. This, with the side that is slightly raised up, that is your right side of your fabric there. I'm trying to show you the difference because it does look a little bit different. As you can see pattern it's just not quite as defined if you do the right side, it's just a bit more defined. Yeah, it's one of these things you have to really look at the fabric and it can be really tricky. If you're looking at the fabrics, you're analyzing the fabrics, then you'll get used to seeing which way is the right way and what is the wrong way of the fabric. 9. Pattern alteration for a wider fastener Skill Sh: So I have decided that I do want to use the slightly wider hook and eye, but I need to make my pattern piece fit, as you can see on the inner line here, this is too wide for it. I need to do a small adjustment to the pattern piece. I thought I would show you how to do that. Firstly, you just need to measure the width of the hook and eye that you want to use. I've already measured this and that's 35 mil, whereas this is only 30 mils. I only have to add on five mil. Once you know the width that you need to make it, then you need to get a separate piece of paper. We're not going to make the whole pattern, we're just going to add a small bit on the top, because that would be wasting a lot of paper. If you stick a bit of paper onto that top edge, and flip this around, stick it there, like that. Llp it back. Then take a L. I've got my pan master vila here. All you need to do is line that up with the end, so line there. Take a pencil and firstly, you can just draw the line upwards. Make sure it follows from the bottom part here to the top part here. So just draw that line up like that and then you can measure the amount you need to add on. When we do the measurement, we always do it from the so line. We do not do it from the seam allowance area, which is that bit there. So we're going from this line here, and then we need to add on five mil, which is just here there. And then we need to add on the seam allowance. That is six mil we are using and that is there. Then we just need to redraw our lines in. If you don't have a curved ruler like this, then you can just manually do it by eye like this and get it as smooth as you can. But if you do have a curve ruler, then great, you can just use that for this. Then join that line up there. It's already smooth. That's the line, the inner line. Now we want to create the seam allowance line in. Like that. Then also don't forget to add this little bit of the end and here, the seam allowance part in. I'm just going to draw a line up straight from the edge of the pattern piece there. Connect them like that. Then now you've drawn your new line. You just need to cut around the new seam allowance line here like that. If I just cut that straight up, cut the new line. Don't forget you need to do this before you cut your fabrics out. Cut down like that. Then we have our adapted pattern piece, and then you can stick that down properly as well now. Like that. But we have our new pattern piece there, which we now fit the hook and fastener that we now want to use. 10. Cutting out the fabric Skill Share: Okay, so cutting out your pattern pieces. Now we have done a lot of work on cutting out, so I'm not going to go through everything because you'll probably get bored of it because you know how to do already. But I am going to show you a few tips and a few important things when cutting out your pattern pieces for your bra. As you know, already, we are using this lovely lace here and this brass stabilizer fabric as well. The pattern pieces that need to be cut out in that are the center front, under arm, and both of the cradle pieces. A tip for cutting out if you're cutting out lots of layers is to place the layer, your liner underneath your outer layer when you're cutting out. I can place my pattern piece on here like that. You can use a few weights around the area if you want to keep it in place or you can use the 505 glue spray as well, which is a really popular option. You can put the glue on the liner layer here, and then you can stick um the outer layer down, but that only works. If you are keeping both pieces of fabric together when you construct it, we're not actually doing that because we're going to be creating a seamless central seam in the bra like this one, there's no raw edge or anything. If I stuck both layers together, we wouldn't be able to do that technique. If you are using the seam tape, instead, which I'm going to show you how to do when we get to that stage, then sticking your two pieces of fabric together at this point is a really good option as well for that because then also they don't move around and you're basically making two fabrics, one fabrics. That's a really good option. If I'm cutting out this pat piece here, I need to make sure that the grain line matches up. From my pattern piece to my fabric. I've actually chosen for this lace pattern to be in a more vertical direction because we're lining it with the stabilizer fabric, which is completely rigid. You can actually place your fabric in either direction because the stabilizer is going to do the work at stabilizing everything, so you don't actually need to worry if you are stabilizing your fabric. But this is a fairly rig lace anyway, so I don't actually really need to worry too much. What I've done here is I've put the fabric stabilizer in the same. You can actually see the grain line on this fabric. I've put it against my cutting board so I know it's completely vertical. This is a really good tip that I like to do. When you can line the fabrics up with your cutting mate, then makes things a lot easier. Then I've done the same with the fabric on top as well. I know everything, the grain lines in the right direction for what I want, nothing skew with, nothing off because I'm using the straight line on my cutting board to match everything up. Yeah, all I need to do is then match up my grain line here, so my arrow. Because this is slightly transparent fabric, you can actually see the board underneath. If you couldn't, then you just need to measure from say somewhere where you could see this line here, measure there to there and then measure down to there and then make sure that's the same distance, both ends. Yeah, then you can proceed with cutting out your pattern piece. And I've just noticed I haven't actually marked my notch. That's very naughty of me. I'm going to do that before I go on further. I've got my notch marked in now. Yeah, then you would just continue like we usually would put our pattern weights on, mark our notch, and then cut around that. You need to do that with the underarm cup, the center front cup. The front bridge or front cradle and then the underarm cradle. That all needs to be cut from these fabrics here. You need a pair of these two and a pair of this one, but you don't need a pair of this one. That's just one of those and then a pair of these three. Then we get onto the back bound. Here is the backbnd now we need one pair of those, one for either side of the body. With your power net or power mesh fabric, you want to make sure that the grain line, I'm going to call it a grain line in this fabric, the direction here of the grain is going with the direction of greatest stretch here with this arrow because that is the most stretches part and that has the best stretch retention as well. Whereas you can see that does not stretch much at all. So yeah. So we'll do that in the same way that we've cut the other pieces out. Again, I line this up with my cutting mat, which is super handy. Um, put my fabric down, cut it around. Yeah, and then I would just cut this out like that like we did before. Then when you cut the pair, you need to turn this around and then cut it out like that. On your pattern piece, if it says one pair, that means either side of the body, so it needs to be symmetrical, you need to make sure you turn the pattern piece around. If it says cut two, then you just need to cut two of the same side like that. Okay. Now all of the pattern pieces are cut out. It does take a little bit longer cutting out these small pattern pieces and especially when you've got to do pairs of them. Put on some good music or whatever. It's not necessarily a quick thing to cut out. Bra pattern pieces. What I want to show you is, make sure you pin your liner and your outer fabrics together so then you don't lose them or you don't match them up with the other side, and then you've got the wrong side of the fabric. Make sure you've got those all pinned together. Just so that you've got them organized before you sew. With the pattern pieces, I just wanted to explain because it might be a little bit confusing, here we've got the grain line going up and that means that it needs to be completely rigid all the way going up. There can be a slight mechanical stretch or a slight stretch going across. This is the priority of the grain line going up where there should be no stretch. Then the same on this one, but it's the other way. As I explained, the cradle needs to be rigid going around the body, and that is the priority for this pattern piece. However, because we are stabilizing our fabric, you can actually cut it either way. If your fabric is completely rigid in both ways, then it doesn't really matter which way you cut it, you can cut up the vertical or horizontal because I want the pattern from the lace to go in the same direction as how I've cut out the cut pieces. Basically, the verticalns of the lace pattern is going upwards. So actually cut the cradle with the grain line going upwards instead of across because it doesn't matter because it's completely rigid both ways anyway. I just want to explain that because that might be a little bit confusing. 11. Pinning first seams together Skill Share: Get on to the sawing. I just wanted to tell you about a little trick. With the back pieces, they can sometimes be hard to distinguish the top and the bottom. If I turn that around, I mean, you can tell that this is the top. But sometimes it is quite hard to tell which way is the top and the bottom. What I would do is take a pattern piece and put it on it so that this is the top, and then I don't know, maybe put a little pin in or mark it or something or maybe a pin in would be best because you don't want to mark the wrong area. Then you just know that that is the top, so that when you go to sew it, you haven't sewed it on upside down. Because I have actually done that before, so and then obviously you have to get the picker out. Yeah, just a little tip before we go on. What I like to do before I go to the sewing machine is pin all my pieces together so I can just sew them up all at the same time instead of going back and forth to the table to pin things and then back to the sewing machine. I saves a lot of time. Because we were on this module now, I thought that would be quite a good way to show you how to do it. As you've now got a bit of experience with the other patterns as well. The first thing that you need to pin together is your center front bridge pattern. Here you put your liner and then here is the outer here. What we need to do is sew the top together, the top seam together here. This doesn't need any elastic in it, we're just doing a straight seam. We need to put right sides together. I've just looked and this is my right side on this lace here, on that part. Then we put the right side together. Pen in place. Then that is ready to sew the top seam there, so that one's ready. Let's put that to one side. The next thing that we need to sew are the cup pieces. Let's just move the other cradle pieces out of the way because we're not using them just yet and the band pieces. We'll be joining these four pieces together here, and then these four pieces together here. Firstly, make sure you've got your fabric pieces the right way around. If you want the smooth side against the skin, actually, that's the rough side. I've got on the outside. I just need to make sure we have all this in the right order because I don't want that scratching me. I actually needs to go on that side. Then and then on that side. What we're going to do. I'm going to move one side out of the way, so we'll concentrate on one side. We're going to make sure that the center front outer and the center front liner are all nicely placed together. Just make sure they're really exact on top of each other. I'm going to pin them in place. Again, you can use the spray glue, the 505 spray glue, if you want, or even the glutick. But it might be a little bit trickier with this fabric. There we go. I know that's exact and actually, I'm going to put a pin at the point of bust as well. That's where the notches. There we go. Then what we need to do is we need to place our right side of our under arm cut piece on top of our right side of our center front cut piece like that. Keep that there for now. Then we're going to do the same with the liner as well. Put our right side to side we want against our skin, underneath against the right side of the other stabilizer as well, the center front piece. We're basically with sandwiching the center front pattern pieces between the outer cup pieces. Then we need to pin all this in place. Because we have our notches on, that's fairly easy because we can see where the notches are. If you pin at the notch, I'm just going to do the top it first. Like that. And then the underneath one as well. Then once you've pinned the four places, take out the other pins because they are going to make it all a bit tricky, and then pin the top edges as well together. Again, you'll have a little bit of sounce poking out from the center front pan piece there. Make sure that crosses six mill in from the edge with the underarm pat piece. There we go. Take that other pin out there, and then do the same at the bottom as well. Once you've pins that in place, you can then add a few more pins if you need to. What we using the stabilizer fabric, it really does make this actually quite easy. Even though you're using quite a delicate lace fabric on the top, because you're using the stabilizer, it just makes everything really easy. Then that seam is ready to go, so we'll be sewing down that seam in a bit. With this side, we're going to be doing exact same. We're just sandwiching it on the opposite way. Like that. Then flip that under and then place all of that on top and then pin all those in place. These are all the seams that need to be pinned up for our first go on sew machine, they are all ready, so now we need to go to the sew machine. 12. Sewing the Bridge and cup seams skill share: Okay, so before we start sewing, I have changed my needle because we had the stretching before. So we're using the universal 80 needle. I decided 80 would be a bit better than 70 because we're going through a few lays, and I've also just changed my thread as well to ivory color. So just change the camera so you can see the bed of the machine a bit better. But anyway, so yeah, we've pinned this together and it's now ready to be sewn. So let's put that under the machine. Pick them out a little bit. So we want a straight stitch for this. Just a half 2.5 or three straight stitch would be fine for this area. So line up to six mil. Hold your thread at the back. Come in a little bit. Two, two or three mill will be fine and then start sewing. Go back a few, and then sew again. We should have taken that pino but well, we've gone over it now. And then we get at the end, go back a few and finish off. Okay. And then you can flip this over to the right side. And then your top bridge is sewn together. Whilst we've done that, we'll finish this off because you can either iron this down because this fabric irons really well. It's nylon, don't have to heat up too high, but it does iron really well. I'm just going to pin it in place. We just want to make sure the edges all nice and flat and smooth. We're pinning it to the right way around now. I don't know why, but I find this pretty satisfying this part in the bra construction stage. Always found satisfying. Then we're going to do a little top stitch. Make your straight stitch a little bit longer, I'm going to put up to three, I think for this. Then we want to just do a little top stitch, about 3 million from the very edge. So about in the middle of the seam allowance, are you? I'm going to take that pin out because I don't want it to be a lumpy stitch. There we go. Then finish off. And and there we have it. That's all so nicely. That's what it looks like on the back. Let's move on to the cups now. We have all these nicely pinned for us all ready. All we need to do is sew down the scene. Six mill again. Same way we done the other one, super easy. There we go, six mil straight stitch, 2.5 straight stitch. You don't want stitch too long in the cups because there will be a bit pressure there with the breasts inside them. So yeah, pull the needle, pull your thread. Hold it as you start off. Okay, so it's quite hard to see, but there we go, let's turn it around that side. Nice little seam there. So what we're going to do is now turn this the right way. So we have Well, yeah, there we go. There we go. We now have our cup together already. Within the second seam of making the bra, we have our cups already intact. There you go. Again, we'll need to top stitch to seam down as you can see, that is bulking out there and that does not look very good on the breast um when it's on the body. Again, you can iron this flat if you like. Um or you can just it's actually quite easy to pull this one apart as you sew. You don't really need to pin it as you go. We're just going to top stitch this. I'm going to put my stitch up to three. Then so in the middle of the seam allowance. Because you're going kind of in a curve, you need to get your hands like this and kind of pull it apart as well as you can do like that when you're doing this. So it's completely flat when you sew it. There we go. Look how much better that is. It's almost flat. What you could do now is go inside and just trim off that extra bit there, and then that makes it even less bulkier. But be careful when you are doing this because it's easy to cut the fine fabrics where you don't want them to be cut. I'm now going to do the other side, and then I will show you when I have done. So those cups are nicely sewn together now. I did just trim the seam lamps on the inside as well. That looks extra neat. Now, next, we need to put the cradle together. We've done that top edge. 13. Seam tape alternative Skill Share: Thank you. Here, I'm going to show you how to use the seam tape and why we use it. The seam tape is for finishing raw edges of bra cups or any other seams on bras. At the side seam where maybe you don't want the boning with the wire channeling, you just want to finish the edge nicely, then you could use the seam tape. For the cups, if you're not using the sandwich method that we just done, then you will be just using the usual method of saying right on right, but then you have your seam allowance on show. With your raw edges. Usually with lingerie fabrics, especially these Nylon fabrics, they don't fray, you don't have to worry about that, but of course, it doesn't look very slightly and it completely sticks out. It isn't going to sit smooth on the breast. If you're using one layer of fabric, like I have done here or whether you're using two layers, but you're just using this method of construction, then you can use the seam tape. You don't have a seam tape, you can still use that idea, but without the seam tape. With the seam tape, we will be opening up our seam allowance here. This is our central cup seam and we are stitching it either side. To keep it all flat and cover up the raw edges. You can actually finish off this without using the seam tape if you can't get it for any reason. You would basically just stitch either side of your seam allowance, probably within the middle of the seam allowance, three mill out and then you could trim the seam allowance down. It won't look as neat from the inside, but it's still better than having it all flapping out like that. Because my seam tape is nine mill width, but my seam allowance is six mills, so I need to cut my seam allowance down a bit because I will see it coming out from the seam tape. I'm going to cut my seam allowance down a little bit. Not too much, maybe down to 33 mile, three or four male either side. Just so it won't poke out through the edges of the seam tape. Like that. Then you need to place the seam tape. You need to flatten out the seam allowance and pull it apart and then put the seam tape on top. You can, if you want, put a few pins in because it can be a little bit tricky to do this, especially when you first start doing it. It's a little bit fiddly to keep it all in the right place. Then if you keep flattening it down, putting more pins in. And then continue pinning that all the way down the seam if you need to. You can also iron the seam allowance out, it's much easier to do. So if you iron it out like that. Then you need to sew either side of the seam tape. Obviously, we want to try and get the seam tape equal on both sides of the pattern piece so that when we sew it, there will be an equal stitch either side of the seam. If you aim to sew one to two mill in from the edge of the seam tape and put your stitch length to three, just a little bit longer for this one as it is a top stitch. The first one is the hardest one. Then you'll see your stitch just next to the seam like that and then go ahead and do the other side, which would be easier because now we have it all in place. And then that's the other side. Then you'll have two seam lines like that. That's obviously the only downfall to this method that you do have the top stitching on the front, which maybe you like or maybe you could make a feature of with contrast stitching, or maybe you don't really like that as much. So if you're using two layers of fabric, then you could opt for the sandwiching method. But as you can see, that's all flat now and you won't have a problem with irritation or anything. That's how you apply the seam tape. 14. Prepping the Cradle Skill Share: So there's two possibilities, there's two different ways you can do this. We're actually putting a stay stitch around around cup here. Really similar to a basting stitch, but it's not intended to be taken out. Now, that actually really helps with keeping everything really rigid on the around cup because we don't want any stretching there at all. I know we have got completely rigid everything because we've stabilized it all, but it just really helps just to make sure. So you can either do that now before you join this seam up here or you can do it after. It's a little bit easier if you do it first because then you've got not these layers floating around, but it's fairly simple to put those layers like that because that's what we're going to be doing next. I think I will show you where we put this seam together first and then we'll do the stay stitch after so we can do all in one go. But again, if you have the five oh five glue spray, you can spray this down and then it's just a lot easier to deal with. We need to now attach the under arms, cradle to the center front cradle. We will attach that at this little seam here. We need to put right on right and just attach that like that. Make sure that's all nicely lined up. I've pinned these together, so I've put right on. You don't need to do any sandwiching like we did with the cups. It's just the fabrics need to go right on with the liner underneath as well. Both of the fabrics together, and then that side as well, I've pinned This will be the next thing that we need to do at the sewing machine. 15. Sewing the cradle, basing and neckline elastic SS: So I'm just going to sew this very small seam on both sides using the straight stitch again with at a 2.5 length. Then that side so I'm just going to sew the other side. That cradles all nicely together now. I know we have the raw edges, but don't worry about that. They will get hidden when we put on the rest of the things to the bra. Now we've done that. The next thing to do is to do our stay stitch around our around cup and we'll just use a 2.5 stitch length. So once we've done that, then we also need to baste around the rest of the edges just to keep it all in place. Obviously, this is if you haven't glued them together. If you glue them together, then you only need to do the stay stitch around the around cup area. And then we also need to do the same. So stay stitch around around cup on the cup and then basting stitch along the underarm top edge and the neck line as well. You can either just sew it free hand holding the pattern piece in place or if you want to put some pins in to keep it all in place as you sew, you might want to do that at the ends because sometimes things can move obviously when you're sewing. I'm just going to put a few pins in actually. That one will be fine. And, just at the edges and kind of in the middle areas. So remember, hold your thread back. Come a mill in. An average stitch length for the statch and you want to stitch within the seam allowance area. We've got six mills allowce I would stitch at three mill in from the edge. And there we go. So I'm going to continue sewing the rest of the stay stitches on the basting, and then I will get back to you. So those are nicely basted together now. You can see the fabrics together. The next thing to do is the neck line elastic. If we take a little look at the creation guide here, let's just push this back a bit. Just a bit close. Unfortunately, the color hasn't printed out too well, but if you look on the creation guide, you'll see that the neckline needs not 2% elastic reduction on. So you really don't want to put a lot of elastic reduction on the neck line. It is really just to finish the top of the cup. If you pull it too much, then it will look like it digs in and it doesn't sit very well. So really, you don't want really any elastic tension on. So we're going to apply that in the same way that we did the Barbary Battletneck line. We're not going to be measuring it. We're not going to be pinning it. We're going to be doing it by feeling it. Um, because you've had a bit of practice now of the elastics, um, then, yeah, I think it's a good time to, um, get the feel of the elastics more. So, um, so I'm going to be using this elastic here for the neck line. It is slightly wide, actually. I would prefer a six mill, but it's what I've got, so I'm going with it. This one is an eight mill knitted elastic. This one is. We need to do right side of the elastic to right side of the fabric. But because it is eight mill and six mill, we need to overlap two mill on the edge. I'm just going to pin that bit in place so we are using a pin. I'm just going to pin that in place. And then I'm going to attach it on. We're just doing this in the exact same way that we done the neck line for the other brlet. It's exact stitch. There we go, and then we flip this and then do our second pass. Yes, that's all looking lovely. I'm just going to repeat that on the other cup. 16. Attaching the Cradle to the cups Skill Share: The elastic is on the neckline. I've left a few centimeters either side because it's always good to do. So you don't cut yourself too short. We've got the cups, and we've got the cradle together. Now we need to put them together. So this is where you might need a bit more pinning. It's fine. I'm meing out this is really scary, but it's not. Basically, we need to put this right side together on the cradle like that, and then this cup right side on the cradle like that as well. But because there is such a deep curve, it's going to take a little bit of pinning and manipulating to get that all in the right place. We will start at the central point here. Now, the seams match up in this pattern, so we don't need a notch because the seam is the notch. If you pop a pin through there, and then another pin at the underarm edge, like that. And then another pin at the center front. Now, you want to try and make sure you get the center front really flush because that's what makes it look really good. That's the priority point, we call it because that's where it will show if it's not equal. There we go. The rest needs teasing in. As you can see, it's not wanting to come together easily and that is how it will be because they are two extreme curves coming in. We've got to do a lot of easing here. You have to stretch one side out. It will be a bit resistant. But it will go nicely after it's sewn, trust me. The more pins the better, I'd say with this area. Like that. Then there's come back to this side. Repin that. That's how it will look and that's from the inside as well. You want to repeat that with the other cup as well. So right size to right, pin it all the way around the around cup. That's all pinned together now, as you can see, lots of pins. I just wanted to say about one thing. If you are using a decorative elastic that has quite a large decorative edge on it, the then you may want to before you cut anything out on your pattern piece, just take the amount away the width of that decorative edge on your pattern piece so that it doesn't stick out really far. As you can see, mine's got a very small decorative edge and that looks fine. But if I had a large decorative edge on there, it might not look so good. You just need to take a very tiny bit away from the pattern just the same width of the decorative part of the elastic that you are using. So now you need to carefully sew these seams together. Use a straight stitch, a 2.5 length, so average length, hold the back of that, actually, hold that thread. So it doesn't get taken under. Then when you get to the center seam, definitely take the pin out because that was a bit lumpy there. So you should be able to get over it. Just go slowly. Then we go. Then be careful when you get to the center front as well. How's that looking? Oh, yes. Nice and flush. That is what we want. We want that center front seam to look nice and flush. Yeah, so that seam is nice and flush as well. How's this one? Yeah. That's pretty flush as well. As you can see, it now fits up in the cradle very nicely. So the other side as well. The around cup is all sewn on. The cups are sewn through the cradle. This is the around cup here. It's all nicely sewn. Now we need to attach the backbans before we do anything else. 17. Attaching the back bands Skill Share: So get your backbnds and then place right side onto right side here, and we know this is the top because we've put the pin in it, and then pin that in place. I'm actually going to flip this around and then pin it because I want to sew on the most stable side. Like that. I'll take that pin out now. And then the top edge. Like that. Then a few in the middle as usual. Then repeat the same on the other side as well. We we right side Sp round. Now we're at the machine. We're now going to sew the side seam as I've pinned on both backbends. Again, we're going to use the straight stitch, 2.5 length. Hold your thread at the back. Then that's what it looks like. Then you have your back band on. If you do the same on the other side, all of your pattern pieces are now sewn together. At this stage, you could on the seam allowance inwards towards the bar because we're not going to be stitching that down because we're going to be putting boning in the side seam. We're not going to be doing that just yet but it might be handy if you can iron that towards the center front or if not, just put a pin in it just to keep it that way because it won't want to sit that way. The reason why we push it into the br is because here is the stretch band and then here is the rigid part. If we put the boning on this edge, then we're actually reducing the amount of the back band which needs to be able to stretch, so it could potentially then be too small for the wearer. It has to go inwards in line with the rigid fabric. Pin that in either side, see how this one is sitting outwards. So that when we do the elastics, which we're now going to do, we have the mounting the right way. 18. Attaching the elastics Skill Share: So the next thing we need to do is the under arm and top edge elastic. We look at the creation guide again, you can see on here, this part here needs the most tension in the elastic. However, this part here only needs a medium amount of tension. Again, we're not going to measure anything. We're going to be putting it straight on so that we can get the feel of it and we can get really experienced at putting the elastic on. Also, you just want to pin this seam on the around cup here towards the cradle, like that. So that's sitting flat there. Both of these see my answers are sitting in. We're going to go to the machine now and we're going to apply this elastic and I'm just going to feel the tension. I'm just going to feel it. We want quite a lot of tension here on the under arm here, and then we want to ease off on this back bit here. Here we are at the machine. I've already put the elastic under. So I've got right sides together on the elastic and as you know, because mine is eight mill and not six mill, we are overlapping the elastic just a little bit on the edge. Firstly, when you go on, don't create any tension on the elastic, just sew it on because you don't want that very top bit to have any attention on it. There we go. Then after you've got over the elastic, then you need to start putting the attention on. The tension amount, so if you are going off the elastic reduction percentage, it should be around 8% on this area. Then you've got your pin, so just take that out of the way when you go over that them allowance. The elastic on the anoram and top edge is all done. Just a little tip. After your first pass of elastication, just to make sure that your elastic tension isn't way different on both sides. You can match up the edges and then the seams and see if it's equal, like that. Match it up there at the end. So yeah, one side, I did pull slightly more than the other, but it really doesn't matter that much. Unless it's way out, then I would suggest unpicking it, and then you'd only have to unpick the first pass of zigzag as well. So do that before you do the second pass. But if it's just out, just like a small amount like that, feel like five mil, then that's completely fine. I won't affect the fit at all. So yeah, don't be too perfectious with that kind of thing because it's not necessarily not necessarily. You really won't know this one is on. So now we need to do the underband elastic and we're going to do that in the same way that we always do the elastics. Here's the underband elastic. We've got the plush side, and then the plane side. The plane side is the right side, so that goes right to right. And again, we're not going to be pinning anything. We're just going to be putting it on as we go. So let's just have a look at our elastic tension. Yeah, so the underband just put up here, the underband here, and so the front underband and then the underband on the back. It all is a medium tension along there. So it needs about 4% elastic reduction on that, which is the same of the top edge that we done here. So again, just Feel the tension. I know you can do this because you've done it all in the other modules. Trust yourself. You've got this. This is a Tamil, elastic mine, I need to have an overlap of four mill that side. We'll just put a pin there just so that doesn't move and I start sewing the end. Like that. Again, don't pull it right at the end. Just wait until you've gone in about a centimeter and then pull the elastic to create the tension. You won't have to pull the elastic quite as much on the front part of the underband because that's the rigid part. So basically, you need to pull it less to create the same tension on the stretch part, if that makes sense. I'm going to be careful here pining. Let's take that out. Just make sure that's sitting flat towards the center that seem. It can be a bit annoying and decide to flip at the last minute. Looking nice. We got it. Let's have a. Yeah. That's the first parts of elastication, and that's looking all good. So yeah, we just need to flip that like usual and then do the second pass. All of the elastics are done now, apart from the straps, of course. So you might notice how quickly that was to do because we weren't taking our time to measure the pattern pieces, then cutting the elastics, then pin in them. All of that can take a lot of time. If you've done it like this, you'll realize how quick it can be, which is why it's really good to get experienced with elastic tension. Like I said, it does not have to be perfect, do not worry too much about it at all. The next thing we'll be doing is the back fastener. That's what we're going to be doing next. And maybe at this stage, also cut down your threads and seam allowances, I've got elastic sticking out there. I'm going to cut that down. Tidy all up at this stage. 19. Back fastener attachment Skill Share: So now we need to apply the back fastener to the bar. I've got the glues to out and I've got a bit of paper out because we're actually going to be gluing this in place before we sew it. Have your br laid out front ways. The eyes go on the right, hooks of the fastener go on the left. So you could remember that with eyesr, something like that. We need to attach the hook and there and because I've already adapted the pattern, it is the right width, so that's good, all matches. Firstly, we'll trim down these elastic bits. If you cut the elastic, so it's flush against the center back. Like that. Then we need to open the fastener up like that, and we're going to apply a bit of glue the inside like that. Then we're just going to put this center back in the hook and eye area. It doesn't need to be really stuck down well because we're going to be sewing it anyway it is literally just to keep it in place so we don't have to use pins because pins can be a bit tricky when you're sewing the cani because there's a lot of bulk anyway. Yeah, I think that's stuck now. I'll leave that to dry and then we'll do the other side. Again, make your center back flush. And then apply the glue on the inside of the hook part of the fastener. There we go. That one's stuck a bit better. I think you just had to put a bit more glue on. That is even more helpful when we come to do the hook part because they can be a little bit tricky to do. Leave that to dry for 5 minutes or so so it's not completely wet when you use it on the machine. Of course, you can use the 585 spray as well, but I do actually think it'd be easier to use the glue stick on that area because it is so small. I'm just going to wait a bit and wait for that to dry and then we'll take it to the machine and sew it up. Firstly, we will sew the e part of the fastener on because that is the easiest part. You need to basically top stitch this on. We're just placing the whole edge of the fastener under. We're going to be using a zigzag stitch for this. I've got a three width and a 1.8 length. It's quite small zigzag, but it's not too triggy to handle. The aim is to get the furthest zigzag stitch as close as we can on this inner bit here without going onto the back band fabric. That is the aim. If you line your foot up where you think that is on your machine. If you're finding that your machine is struggling, that you can change your needle to a thicker needle, so a 90. So there we go. Then you'll see on the other side, it's all sewn on as well. Another thing I was going to say was, I haven't changed my thread color. Ideally, I would like to, but I don't have any thread color that matches this hook and eye. I'm just using an ivory color, which is what I've been using throughout. I think it looks fine because the rest of the bra is ivory as well. So, you might want to consider that because it is top stitch, you will see that that goes with all the other top stitching parts to the br as well. So the other thing that I sometimes like to do, you can just leave it like that and that's secure enough. But sometimes you'll find these little end bits can be a little bit sharp. So what I like to do is use almost a satin stitch. Basically a satn stitch is a zigzag stitch that's very, very close together. So I'm going to use the same width that we had, so three, but I'll put the length down to 1.2. And then I just like to go over the edge. So basically, the furthest stitch on this side kind of just clips over the side the fastener, and then it just stops that irritating you if that is sharp. So you don't have to do it very far. You just have to do that little a really. He frets, but just about five mil to a centimeter, you really don't have to do very far, but that then keeps it all nicely enclosed. So there's no annoying, irritating things, I always find out the worst thing when wearing a bra fastener back. The reason that is is because they've actually used heat to seal the edges, then it melts a bit, then that's what makes it sharp. So there we go. Okay, let's go on to the other side, the hook side. Now, this one is a little bit trickier. Okay? So what you need to do is put the hooks facing up. Don't put the hooks facing down whatever you do because then they can catch on your machine. They're bulky. No, it's really not easy to sew like that, and I wouldn't want you to damage your machine or anything. My machine, thankfully, the regular foot just manages to clip over the edge of the fastener here like we did on the other one without going onto the actual fabric part. If you are finding that your foot that you're using or your machine is sewing too much on the fabric, the backbnd part where the stretches, then you might have to use a zipper foot and then that allows you to get further in towards the hooks as well. I can only go as far as that because we've got the hooks in the way and you don't want to be going over them like that, that can cause all sorts of problems. So yeah, make sure you just go on the very edge of them. Thankfully, my machine seems to just be able to do it without me changing the foot. There we go, as you can see, it has just managed to do it on that very edge, so you can get away with that. Then do the same to the side that we did with the other one. If we use a thinner width zigzag. Okay. So there we go. That's that side done. We now have our hook and eyes all secure. 20. Wire Channelling and Structure Skill Share : So the next thing to do is to apply your underwire channeling. Now, to make sure that this is the right length, we need to measure our around cup area. You can either do this on the cradle or the pattern pieces because they'll be exactly the same. If you measure the center front, and then you measure the underarm. On mine, it's 7.9 centimeters on the center front and 10.5 centimeters on the underarm cup. Then we need to map that out on our wire channeling. Firstly, start off with, um a tail of 1.5 2 centimeters. I'm going to do 2 centimeters because it's easier on here and then mark the channeling. Actually, I'm going to use the Taylor's chalk. I've got the Taylor's hook. We've got one mark here, and then we need to mark 7.9 centimeters say that's 8 centimeters. I'm measuring on my cutting board here. About five, six, seven, eight, then I'm going to put a mark here and you'll need to do this on the plush side. The side that is going to be facing up, otherwise you won't be able to see the marks. And then we've got 10.5, let's just move that there. Then we might need to mark on 10.5 centimeters, which is here. And then we'll have a two centimeter tail end as well on this side. Here, that's where we'll cut it as well. These do have right and left sides because as you can see this side matches the center front cup and this side matches the underarm cup. Let's just put that on one side for a minute. Maybe just there. Then we're going to do the same on this side, but the other way around. Again, mark on your two entomy to tail. We'll mark on 10.5 centimeters first, which is here. Then we'll mark on 8 centimeters for the center front cup. Then another T centimeters for our tail, and that's where we're going to cut it. By doing this, it ensures that the paneling is the correct size for the bra because it actually does have just a tiny bit of gift to it. If you pull that, when you apply it without measuring it, then can be actually too small and I have done that before. I learned this way from a very, very good lingr sewing technician I've done it this way ever since. Yeah, it's really good way. So this is our center front. If we lay these out, then we know which side they go because this is the center front here and then this is the under arm here. We're not going to pin this on. It is too thick to pin. So it's something that we're going to be placing on and sewing. First things first, we need to change our needles. I've gone 80 in a minute. I'm going to change it to a 90, so that's the needle falls thicker fabrics. If you don't change it, then you'll find you'll probably get skip stitches. There we go. Cut your bra and then take one of your cuttings. I've just made sure that this side of the underwire channeling is this right measurement for the underarm side, which is so we need to place the underwear channeling at the very top. I'm just going to pull it up so you can see like that. The inner side is the bit that we're matching because we've measured the inner, we've measured the seam, so that's where it needs to match like that. So we're going to sew this flat on. But what we don't want to do is stitch inside of the cup here. We want to make sure our stitches remain within the cradle, pattern pieces here. I would describe it as you need to just cover the seam up. I would go about one mil over the seam here. Put your underwire channeling, one mil over this seam here. You can't see the seam after you've sewn it basically. So if we're overlapping very tiny amount, one mil, then we need to make sure we stitch even further in, we need to stitch about two mill in. Make your stitch length a little bit longer as well. That'll be easier to sew with. Ann it up to three or even 3.5. I'm going to work with three. You're having to use your hands to manipulate this. Firstly, sew your first bit on. So we're looking about two mill in from the edge of the channeling here. You'll really noticed that this is thicker and that you do need that thicker needle. Then place your channeling down in the right area and then sew I'm definitely a bit lumpy on that first bit. So you've sewn your first bit on. Just keep checking that your mark matches up with the seam on the around cap area. You can hold it down at that point actually so that you know they've got it in the right place. Then go really slowly over that seam because that's really thick. You might need your Humper jumper or the tape measure method that I use for that. Then when you get to the center front, make sure you've got your two fabrics pulled apart really well. It should look like that. Then you will have the top stitching on the cradle side as well. The seam should be just under, you just can't see it if you didn't pull it apart. Then the second part is a lot easier because that's already now in place. You just need to do the outer edge now. Again, come Toml in Keep it all nicely flat. Kind of pull the fabric out as you go. And as you can see, we are now covering out up that raw edge as well. So that's going to be completely covered up. Yeah, don't whiz it too fast when you do that because you might end up breaking your needle. So that's how it is. Turn it around the other side. That's what you want it to look like. You need to do the same on the other side. But remember, I get my bit to use it round the right way. Match your center front measurement up to your center front and then do exactly the same that we've just done. After you have applied the underwire channeling on both sides like that, then once you've got the channeling out, we're going to do the side seam channeling as well. Down the side seam, we are putting plastic boning, which keeps it all really nice and straight when it's on. We don't need to measure anything for this one. We're going to put it on in pretty much exact way that we did the underwire channeling. We probably don't need 2 centimeters. Probably about 1 centimeter tail end. And then we'll be sewing on the cradle side because that's the rigid side. Then again, overlap your channeling. You've just covered your side seam by about one mil, and then you want to stitch about two mill in from the edge like we did with the other one before. The first part is always the hardest, and then the second part is a lot easier because we have it attached. Then we just do the same on the other side. Just want to check that's okay, actually. Before we go on. That's good. Then the same on this side. Keeping it nice and flat, making sure there's no rubbed bit fabrics or anything. Then that's how that should look. On that side, and then cut the end off and then do the same on the other side as well. All the underwire casing is now on. We now have it on the slide teams and the cups. I love the stage because you really get some structure to the br as well. So now we need to do a few stitches on either end. So we need to do a small ziag stitch along the center front here and here. This would usually be a bartex stitch in industry. But like I explained, I tend to not do it as tight, and it doesn't need to be that tight anyway. So we're going to use a small ziag stitch. I've got a three width and a 1.4 length. I might actually do on the front. Yeah, we'll do it on the front because then we can see where we're doing it so we don't go over the edge. My camera decided not to film that part unfortunately. So, we just done a zigzag stitch along that bit there, along that bit there on the top bit, and I done it on this side so I could see where I was stitching. Then the same, we done it on the side seam bottom edge. There, and then the bottom edge on that one as well. Now we are ready to put the wires and the boning in. Firstly, we've got the wires. Make sure you put them in the right way around. On mine, the colored tip here is the under arm one. It needs to go in the underarm with the center front of the wire. So push this in. So once you've done this, you'll be really coming together, which is always exciting. It's always the exciting part when we've got the izing. And then, yeah, that's good. There'll be a little bit of space, so it's not pushing up too much. So that's how that will look. And then we'll put in the other side. If you're struggling to get it in, it might be that you've sewn your stitches too close together. Because this is ten mill wire casing, it works a lot better. Sometimes you can use an eight mill, but I find there just a bit too thin. So there we go. The wires are in. Then now we need to put the boning in the side seam here. We want to measure the right size. So if you just place that on top, just after your exact stitch and then leave about five mil from the edge because if it's too long, it will bup against the stitching and then it could come through. We leave about five mil, about there, and then cut it to the right length. When you cut it, don't use your fabric scissors. Use over your paper scissors or if you have other scissors that you cut more harder things with. Then after you've cut it, just round both of the ends up like that and then it won't go into the stitching as much. There's less chance of it breaking through and then measure that up to your other side and then cut the same length. There we go. Then round that one as well. And then put it in the top part and it should go in. It's not quite as easy to get in as the wire because it's a bit more flexible. So you have to give it a bit of a tug and a pull. There we go. Then after you've done that, we can now stitch up the other sides of the channeling to make sure everything is enclosed and then it's not going to come out. If you are struggling to get your boning in, then it might be because you've sewn too far into the casing. On mine, I had sewn too far into the casing, so I just had to unpick that little bit and then sew a little bit wider and then it went in. But yeah. So now we're going to enclose the ends, so we're going to do the same exact stitch that we done before. On the top part, make sure your boning and your wire, especially because it is metal is out of the way, make sure that it's pushed all the way to the center front because the last thing you want to do is go over a metal wire with your needle. I just share that side. Now, we need to trim these down. Take your scissors. You can pull it out a bit and then trim it. Be careful you don't cut anything else. Like that. Then we do the same for the wire ones as well. Just get that a little bit of pico other way so we don't cut that one. Like that, and so you just need to carry on. You need to first, zigzag the other side up, and then cut all your tail ends off. So it we've now got all the structure to the bra. The wires and the boning. Yeah, it's really looking like a bra now. The very last thing to do is the straps. I've left them to last with the straps, it's the exact same process that we did for the barbery brlet. We'll need to measure in five mil like the same we did with the bro bottom edge. We make the straps up in the exact same way, and then we fold this under in the exact same way as well. I won't show you how to do that because I've already done that tutorial on the last module. You can go back to the last module and check that if you need to. But yes, I'll do the straps now and then I will show you the final result. 21. The finished bra Skill Share: So the last step is now completed and we have a finished bra. I've just added straps and the adjustable part. There we go. The very last thing to do is just trim all your threads. I have been doing it as I go, but there are some more to do. But yeah, it's all finished.