What I Made: Taryn

I first saw and fell in love with mono wire bras last May when I co-hosted a Bra Making with Madalynne workshop with The New Craft House in London. The timing was really fortuitous. When I was visiting, there was a lingerie exhibit at The V&A, Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear. Truly amazing. I was on the second level and just about to leave when I spotted a black Agent Provateur bra that had a mono wire. Y’all, I like to think that I underwires inside and out (classic, demi, vertical, plunge, classic, yada, yada, yada), but mono wires? Unlike uniboobs and unibrows, monowires are flattering, at least I think so. The curvature it creates at the bottom of a bra is unique. Eye catching. Before I left, or maybe it was shortly after (my memory is shot these day), I ordered mono wires from Arte Crafts. Here I am, just shy of a year later, finally getting around to making a mono wire bra. Didn’t know it would take me close to 10 months to find the perfect blush pink, sequin mesh to go with it. The struggle is real.

Fabric and Trims:

Bra:
Front: Blush pink sequin mesh lined with blush pink stretch mesh. I bought the sequin mesh while I was in New York for a short day trip, and I forget the name of the store, but it was across from Spandex House. The stretch mesh was from Spandex House.
Band: Blush pink milliskin (fancy name for shiny Lycra) lined with stretch mesh, both from Spandex House.
3/8″ blush pink picot elastic from Tailor Made Shop
3/8″ white channeling from Tailor Made Shop (didn’t match the blush pink, but use what you got!)
3/8″ black strap elastic from Tailor Made Shop
3/4″ rings + sliders from Tailor Made Shop
2×3 hook and eye from Tailor Made Shop

Panty:
Center front/back panels: Blush pink sequin mesh lined with blush pink stretch mesh (same as bra)
Side panels: Blush pink milliskin (fancy name for shiny Lycra) lined with stretch mesh (same as bra)
3/8″ blush pink picot elastic from Tailor Made Shop
1″ black flat elastic from Pacific Trimming
3/8″ black strap elastic from Tailor Made Shop (same as bra)
3/8″ front closure from Pacific Trimming 

Pattern

I used Noelle – a free PDF pattern! – as a base to draft the front pattern for this bra. I traced the shape of the mono wire at the bottom (where the band seam is), but redrew at the underarm to allow the mono wire to “spring”. You can read more about drafting a bra pattern and how much spring underwires should have here. The band was also self drafted and the key to that was making sure the length of the band and the stretch percentage of the milliskin corresponded to my body measurements.

I used another tried and true pattern to draft the panties – Anita. Easy peasy to get the cutouts – just draw half circles. In ain’t rocket science peeps – just panty science ; )

Construction

Sewing through sequins is easier than you think. I swear. Just like breaking a nail, you’ll probably break a needle unless you have the time and patience to remove the sequins from the seam allowances, which I do not!  I used a size 12 regular needle and my PFAFF Passport 2.0 did just peachy throughout sewing.

Comments

With Valentine’s Day just the corner, this was a perfect project to treat myself. Yeh, yeh… you may be against the Hallmark holiday, but I think it’s a great excuse for us ladies to do something for ourselves. Because really, we deserve it.