Uber Upcycle

BEFORE:



VOGUE 1250

AFTER:

MakeBra Balconette Bra DL101

Do you have things hanging in your closet that, while you like them, they just never get worn? I made at least 3 versions of Vogue 1250 and I never wear them. Rather than try to figure out the reason why I just decided to keep loving the fabric and make something else.

 

Enter into my life another fabulous bra pattern! MakeBra's downloadable balconette bra. It has a 3-part foam cup, side boning and underwires. The straps are attached to the cup and the foam lining provides good support, a beautiful shape for the cup and comfort on the shoulders.

 

This bra is basically my muslin for fit but I will definitely wear it!  For my base I used a nude bra kit from Fabric Depot. I also bought the tricot bonded poly filler from them as well as the foldover elastic. Their bra kits are so reasonably priced (This one was $12) that I use one for the spandex, elastics and findings and save the lace for a pair of panties. There is always a good amount of simplex left over, too, actually shown in the pic below.  

 

The foam cups (and straps) start out as these pattern pieces:

 

 

The construction of the foam cups was fascinating! The pieces are butted together and zig-zagged creating the shape of the cup. Here is the inside:

 

 

Working towards my goal this year to try new techniques and products, I was excited to use boning for the first time. Easy as pie! I bought mine at Joann and it is simply a flexible plastic strip cut to length and inserted into a channel. I found that using my pedi wand was perfect for rounding off the sharp corners. Here's a before and after on that:

 

 

The boning came with its own channel but it was a scratchy cotton and I did not want that against my skin so I used leftover channeling from my underwires. Here is a pic of the inside:

 

 

And the outside of the band:

 

 

The addition of the boning is really nice to keep the band from wrinkling up. I think I will add this feature on all bras from this point forward.

 

There is a lot of foldover elastic used on this bra and I need to perfect my application of that! It is seen here on the strap, which is oh, so comfy since it's padded:

 

 

Here's a view of the back. Yes, I usually use thread that matches but didn't feel like making a trek to get some and since this is basically a muslin for fit I didn't obsess over it like I usually do.

 

 

 

The most fun of this bra is that any fabric can be used for the cup cover; knit, woven, lace, it just doesn't matter. I had fun with fussy cutting this one from the Vogue 1250 fabric.

 

This was a fun project! Matching thong coming up next!

 

More info on the pattern and company on my Pattern Review.