Bra Month | Busty Pattern Review | Pin Up Girls Ingrid Wireless Bra

Let me tell you a secret: I have a complicated relationship with Pin Up Girls patterns.

On one hand, I love them, because the PUG Sweet 16 Bralette pattern was my first ever bra, so it holds a very special place in my heart. It taught me so much, not only about bra making, but also about my own body and myself in general. And it taught me that I can, in fact, put these 30J boobies into a bralette.

But, having made the Sweet 16 and the Classic, I also know that I end up needing a lot of alterations to these patterns for them to fit me, as they aren’t drafted for my narrow-rooted, very projected shape. And I hate doing a million alterations. It’s not the patterns’ fault, or the designer’s. Patterns, in general, are just drafted for a specific type of body. They have to be, unless they are custom drafted. And bra patterns are no exception.

Are you an average-to-slightly shallow projection, average-to-slightly wide rooted boobalicious person? Then PUG patterns are likely perfect for you, because that’s exactly the shape they’re designed for, in my experience.

But for me and my very projected, narrow-rooted boobs, I usually have to add projection and remove width on the wireline to make these patterns work for me.

But the Ingrid was different.

The Ingrid is a wireless bra, and it is exceptionally size inclusive in the cups, going up to a 9″ bottom cup depth – much higher than most bra patterns (though not as high as I’d like to see patterns go!). (Not sure what bottom cup depth means? Check out the Sew Busty Guide to Bra Measurements here!)

The style lines of the Ingrid reminded me a lot of the my trusty (but not super well-fitting) Panache non-wired sports bras, so when Gigi’s Bra Supply hosted an Ingrid sew along and gifted me the Ingrid pattern (with no obligation), I jumped at the opportunity to join!

My BCD lives somewhere between 5″, while wearing my well-fitting Porcelynne Eve bra, to 5.5″, when naked and leaning forward. Having heard from others with similar shaped breasts that the Ingrid runs a tad small in the cup, I made a toile in the 5.5″ BCD size with no changes – fully expecting to need to make changes after making my toile.

But when I tried it on, I didn’t need a lot of changes!

The apex was in the perfect spot, but the band was a bit too big and the cups were too wide. The power bar/side panel wasn’t sitting on my breast at all, so it wasn’t doing its job of pushing me forward. But I conquered all of that with one alteration: I ended up doing was taking a curved wedge from the side of the upper and outer lower cup, like this:

For my final version, I sewed it up in yellow duoplex from Gigi’s Bra Supply, as I was itching to have a yellow sports bra! I also chose the option with wider band elastic, as I like to feel a little more covered while I work out. For the straps, I used leftover black satin to cover some leftover cut and sew foam that I had from another project.

Now, the construction on this one is a bit more advanced, as it has a lot of pieces. The cup, by itself, has 5 pieces, and then you have the center front and the wings on top of that. So I would probably recommend this bra pattern to someone who is at an intermediate level, having sewn a bra or two before. An adventurous beginner could probably tackle it, given the time and dedication, but it’s not as well-suited for an adventurous beginner as, say, the Jet Set Natural pattern that we’re currently working on for our sew along.

But, after all this, I ended up with a fantastic sports bra.

It’s not 100% perfect. I do aerial dance, so I spend a lot of time upside down, and after a while, gravity starts pulling my breasts up out of the bra. They haven’t escaped, but I do get a bit of quad boob. But I can’t help but thinking that Beverly – the designer of PUG bras – wasn’t expecting people to be hanging out upside down in these bras 😂 To fix that, I’ll make the neckline higher on my next version.

This bra has excellent boob separation for a wireless bra, which I appreciate not having a uni-boob look.

While this bra passes the bounce test, after a few jumping jacks, my boobs do try to sneak together. On my toile, I had fixed this by taking in the center seam by about 1/4″ on each side, for a total reduction of 1/2″. I was nervous to do the same on my yellow bra, though, since I hadn’t applied elastics on the toile, and I was expecting the elastics to make things a bit more snug. They did a little bit, but not enough to make up for this alteration. So, on the next one, I’ll also take in my center front. Frankly, I may even go back and do that on this bra.

Overall, I’m quite chuffed with the Ingrid. I find it to be very nice as a sports bra, though I probably wouldn’t wear this as an everyday bra – it’s a bit too much bra for me for daily wear, personally.

If you’re in the US, you can get the Ingrid from Gigi’s Bra Supply. For my European friends, B’Wear carries it. And for everyone else, Bra Maker’s Supply has international shipping!