Papercut pneuma bra in upcycled feather print

I was keen to try out some swimsuit sewing.
My starting point was the pneuma bra, and the soma bottom and bra top.

Unfortunately, although I did finish them all before I left, I only photographed the pneuma so I'll talk about that.

I cut XXS which usually is the size in Papercut that fits me the best.
The fabric I used was a slightly stretchy, massive and shapeless top from the op-shop.  It was mostly nylon and didn't have too many holes, which were easy to work around.  I lined it with substantial, black swimsuit lining from Tessuti.  This stuff is serious - it's strong and compressive and everything fit tightly when I used it - I would consider that in future sizing.

Sewing this was pretty easy.  I really don't like how much the neck part of the top folds outwards though - did I pull too much tension, or not enough? I was also not convinced that four little tiny pieces of foldover elastic would be enough for the straps.  It requires some contortion to choose where you put those straps too - this is a great place to have a friend who can help and mark your back for you!

The fit: is tight and actually a bit too compressive.  I would wear this swimming more likely than running because in the water it would loosen up a bit.  For a future version I'll add 1 inch to the center front.  That would both give me more room, and would widen the neck a little bit.  As it is, the straps are a bit too close together too so that should be a perfect fix.

I'm not sure if in a more giving fabric, like ordinary knits, it would be loose enough on its own, but I do appreciate how compressive the swim lining is!

As for the straps, I would switch them out for 1" heavy duty elastic in the future.  That would be fine, at least, for a jogging or yoga bra top.  For a swimming top I'm not sure elastic does well in the water so I'm still not sure what I'd use instead.  The idea of trying to make straps out of slinky, misbehaving swimsuit nylon doesn't appeal but I suppose it is an option.  I don't think I would use FOE again.

Orange Lingerie purple lace Marlborough bra

This bra is the story of thinking you know what you are doing and forgetting all the details.

I made this beautiful bra awhile ago.  Too bad that it seems 32 C really does not fit me these days.  So my solution was to cut a 30B, to decrease both the clearly too big cup size and the clearly loose band.  That was a bad move.  Next, I went on to cut my pattern out in lace using glue, that honestly isn't my fault is the absolute worst sewing glue on the entire planet. Pick your spray glue wisely!!  If I had taken a picture of the glue I'd post it but I didn't, sorry.  Madalynne recommends Odif's 505 (here) and I would go with that next time as I reckon she is the lingerie guru these days

Then buoyed up by all that tension and anger from dealing with the glue, I popped all these tiny pieces of lace into my sewing machine, where the feed dogs had a lot of fun.  This bra looked too small to me - the cups just seemed small.  And my drive to actually produce a nice bra hit zero really fast.  Which shows.

The cups are not even because I couldn't see my snip marks and didn't try very hard.  Other than that it looks ok.  It is too small, both in the cup and in the band.  I think a 32 B might have given me the best result.

The lace and notions are from Tailor Made Shop.   I generally like everything I get from there, but this was actually a kit to make a Madalynne bra, and as kits go I think it doesn't match very well - it looks good when the pieces are just lying out but as a bra it has too many jarring elements - why are the straps so dark?  Nude closure?  It would be better with a dark coloured underlining instead of the pale white.  I also didn't underline the top panel of the bra, and I think that would lead to it being very flimsy and falling apart faster. 

And I have finally been on the verge of a bramaking breakthrough: I do not wear lace bras.  Why do I keep trying to make them?  It may be time to get over my anxiety of foam and make a foam bra - ironically the very first bra I made was foam and then I reread a bunch of blogs and thought I should be not using foam, so I stopped and never tried it again.  However, the duck billed shape of the Marlborough is even more apparent in this smaller size, and so I think it is also time to start making different patterns - I have in mind the Harriet to try, plus one of Madalynne x Simplicity 8229,  but I believe that Anne from Clothing Engineer had a lot of advice that I might read up on prior to my next foray into bras.

Not so boring grey Watson bra

This grey stuff is from a Merckwaerdigh kit, which I bought on Etsy.  It came with lace which I used on the Madalynne bralette.  I thought I should give the Watson another try since my first try was pretty good (see here) but I didn't like the long line bra at all.

This time I learnt from my recent Marlborough experience and cut out the B cup instead of C.  Still with a 32 band.

I double layered everything, therefore avoiding any elastic on the center of the cups, but I used powermesh on the band, and so I didn't figure out how to get a clean finish when attaching the cups to the band.

It was pretty easy and I didn't do anything else surprising.  It fits pretty well although the band looks like it's wrinkled, it seems to sit just fine. However, the support that the center elastic usually gives would be nice to have.  Next time I will probably go ahead and use elastic there but make sure it's a very low profile elastic - I hated all the frilly bits sticking out on my first Watson attempt.  Of course it's not the kind of bra that lifts and centers, but it's good for very low impact sports.  The band is actually a bit loose and I'll eventually get around to fixing that.