This is the fourth and final bra from the Structured Lingerie short course at the London College of Fashion.
It’s made from a pattern that I drafted from one of my own bras, which sadly had to be sacrificed for the occasion. Each of us had to unpick a bra in our own size, writing down the order that we’d taken it apart so that we’d know how to assemble the new one.
I got a little bit too ambitious with mine, making a few alterations to the style of the original bra. This turned out to mean that some mistakes crept in along the way, so this bra doesn’t actually fit as well as the other three.
My main mistake was to take my pattern from the foam cup rather than the fabric that had been covering it. This seemed like a good idea at the time, as I could make a more accurate pattern from the stable foam than from the stretchy fabric. Unfortunately I forgot to add the seam allowance to the bottom of the lower cup, which makes the bra smaller than it ought to be. This was compounded by an error in the boning – I hadn’t realised that the boning channels we were using at the College were quite a bit wider than the ones on the original bra. This took an extra few millimetres out of the bottom cup, making it even smaller!
Still, I have my pattern, I know what changes I need to make, and I think I have just enough fabric left over from the course to have another try.
All in all, I had an absolutely brilliant week!
The facilities at the college were absolutely excellent (I’m coveting an industrial bar-tacking machine), the tutor was very experienced and helpful, and I learned a lot of things that I can now put into practice as I continue in my mission to make fiddly things from awkward fabrics.
You can actually do an entire degree in underwear if you want to, but I’m currently extremely tempted by another of their short courses. The Lingerie Workshop is another full week, but this time concentrating on “the skills of traditional couture lingerie, especially the feminine 1930s bias-cut styles and other similar themes and updating these into 21st-century lingerie.”
Doesn’t that sound absolutely perfect?