Made By a Fabricista: The Final Draft

Here we are again with my attempt at sewing a bra!

I didn't feel so successful in my first attempt and was a bit discouraged.

But I'm willing to give it another shot.

For my final draft fabric I chose an activewear knit and used the stretch lace again.

I also have a bit of nude soft elastic I found in our brick and mortar shop in Sinking Spring that I will use.

All of my supplies are from Fabric Mart.
View some of our activewear knits here: http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/xcart/Active-Wear-Knit/
Look for Stretch Laces in our lace section: http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/xcart/Lace-fabrics/

Before cutting on my "good pieces of scrap fabric" I took another look at the PDF pattern.

I marked each piece with what it was since after cutting out the pattern, I lost some important information which led to me getting terribly confused and eventually took a long extended break from sewing the bra.

I then traveled back to the Ohhh Lu Lu blog and followed her pictures on how to form the cups.
Very helpful! I don't know why I wasn't doing this before!
I was still nervous about adding the cup but I heavily utilized her blog to assist.
Visit here blog how-to on forming cups and inserted padding: http://www.ohhhlulu.com/2012/08/ginger-swimsuit-sew-along-assembling.html

I was surprised how easy it actually was to put in the bra cups. I had to redo them a couple times until they set in correctly. You basically have to hold the cups to your chest to get them in the right position, which looks rather awkward, but it works!

I sewed a quarter inch seam allowance around the cup pulling the knit out so it would lay smoothly.
It took a total of about 5 minutes to actually get the cups in and about 7 weeks of me worrying. Ha!

Now I'm ready to finish up the bra! Just need to attach straps, elastic, and sew it all together!

A little tip to attaching the lower bra portion: stretch your knit slightly to get the point to line up to the point in the center.

I also started sewing the elastic to the undies. I was quite worried about this too, but it is also surprisingly easy! I just pinned, sewed, and the tucked under, and sewed again!

Almost there!
Be back soon to show you the finished product!

Happy Sewing!
Kaitlin

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