The minute this pattern hit my frontal lobe I bought it.

A bra with no underwires? A no-brainer for me. The pattern is from Cloth Habit, and the bra pattern includes a long line and a regular length band. It is for stretchy fabrics, but it looks as nice in a knit as in stretchy lace. I intend to make a truckload of these!

My first effort was the long-line bra and the bikini/undies/knickers/panties.

the perspective here makes the undies look huge, but they aren’t, they are a perfect fit round my lower abdomen, just where I like them.

I did change the undies pattern to eliminate the front seam. Carolyn did the same on her version, and I agree, it looks much nicer. I therefore caught the gusset lining into the back seam, leaving the front open and this works perfectly. It’s easy to do, just trace the gusset pattern on to the front pattern – remembering to eliminate the seam allowance.

I also lined the bra cups with some soft organic cotton knit. This is how they look unlined, and I couldn’t live with it, even though I thought I could when I started out.

I hand stitched the whole lining is as I had already done the top stitching around the cups, but the next iteration will have a more integrated lining.

Of course I ran out of the white plushy elastic and Spotlight don’t seem to stock it (what??), so I finished up using rubber elastic at the bottom of the bra band. I’m not sure how this will go long term, but I’m wearing this set as I write and it’s enormously comfortable and the band doesn’t ride up at all. I also haven’t fallen out of the bottom of the bra cups, which was my other fear :).

I used a couple of little beads to finish off the bra, rather than the traditional bow, and decided that I quite like the effect.

I am currently engaged in making the regular band bra and will make a few more sets of both styles before I report back on the relative merits of the two.

Details: Watson Bra & Bikini from Cloth Habit, made from some white spandex* bought at Knitwit, and previously used for a bra here. All of the notions were stashbusted, I’m pleased to say.

Just a note here – don’t print the pattern until you have worked out your size. The pattern is organised into pattern “bands” and only the pages in your size need to be printed. This saves a lot of paper and ink. Ask me how I know this!

*Am I the only person in the universe who didn’t realise that “spandex” is an anagram of “expands”? Sometimes I think I live in a cave. I was on a blog recently puzzling over the acronym “EBA” (which means Enterprise Bargaining Agreement where I’m from). After some googling I discovered that it stood for “Enormous Bottom Adjustment”! This made me laugh a lot and I started creating a blog which was all TLAs (three letter acronyms), and I got quite a long way – scary…

OK, back to business. My other news is that I am once again participating in the Stashbusting Sewalong, 2015. Last year I busted 273.8 metres of fabric and untold yarn and other bits. I didn’t count how much I bought or how much I have left (about 1,000 metres, I think!), but I am now logging every single purchase and every make, including the notions used so my reporting for this year will be much more accurate. My pledge for this year is:

I, Sue, pledge to eliminate 300 metres from my stash and to not buy fabric or patterns for a total of 12 weeks during 2015.

Let’s see how I go, hey? Sadly I’ve already bought some stuff this year, including 3 patterns from the Selvedge Shop which were awarded as my prize in the vintage pledge competition. Expect to see vintage swimwear in the near future!