I decided to start play with modifying the Watson bra from Cloth Habit to use foam rather than stretchy fabric for the cups. Even though the pattern fits me pretty well I wanted the extra shaping and predictable fit of foam padding. Stretch fabrics give a great fit but they tend to also compress my bust a little, which isn’t good when you are starting with somewhat shallow, bottom-heavy profile. My goal is to create an alternative to having to buy RTW seamless molded cup bras. Most of the RTW foam cup bras I’ve tried in this style fit terrible…more often than not the cups are too pointy for me, with excess space in the cup at the apex, and the neckline edge cuts in. It isn’t a fit issue, it is a cup shape issue.
Many of the techniques I used for this process were learned from working with Make Bra patterns. If you have never worked with cut and sew foam bra cups before the Make Bra pattern line is good place to start. This post is NOT a step-by-step bulletproof tutorial on how to use foam instead of stretch fabric to construct your Watson bra cups. I have only done this for myself – and still consider it a work in progress – so if you want to do this yourself be prepared to use your own judgement along the way (especially for fit) rather than depend on a formulaic method provided by me. Amy was very clear when she debuted the Watson that the bra was drafted to be light and unstructured, and the cups stretchy to eliminate as many fitting issues as possible…so I’m breaking that rule in a pretty big way! (Sorry Amy.) But when you buy a sewing pattern you can do anything you want with it, right?
I decided to take photos of this laid out flat rather than on my plastic lady so you could see how much structure the foam gives to the cups. The back closure is basted in rather than permanently sewn because I haven’t gotten the chance to dye it black yet. (The closures are from the by-the-foot evenly spaced tape sold by porcelynne. The texture is very soft and I’m happy with the quality.)
Here you can see the boning and channeling I added. I did not add underwires.
My fabric is from an old Merckwaerdigh bra kit. It was very thin, very stretchy, and was a complete pain to work with. The lining is wrinkly because I used Sigrid’s tutorial on interfacing lycra and had to pull the fabric quite a bit to ensure it would be smooth when worn. The lining included in the kit was slightly too short to cut the cradle on the fold, so I added a center front seam. I lined the back band with some of the “fancy” floral power net from FabricDepotCo.com.
I used the foam available from the Make Bra shop. Yes, it is pricey, and there is foam available from other sources like Sew Sassy and Bramaker’s Supply, but I prefer this particular foam because of the plush lining and the fact that unlike the Sew Sassy foam my machine rarely skips stitches when zigzagging the foam pieces together. It is very stable and has just a tiny bit of “give.”
I knew I would need to go up in size. The only question was how much. My first Watson was out of a stretch mesh, and I didn’t bother to stabilize the cradle aside from cutting one layer of mesh in one stretch direction and the other in the other direction. It had some stretch to it and I liked the width. For my second Watson I stabilized the entire cradle out of some non-stretch cup lining, and during wear found it a little narrow. So first I started off by measuring the cup of a bra made out of the same Make Bra foam and compared the measurements to the Watson pattern lines. Even though it was closest to the measurements of the 32E the lack of underwires meant that it would probably not hug my body as closely. (A bra will not tack at the center front without an underwire.) I decided to trace out a 32D cup. I cut off the seam allowances everywhere except at the bottom of the cup, traced it onto some foam and cut it out, zigzagged it together along the vertical seam, and held it up to myself to judge the fit. It seemed like it might be a little small and wasn’t giving the coverage I was looking for, so I tried again with a 32E and got more satisfactory results. This method is not perfect – you can’t really judge how a bra will fit until it is completed – but it gives a starting point.
One of my issues with previous Watsons that I discovered over a day of wear was the strap placement seemed too narrow. (I have the same issue with Pin-up Girls patterns and a lot of American RTW, but not Merckwaerdigh or Make Bra patterns, or European RTW bras.) So I cut the foam cup an inch below the strap placement and shifted the top section over toward the armhole 1/2″ and zigzagged it in place. I then trued the line for the neckline and armhole by cutting where needed and filling in where needed with some foam scraps. Once I was satisfied with the changes I brought it over to my pattern, cut the cup apart at the vertical seamline, and traced the pieces to create the cup pattern pieces. I used this to cut both my lycra and foam pieces. If you want a visual tutorial on how to adjust bra strap placement check out the Fitting the Bra Straps post by Make Bra.
I cut the seam allowances off the upper edge of the cradle and back band pieces to match. Why cut the seam allowances off? The edges for this style bra are bound with foldover elastic instead of being finished with regular picot lingerie elastic. I know some foam cup bra patterns have you stitch the fabric to the wrong side, then flip it over and stitch it to the right side, thus eliminating the need for foldover elastic. It is a very clean finish but was not great for this particular fabric because it was so thin and stretchy. I felt like I would get a smoother look if I followed the Make Bra method and stretched it over the cup before trimming the excess. After I placed the cup cover fabric onto the foam cups and zigzagged it in place along the edges I finished the inner (neckline) edge of each foam cup with the foldover elastic.
After I sewed the cradle to the back band I pushed the seam allowances toward the cradle, but didn’t topstitch them in place. I hadn’t decided at that point whether boning would be needed or not.
After I attached the foam cups to the cradle I covered the seam with some cheap, thin nylon channeling from Sew Sassy, using the same process as when you sew channeling to a regular underwire bra. The next time I make this I will finish the inner edge of the channeling at the center front with a narrow zigzag stitch before sewing it to the seam. I didn’t do that for this bra and I ended up having to overlap it. Note: this bra is NOT meant for underwires. Because underwires change the fit of the cradle and cups it would require more extensive changes, and why bother going through all that trouble when there’s already tons of underwire bra patterns out there that would provide a much easier starting point? If you want to know more about how wires affect the fit of a bra take a look at With or Without Underwires?
I finished up the bra, then tried on it on and moved around a bit. Like my last Watson the band rolled up during movement (especially after raising my arms) so I decided to sew the boning casing over the seam allowance where the cradle meets the back band and insert some plastic boning. It made a big difference. I can barely feel it and I think it makes the bra more comfortable since I don’t feel the need to tug it down during the day. I am also considering adding some to the cradle directly below the middle of the cup to keep that section as smooth as possible and help keep the cups in place. It is similar to how a strapless bodice usually has boning directly under and not over the bust.
I wore the bra all day today. The fit is overall good and it stayed in place just as good, if not better than my RTW wireless bras. (Wireless bras are comfortable but I find they don’t stay in place as well as an underwired bra.) I do need to take in the vertical seam of the cup about 2″ above the apex. The vertical seams need to be moved inward 1/2″, but that’s a normal alteration for me. (Darts and princess seams on shirts and dresses are often too wide-set on my figure.)
If you want to see how it looks on me, here’s a photo. You can see how the profile is fuller and rounder than my last Watson due to the additional structure provided by the foam.
In other news…Sallie had a great time playing in the snowstorm today! This dog loves the snow and never. stops. moving. Our Great Danes before were laid back, hated going outside if it was below 60 degrees, and were more interested in eating than running. This one is the complete opposite.