Etherial squared

Since I was on a roll I made another bra from the remains of the blue stretch lace from Merckwaerdigh.  I had enough to cut the entire bra from lace, and even to match the motifs.  It's fully lined with the same light nude coloured fabric that has found its way into several bras here recently.





I promise not to clutter up these (virtual) pages too much with lingerie sewing, but here are some photos showing the inside, and how it's made.

Giant roll of
strap elastic

The straps are cut from my giant roll of silvery strap elastic.  I sewed them between the upper band elastic and the front of the bra to secure the ends at the top of the cups.

I let the scalloped edge of the lace be the lower edge of the bra band pieces, which meant I had to finish the band elastic a little differently.  First, I attached the lower band elastic to the lining only.  Then I basted the lace and lining (wrong sides together) at the top edge, folded the lower elastic to the inside, and finished the lower edge with triple stitch zig zag through all layers. The stitching is practically invisible on the face of the lace.

The top of the cups is finished similarly with very narrow but very snappy elastic from Merckwaerdigh since they supplied enough for two bras.  I'm pretty sure I've never seen similar elastic here so will have to give some thought to different ways to finish the cup top edge if I'm using lace again.  And I might; I'm pretty pleased with the look of this bra.

I attached the strap to the inside of the back band at both top and bottom for stability since the band is fairly narrow and the fabric fairly flimsy.

This is the end of the blue lace, but I still have quite a lot of the paisley mesh, and some blue elastic, and 1,000,000 metres (minus about 1) of strap elastic for some more bras.  And some more fabric from my ample stash.

I actually have another bra cut out, but think my blog audience might have had it up to here with the underwear by now.

I do promise to make something to wear on the outside soon.

Not utilitarian

Etherial, more like.

This is quite unlike The Sewing Lawyer's usual undergarments.  It's more colourful and lacier.  More ... delicate?

But still sturdy enough.  Here is a shot of the inside.

The mesh fabric and stretch lace (ordered on-line as a bra kit from Merckwaerdigh in Rotterdam) are pretty flimsy, when you get right down to it.  So I lined the entire bra with a light stretch mesh acquired a forgotten time ago from a forgotten source.  Luckily, I have lots.  Because I think I've been bitten by the lingerie bug. There was enough of the lace to cut out another bra.  The next one will be entirely blue lace, but lined like this one.  I have a RTW bra that uses stretch lace, with scalloped edges intact, for the side pieces.  I'm copying that.

A word about the supplier - Merckwaerdigh's supplies are reasonably priced and (I hate to say it) less expensive even including international shipping than Bra-Makers Supply in my home province. The kit included enough lace for two bras - even enough to mirror the motifs for both, enough printed mesh for at least one pair of panties plus bra(s), elastic - 4 kinds including for straps, stable mesh to line the bridge (you can sort of see it in the second photo) - enough for dozens more bras, a little piece of crotch lining, hooks & eye for the bra, loops and sliders for the straps, and wire casing.  And the shipping was quick, and you can save on shipping (relatively) by combining items.  I also bought a set of findings in white and wire casing in 3 colours (white, black and nude).  I'm a satisfied customer.

That said, I'm pretty sure I have enough lingerie notions now to last the rest of my natural life so they may not get much more of my business.  Especially since I came across about 9,000 metres of 1cm wide elastic at the Value Village on the weekend (exaggerating, but only slightly). See previous post re SABLE.

And a word on the pattern.  It's totally customized.  The cups are from an ancient Burda WOF (as it was) swimsuit pattern, much tweaked.  The side piece is from a Bra-Makers pattern.

And because I want to reward you for reading this far ...

Thanks to the skin-tone lining, it looks even more etherial than it really is.  But it's really not see-through.