Pattern Review - Merckwaerdigh Balcony Bra


Size: 75B
Materials used: White stretch gallon lace, white mesh for lining, stabilized nylon for the bridge, white lycra for wings, white straight edge underwear elastic, white foe for upper cups edge, white hooks and eye closure, white bra straps elastic. All materials sourced locally (YAAAS). Underwires from bwear.se

Pattern Review:
(For the printed pattern itself)

This pattern is drafted for B cup, and uses sister sizing for other cup sizes. 
Included UK sizes are:

34A - 48A (= US 34AA - 48AA or EU 75A - 110A) 
32B - 46B (= US 32A - 46A or EU 70B - 105B) 
30C - 44C (= US 30B - 44B or EU 65C - 100C)
28D - 42D (= US 28C - 42C or EU 60D - 95D)
The pattern comes without any seam allowances, so they must be added. Adding seam allowances isn't hard, you just need a good ruler and a sharp pencil. Being a long time Burda magazine user, I am used to it.
The notches for matching up lower and upper cup are basically useless for smaller sizes since they are located very close to the cutting edge. 
A notch that would match up with the bridge and cradle joining seam was dearly missed by me also. 







Pattern alterations for personal fit:
- I found the cups to be too pointy, so I smoothed the lower and upper cup out quite a bit. My upper cup piece is now practically straight. 
- Moved the strap joining point inward about 2,5cm.
- Moved cradle and wing seam towards the front 
- Changed the angle of underwires
- Removed additional cup volume vertically since I am in between cup sizes
- Narrowed the bridg at the bottom

Construction notes:
- Cup seams and wing seam is finished with binding strips cut from the mesh I used for lining the cups and cradle
- FOE was applied with one seam
- Stabilized nylon was used to line the bridge only

I am honestly SO happy that I've managed to get this pattern to fit me! It has taken me 4 tries to get to this point. I am extra happy that now I can FINALLY wear underwire bras without any foam cups. 
Seriously - not all small chested girls like sweaty foam. 

I recently read an interesting article in one of the Estonias fashion mags about breast jobs. One of the biggest reasons women go in to have their boobs made is that they simply don't like the shape of their breasts.
It turns out, a lot of younger women have pointy, triangle/conical shaped breasts because they start wearing push-up bras when they are young. Where do teens buy their clothes and underwear? At big RTW retailers whose prices are more affordable. 
If you visit those stores you will notice that over half of their bra selection has push-up cups. And not a lot of underwire bras without any padding are available.
So if you are a teenager who is somehow ended up on this post or a mom who has a daughter still growing, think about all that foam.
One thing I've also noticed that not many lingerie companies produce underwired bras for smaller cup sizes...simply because they don't think they have a market for them. 

Now back to my handmade bra.

I didn't use any scalloped edges since I wanted to give the bra a modern sporty look. I wish I would have been able to use the lace for wings too, but sadly I didn't have enough of that white mesh I used to line the cups and cradle.

I haven't owned a white bra since I could start buying my own underwear. So it's been like 18 years?! I must admit, I quit like it. Even thou I know it wont last long and will show signs of wear much faster than black or colourful bras.

I still need to make a smaller cup pattern for my right boob. There's some extra fabric pooling around, that simply isn't pretty. 



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