MakeBra #4800

I've been admiring the lovely bras being sewn in the blogosphere, especially by P'thrifty and when StephC posted about sewing them from makeBra.com I was really interested, the idea of making bright, pretty bras that fit is very exciting!

I wasn't sure on the sizing, originally I measured up as a 95C which didn't seem right so I remeasured in front of a mirror to check that the tape measure was parallel to the floor and I measured up as a 95G which also didn't seem right as I'm a 16E in Australian RTW. I ordered the multisize pattern for the #4800 cos I figured I'd rather get all 3 and pay one postage than have to reorder if I got the wrong size! (BTW, if anyone is a 95G or 95F I have a pattern and underwire I can post out to you, just email me  :)

Annelle recommends making a trial bra so I did that with the 95DD and it was pretty close, I did pin some out in the cup, mostly a wedge at underarm side and a bit from the centre seam. 

I am happy with the fit now and I must say its the best fitting bra I've ever had! Its definitely a full cup bra and fits similar to my sports bra. But I have to admit I really struggled with the instructions, its written as if you have sewn bras before and as a complete beginner I ended up unpicking every part of the bra at least once, sometimes a few times....I got caught out with the foam lining, I thought it would be covered on the inside and outside but its meant to be left exposed so I had to unpick the cover so the smooth side would be on the inside. The top of the band is meant to be finished when you sew the elastic to the bottom of the band as well which I couldn't find in the instructions either.

I hate the fold over elastic too! It was so hard to fit over the thick edge of the foam lining, I noticed on my RTW bra that the cup cover and lining are sewn right sides together then turned right side out, so that the cover wraps over the edge of the lining and no need for fold over elastic (similar to this) so that's what I'll be doing next time!

I nearly didn't finish this, the stitching is so dodgy and the white foam lining looks so weird in the black bra. But I wanted to be able to wear it around for awhile to check the fit before I make another one. Already I know I added length to the end of the strap instead of the middle which means the straps are way to far apart and I used a wider elastic on the bottom of the band which now wants to flip up so I'll be using the recommended size next time.

I didn't stretch the fabric tight enough over the cups too so there is some excess bunching a bit.

After I spent ages unpicking and resewing the bra I finally searched for tutorials (yeah I was a bit slow this weekend!) and found some fantastic ones here that I really wish I'd found earlier! Even though the makebra has the foam lining (which I really like), the tutorial that Sigrid has would still work really well, in fact I'm planning on printing out the pdf for next time I make one!

So, I will be making another one and I do recommend makeBra, great customer service and quite reasonable prices but read the tutorials and don't make the same mistakes I did!