The Making of ~ A Lansdowne Bra ~ Part Two
Having completed all the preparation work (measuring and cutting out) in Part One, I'm now I'm up to the sewing part! The instructions include easy to follow diagrams so I'd feel fairly confident if I were a beginner, in understanding what to do.
Here is a bit of a photo step-by-step, following the instructions.
Cup Construction:
This is really straight forward. The cup is only two pieces and only the lace is lined so they sew up quickly and easily. There is a nice tip in the instructions about using a three step zig-zag to add the clear elastic to the lace edge. (The clear elastic though is omitted from the materials list - whoops.)
Lace upper cup pieces shown from both the right and wrong sides, with lining and clear elastic attached.
Cup pieces with notches marked ready to be sewn together.
Finished cup pieces.
Bridge:
The bridge is made from one main fabric and one lining fabric piece. These are quite small so precision stitching is necessary.
The bridge piece sewn together and checked against the pattern piece.
Frame, Band and Band Elastic:
Frame sewn to the band and shown from both the right and wrong sides.
Band elastic attached to these two pieces.
Sew the Cups to the Bridge and Frame Pieces:
I took my time in sewing the bridge to the cups and the frame to the cups, carefully matching up the notches and checking for symmetry before sewing the pieces together.
The bra pieces all attached together and shown from the wrong and right sides.
Applying the Channeling:
The bottom of the cup (to the right of the photo) with the navy blue channeling ~ the channeling needs to be curved opposite to the cup as it will be flipped inwards.
The first pass of the channeling sewn.
Under Arm Elastic and finishing the channeling:
Top L - underarm elastic attached (first pass), Top R - and here, shown from the right side of the bra, Bottom L - Stitch closed the outer end of the channeling, I always clip mine in place under the elastic as a reminder to sew it like this, Bottom R - Second pass stitching of the elastic and channelling.
Attach straps and hook and eye:
I checked the depth of the band where it would attach to the hook and eye to see if it was the correct depth for the hook and eye that I was using.
You can just see that I have laid the two band ends on top of one another, the original width (shown underneath) would have been too wide for my hook and eye so I had to trim it down (shown on top)
The straps and hook and eye are attached and all that is left is to adorn it with a decorative bow, centre front.
Finished Lansdowne bra:
