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I have so many unfinished blog posts on the various things I've been working on the past few weeks that I thought I would just try to write about what I did yesterday. So: I completed my "Claret Cup" bra and it forms a set with two panties I made in April.

The colours are more alike in real life. I dropped my camera after photographing the bra and it doesn't focus properly :((

As always, the fit is the most important thing - so here it is:


I might remove the bows on the bra straps, though. Not quite "me".


This is another incarnation of my Danglez DB4 pattern. After making two trial cups in two different sizes and sewing them into my test band, I spent about an hour in front of the mirror fiddling and pinning and drawing on the fabric. Then I modelled the test bra to my husband and put on my first successful Danglez for comparison. His verdict? The old bra looks much better! I had to agree that I also found it more comfortable. (And better than the band pattern I used in my Funky Floral bra.) So I went back to that pattern - the original Danglez band pattern, with my modification to the bridge, and slightly modified H cup. I used the same shiny lycra as in my old bra, just used the matte side out. Everything is double layers - double nylon lycra with stretch going in the same direction for the cups, lycra plus powernet for the back band, and lycra plus the usual non-stretch stabiliser for the bridge. The fabrics and elastics were dyed a while ago.

Trimming the seam allowances - it looks like one layer of fabric

I used a new trick this time - I am really lazy and I hate having to cut four (four!) of everything. Last time I tried interfacing the lycra with iron-on tricot, but am not 100% happy with the support this gave. So this time I started by spraying my trusty Madeira MSA 1100 Temp Spray Adhesive onto the back of one half of my fabric, folded it double and treated the sandwich as one piece of fabric. This worked beautifully and I had no slipping or separating, even though I was using the slippery, shiny side of the fabric as the inside. In fact, it worked so well that I sometimes forgot I was working with a double layer! Cutting out with my rotary cutter was a breeze. It felt just like working with a single layer of firm fabric. I did the same with the band - spray-gluing the lycra to powernet and that mesh stabiliser stuff before cutting out.

I finished the top cup edge with stretch lace instead of the smooth faced edge I used previously so I could use the spray-glue method for the top cup as well.







* Claret Cup: Bordeaux red wine punch popular in the 1800s, often served at parties. The name also refers to the cactus Echinocereus ("ribbed, usually small to medium-sized, cylindrical"), but I didn't know that when I named the set!