My undies drawer has been looking a trifle tatty so I decided to make some new sets.

I really wanted to improve the fit of my bras, so I used scraps of various sorts. My first effort was a set from tricot but I forgot to take photos, so here is set number two, made whilst I was camping recently.

I decided to use my Kwik Sew 3300 pattern, which has underwires but no padding. It also has a lovely shape, and interestingly, it has pattern pieces for both the underwire casing and the shoulder straps. This was very welcome as I didn’t have either of these in my stash and didn’t want to buy them.

I watched the Craftsy course with Beverly Johnson, which I bought eons ago, and tried to apply what I learned to my bra making.

The first tricot bra, then was a test. I noticed that the bridge was a bit wide and that the underarm seam was a bit high. I decided to approach the bridge problem first and reduced the width by 5mm when making the red set. This immediately improved the fit, both of the bridge and the underarm.

When I made the initial black bra, I used a fairly thick, slightly stretchy fabric for the underwire casing. I decided to use a much lighter cotton for the red bra, but the underwires went straight through and no matter what I did, they persisted in their escapology.

I have now reinforced the ends of these casings and this has worked like a charm.

The knickers are a self-drafted pattern – I decided not to use my usual Watson pattern. When I cleaned out my drawer I found a little pile of Victoria Secret cotton undies that I used to buy when I visited the US. I always found these so comfortable and clearly couldn’t bear to throw them out. So I used the press-n-seal method to copy a pair and what I noticed was that they weren’t at all symmetrical. I set about truing up the pattern and all the pairs that you see in this post are Victoria Secret knock offs. I even copied the way they attached the elastic, but decided that I didn’t like the leg elastic just sewn on without being turned under. Whilst this method reduces bulk, it looks a bit untidy, although I did trim the excess a bit after this photo was taken.

I do have another style of Victoria Secret undies, which have a strip of elastic sewn down the middle of the back, believe it or not. It looks strange, but again is really comfortable. I think I might have a go at copying them next and will report on my progress.

This red leopard set has had the bridge reduced by a further 2mm, and the bra is now a perfect fit. I also turned the leg elastic under to tidy things up. It will be interesting to see whether I get more of a visible panty line.

I have finally used all the red leopard fabric. I got a Nettie bodysuit and two other sets of underwear from it. I consider this to have been a good buy, from the Fabric Store in Sydney, it’s fabulous stuff.

Another good buy were bra back fastenings from Knitwit, reduced to $2 each. Needless to say, I bought them all, and used a couple of them in these bras, although I do recycle bra hardware when I throw old ones away.

I intend to make some lace versions, and then I’ll go back to making some padded bras. For now I shall just enjoy the three new sets that I’ve made.