Category: Sew Alongs

Roseclair Sew Along Week B: Sewing the Bodice & Sleeves (Beginners’ Sewing Series Part 9)

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Brand new to sewing? Start here, with posts on gathering your tools, taking your measurements, and figuring out your garment sewing cup size. The Sew Busty Beginners’ Sewing Series will be your step-by-step guide to learning garment sewing. Each installment will build upon the last, getting progressively more advanced in skills and techniques. Catch up with the whole series here.

As part of the Beginners’ Sewing Series, we’re doing a sew along of the Cashmerette Roseclair Wrap Dress. Check out the full sew along here.

Per last week’s post, over the past week, you should have:

Today, we’re going to sew up the bodice, which means you’ll end up with something that looks sort of like a shirt at the end of the day! I’m really excited to introduce you to darts and to seam finishing for woven fabric today!

This month, I won’t be going over things like threading your machine, marking notches, or keeping yourself organized. But if you need a refresher on those topics, hop back to May’s Lago/Saybrook sew along, where I share all the deets on those points!

Getting Ready to Sew: Marking Notches & Darts

BEFORE YOU UNPIN YOUR PATTERN PIECES, we have a couple steps.

First, always start by marking your notches. On all your pattern pieces. Yes, even that one.

Trust me. I didn’t do this, and there were a couple pieces that I unpinned from the pattern, only to realize I hadn’t marked my notches 🤦‍♀️ Learn from my mistakes. Mark all your notches!!!

Second, we need to mark our darts. There are a lot of techniques to marking darts! Some people like to use tailor’s tacks, some like to use a tracing wheel. Well, this is how my mama taught me, so this is how I do it.

I first pierce the dart point using a pin, piercing through both layers of fabric:

Then, I flip my fabric over and use my fabric marking pen (water soluble side, not air soluble side, because I don’t want this marking to disappear before I’ve sewn my darts!) to make a dot where the pin is sticking out.

Then, I carefully flip my fabric back over, keeping the pin where it is. Now, I’m going to mark the ends of the dart legs:

Once I’ve done that, I’ll unpin the pattern from the fabric along the edge of the dart, leaving the dart point at the apex where it is! Then, I lift my pattern, revealing the pin at the dart point sticking into my top layer of fabric. I mark this point on this side:

Now I can remove this pin. I’ll repeat this process on all the other darts so that the front waist darts, front bust darts, and back waist darts are all marked. Only then do I completely remove my pattern pieces from my fabric.

My next step is to draw in the dart legs. Now, I don’t always draw in my dart legs, and if you are an intermediate-to-advanced sewist, you probably don’t need to do this step. But, for my beginner friends, I’d recommend doing this until you’re really confident you can sew a straight line without much guide. (Honestly, my spatial reasoning skills are so bad that even after 20+ years of sewing, I still often draw in my legs. It takes 2 seconds and ensures my darts will be straight.)

To draw in your dart legs, just use a ruler to connect your dart point to your leg ends – all of which you’ve marked at this point.

Do this on all of your darts. Your pattern pieces will now look like this:

Let’s talk a bit about what darts are: For your Lago or Saybrook tank, you didn’t have darts, because the stretch of the fabric will mold over your mounds. But, for woven fabrics, because they don’t stretch, we must add shaping to them. Enter darts. In this Advanced Fit Series post, Ann from Designer Stitch talks more about how darts shape around your boobies.

Staystitching

Okay, I’ll be honest with you. I always forget to stay stitch first. I dunno why, but my first inclination is always to get my darts sewn, and then I look at the directions only to realize OMG I WAS SUPPOSED TO STAYSTITCH.

But staystitching is super important on this particular pattern. Why? Because the wrap front is cut on the bias.

Staystitch. Bias. … Lindsie, you’re talking gibberish!

I know. It’s a lot of vocab all at once! Let’s break it down:

Bias: Remember when we talked about the grain and the cross-grain very briefly with the Lago/Saybrook sew along? As seen in the diagram below, the grain is parallel to the selvedge and the cross-grain is perpendicular to the selvedge.

The bias is the 45-degree angle between the grain and the cross-grain. As you’ll have seen when you cut your pattern, the neckline binding is cut at this angle.

Not only is the neckline binding cut on the bias, but so is the neckline, since the side seam is on the grain, and the neckline is at an angle from that.

Why does this matter? Because, on the grain and cross-grain, woven fabric doesn’t stretch. But, on the bias, you’ll notice that woven fabric has a tad bit of stretch. Unlike stretch/knit fabric, though, woven fabric, once stretched on the bias, doesn’t easily return to its unstretched state. (This is what we call recovery – many knit fabrics have excellent recovery.)

What we don’t want is for the neckline to stretch while we sew the other parts of the garment, leaving the neckline too long. So we staystitch. Which brings me to …

Staystitch: Staystitching is when we sew along the edge of fabric in order to prevent stretching. There’s nothing really special to it. I like to stitch 1/4″ from the edge of the fabric, because this then gets caught in the seam allowance and saves me the step of having to remove the staystitching later.

You want to stitch from the shoulder down to the end of the neckline. Here, you can see that I’ve staystitched the front neckline:

Once again, PLEASE pretend that my darts aren’t already sewn in this picture. Do as I say, not as I do! Staystitch first!

You also need to staystitch the back. Stitch from the shoulder to the center back, then again from the other shoulder to the center back.

Sewing the Darts

Our next step is to sew our darts. To do this, we must first fold and pin them. Here’s my process for that:

Pinning the darts

First, I put a pin through the dart point – going in, then back out of the fabric so my pin sticks out on the wrong side of the fabric.

Then, I pick the fabric up by holding that pin, and match the ends of the dart legs, like this:

Then, I start pinning my dart. As I pin, I flip the fabric over to ensure that my pin is aligning straight with my drawn dart legs on both sides:

At this point, I don’t worry too much about which direction my pins are facing. I find it easier to just get everything pinned and aligned, then worry about pin orientation later.

Once it’s all pinned, I’ll carefully re-pin, removing only one pin at a time, in order to get my pins such that they’ll be on the top, head toward me, when I sew from dart leg end to dart point with the bulk of my fabric to the left. You can see that I’ve adjusted my pin orientation in this picture:

stitching the darts

So the thing about darts, especially on busty bodies, is you don’t want to introduce a lot of bulk to the dart ends. Normally, when we sew a seam, we either lockstitch or backstitch at the beginning and end of the seam in order to secure that stitching. But, with darts, you don’t want to do this, because both lockstitching and backstitching cause bulk.

So what do we do instead? Reduce our stitch length, dramatically. I start my darts from the edge of the fabric, and I start with a 1 mm stitch length:

I align the center of my foot with the dart leg, as you can see in this picture, then I begin stitching.

Once I’ve stitched about, I dunno, 3/4″ to 1″ of the dart, I switch back to my standard straight stitch – 2.5 mm stitch length.

Then, once I’m about 3/4″ from the end of the dart, I switch back to the 1 mm stitch length.

Then, and this is very important, stitch right off the folded edge of your dart. Don’t stop sewing until your needle is no longer on fabric, as seen here:

At this point, you can cut your thread. Some people tie their thread ends here before snipping them, for extra security. I find that the 1 mm stitch length is enough security to keep everything in place.

Repeat these steps for all of your darts – the two bust darts, the two front waist darts, and the two back waist darts.

Pressing your darts

Set your iron temperature according to your fabric. I’m using linen, so I have mine on a pretty high heat. But, if you’re using any synthetic fabrics (polyester, rayon, etc.) or more delicate fabric (like silk), you’ll want to choose your heat setting accordingly.

So, in an ideal world, you’d have a boob ham and a tailor’s ham for pressing your darts. I’m almost ashamed to admit this, but I don’t have either. 🙃 But, y’know, you’re a beginner, so I’m guessing you don’t either. That’s okay! We’re going to channel our inner Tim Gunn and MAKE IT WORK.

My alternative to a ham is this balled up old t-shirt. Yeahhhh, it’s the same color as my Roseclair fabric. It’s my favorite color, what can I say?!

So you’re going to grab an old t-shirt and ball it up like a softball, just like this:

Then, you’re going to place those bust darts over this balled-up t-shirt, and press. Now, most tutorials will instruct you to press bust darts downward, so the extra fabric is toward the waist. Cashmerette, though, recommends the same thing I do: That you press your bust darts upward, so the extra fabric is toward the armscye (armhole). Why? Because it looks better on a large bust. Seriously.

Here’s my bust dart before pressing. See that dimple in the fabric?

And here it is after pressing. Dimple is gone! Pressing does wonders!

For the waist darts on the front and back of the bodice, we’ll press those toward the center of the dress. These darts are less curvy, so they can generally be done on the flat surface of your ironing board.

Tacking the bust darts

Now, this is a step I do that not everyone does, but I find it helps me a lot. My bust darts are HUGE, so I don’t want that extra fabric flapping around or threatening to go downward when I just pressed it up. So I tack the darts.

To do this, I first put my fabric back over my balled up t-shirt. Then, I pin the edge of the dart, as seen below. The reason I put the fabric over the t-shirt before pinning is that I want to ensure I’m allowing the dart fabric to curve around something, as it will lay differently that way than if it’s laid out flat. If I pin while it’s laid flat, I can end up with not enough fabric there, making it lay weird when on.

Now, I’m going to use a 5 mm long basting stitch to just tack the dart to the main fabric. I do this at 1/4″ from the edge, as this will be within my seam allowance. Once I have it tacked, I also trim the extra dart fabric, so that the dart is even with the edge of the main fabric:

Sewing the Shoulder Seams

We’re going to start sewing the pieces together! First, align your back bodice piece with your front bodice pieces along the shoulder seams, right sides of the fabric together, like this:

Then, we’re just going to pin those shoulder seams:

Now, to the sewing machine you go! Just use your standard 2.5 mm straight stitch, and sew at a 1/2″ seam allowance – that’s 1/2″ from the edge of the fabric. Lockstitch or backstitch at the beginning of your seam, and again at the end of your seam.

Seam Finishing Options

Now, here’s where things get interesting! On stretch knit fabrics, we don’t need to finish the edges of the fabric because knit fabrics don’t fray. Why? Remember how we talked about the difference between wovens and knits last week? Remember how knits are knitted, while wovens are woven? Well, this means that wovens will absolutely fray.

So we have to do something to prevent this. There are a few options. Some people LOVE to serge their fabric edges. Personally, I HATE my serger (and all sergers). It just feels like the machine is controlling things instead of me controlling things, and I don’t like it. Serging also requires an entirely separate machine, and for those beginners reading this as part of our Beginners’ Sewing Series, I’m assuming you probably don’t have a serger.

So here are some options for those who don’t have or don’t want to use a serger:

Pinked edges

I like to think of pinked edges as the old school way of doing things. Pinking is what my grandma and my mom used to finish seams. It’s also often the option I go for.

Pinking is simple. Using pinking shears (the kind meant for fabric; please don’t use the zigzag scissors meant for paper!), simply cut down the length of your seam allowance, leaving about 1/4″ seam allowance. Be very careful not to cut too close to your stitching, and be extra extra careful not to accidentally catch some of your main fabric in the shears. (I’ve done this enough times that I’ve now mostly switched to the next method I’m going to show you!)

Pinking your seams will prevent most fraying, but it won’t stop it entirely. It’ll just limit how much fraying you’ll see.

Zigzagging the edges

My current favorite method of seam finishing is zigzagging the edges, and this is what I’m going to do for the Roseclair.

For this option, simply switch your machine to its zigzag stitch, 4 mm wide by 3 mm long or so. (This is what my machine defaults to on zigzag.) Align your fabric edge so that the edge of your fabric is just shy of where the needle will go down at the outermost point in the zigzag. In other words, you’re going to be zigzagging off the edge. Sew down the entire length of the seam.

You’ll end up with something like this:

And that’s all there is to it! Finish both shoulder seams this way. Once they’re finished, press the seam allowance toward the back of the bodice.

Sewing the Sleeve

Time to move onto the sleeve! The first step on the sleeve is to sew two gathering stitches.

At the curve of the sleeve, you’ll see three notches. The center one marks the top of the sleeve. The two notches on either side of the center notch are to mark where to sew your gathering stitches.

To sew the gathering stitches, set your sewing machine on a long stitch length. I like 5 mm stitches, just like I’d use with basting, and I stitch at 1/4″ from the edge for my first pass, and then 3/8″ from the edge for the second pass. When you do this, make sure you keep your thread ends long on both sides.

I know it’s hard to see, but the sleeve ends up like this:

Now, you’re going to lay your sleeve on top of your bodice with right sides together, making sure that the double notch on the sleeve is on the same side of the center as the double notch on the bodice. The sleeve should be laid on top of the bulk of the fabric. I didn’t get a good picture, so let me give you this image from the Roseclair instructions.

You want to pin the sleeve to the bodice, matching the center notch to the shoulder seam. Then, you need to pull on one of the gathering stitch threads to gather up the fabric so that you can match the sleeve notches on either side of the center notch with the corresponding notches on the bodice.

I start by doing this on one side, then pinning the sleeve and bodice notches together:

Then, repeat this on the other side of the center notch. Add more pins to secure the gathered sleeve to the bodice:

Now, on the rest of the sleeve, match the notches with the bodice and pin. Then, continue matching the edge of the sleeve with the bodice fabric edge, pinning throughout the seam, ending up with this:

Now, we need to stitch this into place. Use a 1/2″ seam allowance and your standard straight stitch, lockstitching or backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam. Important: Sew this seam with the bodice fabric up, and the sleeve down. Why? Your sleeve will wrap around the end of your sewing machines and is less susceptible to getting bunched up under your needle. The bodice, on the other hand, is keen on bunching if it’s the lower fabric.

Repeat this process on the second sleeve. Finish the seam allowance as described above, by pinking, by zigzagging, or by using a serger. Then, press, the seam allowance toward the sleeve, being careful not to crush the gathers at the top of the sleeve.

And, from the outside, your sleeve will look like this:

Creating the Waist Ties

Now, don’t be like me and get super excited and jump right into sewing your side seams. Instead, you need to make your waist ties first!

Editor’s note: This is a great lesson in marking your pattern pieces when you cut your fabric! If you’re thinking that my waist ties look super wide, you’re right! I accidentally used the cuff piece (which I didn’t even need to cut, as it’s only for the long sleeve option) as my waist ties! The bonus? It’s a lot easier to see what I’m doing because the fabric is larger. But your waist ties should be longer and skinnier than mine!

pressing the waist ties

At your ironing board, press your first waist tie in half:

Now, unfold the waist tie, and press in the short edges by about 1/4″:

Now, fold each long end inward, just to the center fold line and press:

Re-fold on the center line and press once more:

Repeat the above process for the second waist tie.

sewing the waist ties

At your sewing machine, set your needle in the furthest right position and set your waist tie so its edge is just peeking out from under the edge of your foot:

The reason I do this is so I can get the stitching on my waist tie very close to the edge, but without my machine trying to eat my fabric. If I have the tie further left, not peeking out from under my foot at all, sometimes the needle will push it down into the machine, clogging things up.

Now, stitch along the open ends of the waist tie, resulting in this:

Repeat these steps on your second waist tie.

Stitching the first waist tie onto the bodice

Mark 1/2″ upward from the bottom of your bodice, along the right side seam. (The right side seam being the side seam that will be on the right side of your body when worn.)

Remember, when you do this, you will not have sewn the side seam yet. I had sewn my side seam, then realized I shouldn’t have, and then seam ripped.

Align the edge of your first waist tie with the edge of your side seam on the right side of your fabric. Baste this into place, using a straight stitch at 5 mm stitch length, at 1/4″ from the edge of your fabric.

Sewing the Side Seams

Now, with right sides together and the waist tie on the inside of the sandwiched bodice pieces on the right side of your bodice (the left waist tie will be sewn in the next step), lay the side seams together and pin:

Sew this seam with a standard straight stitch at a 1/2″ seam allowance, making sure to either lockstitch or backstitch at the beginning and end of each seam. Your finished seam will look like this:

Finish this seam in the same way you’ve finished the other seams – by serging, pinking, or zigzagging.

Stitching the second waist tie to the bodice

Now, on the left side of the bodice (as in the left side when it’s on your body!), pin the second waist tie onto the seam allowance, 1/2″ up from the bottom of the bodice:

Stitch this two times, with the second pass being a backstitch. The resulting stitch will look like this:

Assessing Fit

Wooohoo, that’s it for this week! Now is a good time to try on your bodice and asses the fit. Are the darts in the right place? Does it seem like the shoulders fall correctly? If something seems awry, please hop over to the Sew  Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit to ask questions!

Here’s my fit, and you can see more details on my instagram stories:

Your Homework:

  • Prepare your pattern pieces by staystitching the neckline and sewing the darts
  • Sew your bodice together at the shoulders
  • Sew your sleeves onto your bodice
  • Prepare your waist ties and stitch them to your bodice
  • Sew your bodice side seams
  • Finish all seams by serging, pinking, or zigzagging.

Questions about this week’s steps for the Roseclair dress? Drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Using the affiliate links in Sew Busty posts is a great way to support the costs of running Sew Busty, as when you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me pay for the hosting, domain, design, and other costs associated with administering this site. All opinions remain my own.

Community Blog | Cross Your Heart Woes: Causes and Cures for Wrap Bodice Gaping with Karey

Published on by Karey8 Comments

Editor’s Note: Since we are sewing up Cashmerette Roseclair wrap dress/peplum for the July 2021 sew along, I’ve asked a couple community members who are ahead of the curve to write community posts on their experiences and their tips and tricks. If you’re a beginner and following the Roseclair Sew Along as part of our Beginners’ Sewing Series, I’d bookmark these posts for later use, and stick to making the pattern as-is for now. For all you adventurous or intermediate-to-advanced sewists, yesterday, Christy talked all about getting perfect bust darts, and today, Karey is chatting about curing wrap gape.

Many sewers struggle with getting a good fit on cross-over wrap bodice styles. This post will address the most commonly raised issue of neckline gaping. Because it is raised so often, I Google searched ‘FBA wrap dress’ or ‘gaping wrap dress’ for solutions, but while there are plenty of tutorials, none seem to address why wrap dresses gape, especially after a full bust adjustment (FBA) for larger boobs, and few wrap dress FBA tutorials provide specific advice for fixing neckline gape.

  • Figure 1: Gaping neckline
  • Figure 2: Excess Centre Front (CF) length

From SewBusty FB group with permission © EE

The wrap dress tutorial on Sew Over It is typical, with instructions for a regular full bust adjustment with no specific adjustment for wrap fronts.

Sure Fit Designs provides some advice for why a wrap crossover style bodice with a “dart width … correct for your body, … would … still gap? The simple answer is because that crossover in on the diagonal or bias of the fabric.”

The Cashmerette tutorial for their Roseclair wrap dress also identifies a risk of the bias edge of the neckline stretching and creating a gaping neckline. Cashmerette recommends staystitching the neckline edge before starting construction in order to avoid this happening. Both Cashmerette and Sure Fit Designs provide instructions for taking a dart out of the center front edge if there is gaping due to the neckline being too long, but don’t explain why that would happen in a bodice drafted for your cup size, or after you have done an FBA.

By Hand London also has a good tutorial on adding a dart from center front to apex and rotating it to bottom dart, it doesn’t explain what causes the gaping.

Figure 3 shows foam half scale boobs (b) that approximate Lily Fong’s examples (a) of standard root – standard projection; wide root – standard projection; and, narrow root high projection. I combined these with Sure Fit Designs free Half Scale Bodice Templates to create the bodice models I have used in this post.

Figure 3: a) breast shape types: image on the left from LilypaDesigns.
b) The foam domes I found on the right approximate her standard root – standard projection; wide root – standard projection; and, narrow root high projection

Figure 4 shows how the scaffolding of a standard B-cup bodice is like a tent with a ridge pole connecting the two bust apexes, with the side poles sloped down to the waist on one side, and to the neck on the other side of the ridge (a). In contrast, once the breasts are divided by a wrap bodice, you need more like a dome tent structure over each breast, connected to the CF seam in the canyon between the breasts (b).

Figure 4: a) Left: Ridge pole scaffolding on basic B-cup bodice
b) Right: Dome scaffolding on B-cup boobs

In order to examine wrap bodices on bigger boobs, I first needed to do FBAs on the half scale B-cup bodice to fit my projected and large, wide boobs.

Figure 5 shows a) left: the B-cup boobs and bodice; b) centre: the projected narrow boobs and Y-dart FBA; and, c) right: the wide large boobs and standard FBA, I constructed with the half scale boobs and bodice template. In Figure 4 b) and c) the Y-dart and standard FBAs have been spread to fit over the projected and wide boobs, but the gaps this creates have not been filled in yet. Note the extra length over the apex ridge poles required to reach the waist on the projected and wide boobs (Figure 4 b) and c), bottom).

  • Figure 5
  • Figure 6

Figure 5: a) left: B-cup boobs and bodice; b) centre: projected narrow boobs and Y-dart FBA; c) right: wide large boobs and standard FBA
Figure 6. a) left: projected boobs, regular FBA; b) right: projected boobs Y-dart FBA

I wasn’t intending to do a Y-dart FBA, but when I tried the standard FBA on projected boobs, I got armhole gaping. I had previously read the Curvy Sewing Collective post suggesting the Y-dart FBA as a cure for Honking Great Darts, however Figure 5 shows the result of my experiment, which found that the Y-dart (b) solved the arm gaping issue of the standard FBA for high projection boobs (a). Consequently, I then stuck with the Y-dart FBA for all my projected boobs examples.

Once I had bodices for B-cup, projected, and wide boobs, I created wrap fronts by joining a half front to its mirror, drawing a center front seam down the canyon between the boobs, then mirroring this wrap front to create left and right versions.

Figure 7 shows how even B-cups gape at the neckline, if the length of the center front is not reduced with a dart, to convert bodice from ridge pole structure (a) into dome structure (b). The same thing happens with the projected FBA bodice (Figure 8) and the large wide FBA bodice (Figure 9). This demonstrates the requirement to replace ridge pole scaffold on standard bodice, with dome tent structure for wrap bodices.

  • Figure 7
  • Figure 8
  • Figure 9

Figure 7. a) left: B-cup wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted B-cup front no gape
Figure 8. a) left: projected boob wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted projected front – no gape
Figure 9. a) left: wide boob wrap front gape; b) right: adjusted wide boob front – no gape

In order to show more clearly why the wrap bodice needs center front darts I measured the wide boob FBA wrap bodice over the ridge pole and through the canyon (Figure 10). The center front length over the half scale ridge pole was 28cm (11’) (a), while the length through the canyon created by the wrap front was only 26cm (10 ¼“) (b).

These half scale results are proportionate to the measurements I get on my petite height G cup front. When I measure myself from one shoulder, over the ridge pole to my waist under the opposite boob I am 22”. Through the canyon between my boobs I am 20”. This means a standard FBA on a wrap which creates ridge pole bodice, will be up to 2” too long for me on a wrap bodice.

Figure 10. Wide boobs CF length
a) left: over ridge pole 28cm (11”)
b) right: through canyon 26cm (10 ¼”)

Try taking these measurements on yourself and see if you get similar results, I’d love to see you post what you found in comments.

Given I found neckline gaping in wrap fronts for all bust shapes, you may be wondering why everyone doesn’t have problems with neckline gape. The main reason is that designers mostly correct their bodices so they don’t gape for the block they are designing for. This means people with B cups will mostly not have gaping problems. The same applies for designers that include cup sizes, they have probably corrected all their sizes to remove gape.

However, the larger your boobs, the more chance your boob shape does not match the block the designer uses, even if they provide cup sizes, increasing the chance of gaping. And if you have to do an FBA on a wrap front, you are adding length (as we saw in Figure 5), almost inevitably creating gaping issues. Removing that length from pattern by folding out a center front dart (or darts) creates the dome structure that wraps the fabric close to the bust.

  • 11a)
  • 11b)
  • 11c)

Figure 11: a) left: B-cup wrap front with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)
b) left: projected wrap front with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)
c) left: wrap front for large wide boobs with waist darts (top) and darts folded out (bottom)

Figure 11 shows the center front and low front darts marked, then folded out. You then need mirror front for the other side. As I started with full front on which I did FBA, before I marked cross over center front seamline, my left and right bodices should match. However, when you are adjusting a wrap pattern for a smaller cup size than you need, doing an FBA on the half of the front that goes below the bust is tricky. The Sewing Divas have a helpful tutorial for how to check that side seams of left and right fronts align after you have done an FBA on a wrap bodice.

Karey Harrison is a feminist philosopher of science and linguistics, environmentalist, retired academic, home baker, sewist, gardener. Karey also wrote the guest blogpost: #AllButtsWelcome: Unmentionables: Crotch Variation in Pantie Fitting. You can catch Karey on instagram @kareylea and see Karey’s academic profile here.

Images: unless otherwise noted, images are by Karey Harrison (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Community Blog | Sewing Perfect Darts (for You!) on the Roseclair Dress with Christy

Published on by sewbustycommunity6 Comments

Editor’s Note: Since we are sewing up Cashmerette Roseclair wrap dress/peplum for the July 2021 sew along, I’ve asked a couple community members who are ahead of the curve to write community posts on their experiences and their tips and tricks. If you’re a beginner and following the Roseclair Sew Along as part of our Beginners’ Sewing Series, I’d bookmark these posts for later use, and stick to making the pattern as-is for now. For all you adventurous or intermediate-to-advanced sewists, today, Christy is talking all about splitting your bust dart!

Dart Splitting, Turning, & Adjustment

So – you have completed your first bodice muslin of the Roseclair Dress, and you found and fixed the big issues: the shoulders hang correctly, right on the top of your shoulders; you added a FBA if needed; and you fixed any gaping in the neckline.

Congratulations! Now your bodice fits, but you might have ended up with a new difficulty: The Big Honkin’ Dart. The Roseclair Dress already has a fairly large dart in some sizes, so it is especially susceptible to the BHD, but full-busted sewists find themselves with this problem when making adjustments to many different patterns. The BHD technically fits, but it looks blocky, and it is impossible to sew so it lies smoothly. The good news is that with all this dart-y room, you have the opportunity to adjust the fit of the bodice so it is perfectly and precisely your shape. In this article, I will go through everything you really need to know about turning large darts into a beautifully fitted bodice:

  1. How to split the BHD into smoother chunks
  2. How to decide where to place your new darts
  3. How to sew darts smoothly

1. How to Split a Big Honkin’ Dart into Smooth Chunks

When I had to add a couple inches of neckline into my already-large Roseclair dart, I figured out quickly that I needed to turn it into multiple darts, but after a ton of internet research I was still completely confused how to do that. I finally just traced my pattern piece and started messing around with it, and it made more sense. I will describe here the way of thinking about it that works for me, give links to a couple different tutorials that might work for you…. but if none of that makes sense, I encourage you to just start manipulating the pattern piece. I think it is easier to physically do than it is to describe. 

Method: When I started manipulating my darts, I traced my pattern piece (with the first-level adjustments) onto a large roll of tracing paper, and I just kept making new tissue-paper tracings. That way my main pattern piece didn’t get muddled up. For this tutorial, I just free-hand drew the pattern piece on a regular sheet of paper. It is not perfectly to scale, but it should make sense. If I were doing it again, I would start with a mini version like that, to play with so I can see what I am doing.

Tools needed:

  • copy of pattern piece
  • scissors (for paper, not fabric)
  • pen or marker (a couple colors)
  • ruler for making straight lines
  • tape
  • scratch paper (to put behind pattern piece)

Here is the pattern piece after my initial adjustments. I had over 4 inches of width in that side dart.

For this first section, I am going to demonstrate how to turn the one large side dart, into three small side darts.

  1. Draw straight lines from close to the dart apex to the edge of the pattern piece. You’ll want to use a straight edge/ruler on the real pattern piece.
  2. Cut along those lines.
  3. Cut out the triangle of the Big Honkin’ Dart. (You can also just cut one side, but I think it’s easier to see if you just cut the whole thing.)
  4. Now you have two triangles of paper. As you move them up and down on the pivot point, you create three triangles of negative space. Those are your new darts. (This makes way more sense when you actually do it!)
  5. Put a piece of scratch paper behind your pattern piece, so it fills in the negative space.
  6. Tape the two narrow triangles of paper onto the scratch paper, making three similarly sized triangles behind them. These are your new darts. I colored them purple.
  7. Trim the scratch paper so it matches the edges of your pattern piece. (If you were going to sew it up, you could make a slight outward angle for each dart, like there is in printed patterns.)
  8. Voila! Now you have three darts of manageable size, instead of one gigantic dart.

2. How to Decide Where to Place Your New Darts

You can just sew your bodice with three small darts on the side, and it will work much better than the BHD. But now that you know how to move darts around, you might as well move them to create the perfect fit for your body. This part is not about the size of your bust or your measurements, but about the way your personal body fits together – the shape of your torso, how high or low your breasts are, which way they face – and also the way that you, personally, want your dress to fit and look.

First of all, if the pattern’s bust apex (the point of the triangle) is nowhere near your bust apex, make a note on your first-draft muslin and then your pattern piece. You will just move the point of all your triangles (the pivot place) so they are pointing towards your bust apex. If your bust apex is close to the pattern but not exact, don’t worry about it yet; we will adjust it naturally in the next steps.

In these diagrams, I am dividing the original BHD into three darts. This is what I did with my pattern; my BHD was over 4.5″ and I wanted each dart to be less than 2″. It also makes it easier to demonstrate in pictures. However, you can split your dart into two – or four, or whatever you want.

Method: This is all about fit, so experimenting with what works for your personal body! I traced the basic pattern piece (with first-level adjustments) onto tissue paper; drew new darts into place with the method described; cut my new pattern piece out of a sheet; drew the darts onto the fabric; and sewed the darts. I did sew a basting stitch down the front angle of the muslin pattern piece, so that neckline distortion would not be affecting my decisions about fit.

I did a different dart pattern on each bodice piece (so they looked different on my right and left), and once I had two, I basted them to a back bodice piece. I had about three sets with a back bodice piece and two differently-darted front bodice pieces.  I pinned them together onto my body where the ties would have held them in place.

This is super quick to sew, and allowed me to go back and forth and compare different options. 

In this picture, you can see how simple this muslin is; that I basted the neckline; and pinned together the edges. You can also see where I used marker to note the apex points of the experimental darts, and drew the darts in where I can see them.

Note: In the final version of the dress, the neckline is finished and folded under. Do not adjust the neckline in this step!

For this tutorial, I am just using my small version of the pattern pieces. I’m not including pictures of what it looks like on me – I think it’s incredibly difficult to see the 3-D fit on the muslin fabric. Once again, this is something that makes so much more sense once you just do it!

Darts in Any Direction:

Remember how we drew a new line from (almost) the apex of the previous dart? You can draw that line in any direction – not just to the side seam, but to the shoulder, or to the waist, or to the neckline – and that will be your new dart and your new shape … well, where you draw these lines depends on your pattern.

In the case of the Roseclair, some of the directions head to the neckline of the wrap dress, and if we adjust the neckline then it will no longer fall right. So for the Roseclair, we are going to ignore all the directions that go to the neckline, although if you are doing a different style bodice you can play with that too! I also did not demonstrate a dart going straight up into the shoulder. To my eye, that doesn’t fit the look of this particular bodice, but you certainly can go straight up to the shoulder, and if you are having trouble getting the shoulder-to-bust proportion to fall right, using a dart might be a good way to solve that problem.

French Dart:

A French Dart is a fancy name for a dart that goes up from the corner of the pattern piece. Because it is at an angle, the dart is longer, and a longer dart gives us more room to sew it gradually and gracefully, making for a smoother finished look. So let’s draw a line to the lower corner and rotate our triangles to make one dart in the original place, and one French dart from the lower corner …

The two new darts are colored in purple. It makes the corner of the pattern piece look like a funky shape, but it works out fine once it is actually sewn up.

Dart Apexes:

Now, when we are rotating our paper triangles, we have to use almost the same apex, just leaving enough paper to allow the triangles to rotate. But if you actually sew up several darts with an almost-the-same apex, you end up with a nice, pointed, Madonna-esque breast. If you want Madonna breasts, now you know the secret!

In case you don’t want pointed breasts (I didn’t), you have to adjust the points of your different darts, so they don’t all end up in the same place. In this example, I drew a new point, farther back towards the seam line, for the original side dart, making it a shorter dart. I then drew lines (in black) defining where I would sew that dart. So in this example, now I have one long French dart coming from the bottom, and one short dart coming from the side, and the tips of the two darts point in exactly the same direction.

Having a shorter side dart worked for my body, probably because my breasts are rounder at the side, so that dart didn’t have to go as far to get towards the top of my breast. However, in real life, I pointed my darts in slightly different directions. The pattern apex was accurate for me, but once I was adding more darts, I placed them so they aimed differently around my breast, which created a rounder, softer look. 

This is also the step where you adjust the pattern apex if it wasn’t quite right for you. You have to move the points of the triangle anyways, so move them wherever you want them.

other Dart types:

The next pattern piece shows three more possible darts:

Multiple Side Darts: Having darts next to each other on the side works well for some people, and the darts will be less visible because they are near the seam. You could make them next to each other, but different lengths, as they step around the larger and smaller parts of your breast.

Curved Dart: A curved dart also allows for a longer, smoother sewing line. It is also a good way to solve a problem of having a distinct shaped curve to match a more distinct breast shape. It looks confusing on the pattern piece, but it sewed up nicely. I have heard that it is much easier to create the right curve of a pattern piece with a helper, who can pin up (and mark) the pattern piece as it is on your body, and solve the exact problem (folds of fabric) that you are having. Obviously, the curve can go any direction, and come from any direction (I just showed it from the lower corner here). On this particular pattern piece, the curved dart did not help me at all, so I did not experiment with it further. My breasts are wide and round; my guess is that it would help more with breasts that are held up more distinctly.

Armcythe Dart: If your armcythe fits perfectly (once you have the sleeves on), then you probably want to leave it alone. However, if you have a little extra fold of fabric, or it feels a little tight as you move your arm backwards, you now have the perfect opportunity to tweak it. Draw your line up into the armcythe – I went fairly far towards the back, again so I ended up with a nice long line. I had a little extra fold of fabric, so I drew in the dart just at the right amount to compensate for the BHD, and then when I draw the dart in, I extended it ¼ ” outward, to make the dart slightly bigger. It worked like a charm, and made the perfectly-good armcythe even better. If you wanted a little extra space, draw your actual dart slightly smaller than the triangle you created from swinging the triangles.

The first picture shows the three new lines drawn in to make the new darts. Then I cut on the lines and arranged the negative space to make new darts (colored purple). Then I drew in adjusted apexes for each dart (except for one – one can point to the original place!), and drew the legs for each new dart in black. I would sew on the black lines.)

Note that I adjusted that top dart apex farther over towards the middle. This worked for me, because it creates a longer line, makes the curve of the breast more broad, and followed along the top width of my breast.

Bottom Dart: Your dart could also point at the bottom of the pattern piece, either straight or at an angle. Or both. Then you can adjust how far up it needs to go in order to get to the height of your breasts. It’s up to you!

That Other Dart Hanging Out Over There: There is a second dart in the pattern, which we haven’t talked about yet. That is more of a waist dart than a bust dart, although of course it also shapes the bust. Can you move that one too? Of course you can! You are a dart moving mastermind!

Personally, I kept the apex and one leg of that dart, and moved the other leg equidistant (from the first leg) towards the center of the bodice. This gave me a longer dart (again!), and I think helped shape the inner curve of my breasts. Adjusting this dart is another way to change the waist line, like we discussed with the armcythe. You could also move part of the BHD into this dart, although I think it would be easier to add a second dart on the waist seam instead – but whatever works for your body! You just have to cut out muslins and test it.

Just for funsies, here is my finished pattern piece: This isn’t “the” right way to do it, this is just the result of what worked for me. It’s kind of messy looking because I adjusted some of the darts on the same tissue paper piece so I could keep what worked. Once again, the purple shows the original paper dart when swinging from the pivot point; the dot shows where I put in the bust apex; and the lines show where I actually make the lines/legs of the dart. 

And here is what it looks like when cut out of fabric, with the darts traced on:

Which brings us to our final section …

3. How to Sew Darts Smoothly

If you are an Expert Dart-Sewist, this section will probably be review. If you are a less-confident dart sewist, then this article is your one-stop shop for darts! And here’s some really good news: all the articles about sewing darts say to get lots of practice, and suggest getting out some scrap fabric and just sewing a bunch of random darts in order to get the hang of it. Well, if you are like me, and end up sewing half a dozen bodice muslins of the Roseclair, and each one has four darts, you can skip the random darts step – by the time you are done with your muslins, you will have graduated to Expert Dart-Sewist level. Or at least upper intermediate!

  1. Draw your darts onto the wrong side of your fabric, including the legs and the apex.
  2. Pick up the fabric at the dart apex and the middle of the dart, so the two legs of the dart hang down and are more or less on top of each other, on opposite sides of the fabric. 
  1. Lay your fabric down flat, and pin along the legs. Here are two pins going across the leg of the dart, holding the fabric in place, and I can sew over them. The third pin is placed so the head of the pin is on the apex of the dart. This is optional, but it can make it easier to see where you’re going. You must take that pin out as you sew.
  1. I like to draw and pin all the darts before I start sewing. It looks like this
  2. Now, the trick is that you are not going to sew on that line. A straight sewing line makes for a blocky dart, because you are not straight! You want to start at the “feet” of the dart, and head towards the apex of the dart in a slightly concave line. 
  3. Then, at the tip of the dart, you sew parallel to the very edge of the fabric for the last few stitched. Because this angle is so miniscule, it doesn’t matter if you exactly hit the apex of the dart. It is shaping more than taking out chunks of fabric.
  4. To create a subtle tip of the dart, lower your stitch length as you get towards the end. Here I have marked the stitch length that I use, as seen below. The first part (towards the right) I am making a curve with the stitch length at 2.4mm (the “normal” stitch length on my machine). At the first arrow, I reduce the stitch lengh to 1.8, and follow the line towards the tip of the pin and the apex. At the next arrow, I reduce the stitch length to 1.0mm and stitch right at the very edge of the fabric for about ⅛-¼ inch.
  1. Reducing the stitch length also means you DO NOT backstitch, which reduces bulk (aka a bump). You also do not have to leave tails of thread and tie them together (which I see some people recommend), which might work fine but is an annoying extra step (in my humble opinion!). Several 1mm stitches will hold your dart in place, and you can just trim the thread right at the end.
  2. The finished dart looks more or less like the image below. Note: more or less is just fine! Each of these things is subtle, and you are not going to notice little imperfections when it is finished. You can see that my concave line has a little convex bump, and I meant to go more parallel at the tip. It doesn’t matter, because you are going to …
  1. Iron it smooth! 
  2. First of all, just lightly iron the darts in the direction you want them to go. Cashmerette recommends up. I aimed them away from each other.
  1. Now put your garment over your pressing ham. (If you do not have a pressing ham, the general recommendation is to use a towel, but in this case you need a firm and breast-shaped surface…. maybe a towel rolled over a softball would work? A pressing ham is not expensive and it is much easier to create a good bust shape using one.) Separate the fabric away from the dart, and rub your iron around the seam, especially at the curve and the tip. I make little circles with the tip of my iron.
  1. Now turn your garment right side out over the pressing ham. You will need to pull the sides away from the seam, because from the wrong side it will have made more of a triangle than a curve. Shape it around different parts of your pressing ham, and smooth out all the curves and tips.
  1. Here are the tips of the finished four seams, at the tip of the pressing ham. This is not quite shaped like my breast, but it is also less forgiving. You can see that the tips of the darts are not making any bumps on the outside of the garment!

Conclusion, Next Steps, and Pictures

Now you know how to divide up a Big Honkin’ Dart, how to adjust the position and angle of the darts so they match your shape, and how to sew the darts so they look smooth from the outside. It will take a bunch of “quick-n-dirty muslins” to get the best shape for you, and meanwhile you’ve gotten lots of practice sewing beautiful darts! 

Next, you might move on to making adjustments on other parts of the dress, like a Full Bicep Adjustment, changing the waist measurements, or adjusting the length. Or, if the dress more or less fits, you might be ready to make a wearable muslin! Cashmerette warns that this dress behaves differently in different fabrics, so you might want to use something closer to your final fabric than a stiff muslin or sheet. 

I made a peplum version in a rayon/linen to test the fit of the shoulders, waist, and sleeves. I made some more adjustments once I could see how the whole piece fit together; I moved one dart again, and made a number of adjustments to the waist. (The peplum version takes approximately 2 yards of fabric in my size; used the top layer of the skirt from View A.  I suggest adding 3 inches to the length of the peplum, which I did not do but admired in other people’s pictures.) 

The dress is very fabric-hungry, so it is really worth making a peplum top, and then your first dress version can come out perfectly!  

For many people, the Roseclair is not the easiest dress to get a perfect fit. Many people need to adjust the bodice in order to get the neckline and darts to lay properly, and the darts might not fit the first time. But this bodice is very well drafted, and once you put in the time to adjust it for your own body, this comes out as a spectacularly well-fitted dress.  I enjoy both the look and feel of my Roseclair dresses, and I think they look stunning and graceful on many other sewists of different body types. I hope this tutorial helps you make a beautiful Roseclair dress of your own, now that you know how to sew perfect darts – for you!!

Here are some examples of how this method works for me:

This was my first peplum. The waist sags below my natural waist, so I adjusted that. Here I have two darts in the side seam and one French dart, and the original waist dart is in its original place.

Roseclair in linen. For this version (and subsequent), I moved the higher side dart into the armcythe (see how it changes the wrinkle in the first version) and put the waist dart at an angle.

The dress behaves differently with this slippery rayon, and it is hard to see the darts in the busy print. It just looks like the bust magically fits around my shape, just the way dresses are supposed to do!

When her fourth child grew out of infancy, Christy realized that she was a better mother (and human being) if she spent less time worrying about whether the house was clean, and more time making beautiful things. She is now raising and homeschooling five children, and her current textile art passions are hand embroidery and dress-making. She shares her work, and ideas about life, at Sonata in So (which is a double entendre with her past life as a musician).

Roseclair Sew Along Week A: Choosing Your Size & Materials (Beginners’ Sewing Series Part 8)

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Brand new to sewing? Start here, with posts on gathering your tools, taking your measurements, and figuring out your garment sewing cup size. The Sew Busty Beginners’ Sewing Series will be your step-by-step guide to learning garment sewing. Each installment will build upon the last, getting progressively more advanced in skills and techniques. Catch up with the whole series here.

As part of the Beginners’ Sewing Series, we’re doing a sew along of the Cashmerette Roseclair Wrap Dress. Check out the full sew along here.

For our first Beginners’ Series sew along, we started with a tank top made from stretchy knit material. Knits are fantastic for beginners because they’re easier to fit and don’t include more complicated things like darts or facings.

But, if I’m being honest, I really really prefer woven garments. I prefer wearing woven; I prefer sewing woven.

So, for our second sew along, we’re going to make a garment using woven material! And, of course, we’re going to make a dress (with an alternate top option!) for July’s #sewbustychallenge meets #sewmonthlywithhom!

The Cashmerette Rosclair!

This pattern has three options: View A is a long wrap dress with tiers of material, View B is knee-length and has short sleeves, and View C is knee-length with puff sleeves. I’m going to be making View B … I think. I might end up deciding to do View C. You’ll be able to easily follow along by choosing View B or C, but for View A, you’ll be on your own for the tiered skirt.

Not a dress person? The Roseclair can also be made as a peplum top! Feel free to follow along and make a shirt 🙂

what is woven material?

In the most basic sense, woven materials aren’t stretchy, but knits generally are. Now, there are exceptions, like the sheer cup lining we use for bra making, which is both knit and not stretchy. Buuuuut, you can generally think woven = stable and knit = stretchy to keep things simple.

The real difference is that wovens are made out of a bunch of threads woven together. Think of a loom.

Knits, on the other hand, are made of a single thread that’s looped and braided around itself. Think of knitting.

With knits, we don’t always have to use darts or other shaping elements, because the fabric will stretch over our bodies. With wovens, we must use stitching to mold the fabric.

Woven materials come in many different types! Poplin, crepe, silk, satin, linen, polyester, rayon, chiffon, even quilting cotton! So many types.

Choosing Material for the Roseclair

For this particular project, we’re going to choose a lightweight woven fabric, such as cotton poplin, linen, rayon, or double gauze. Honestly, basically any of those fabrics are pretty beginner-friendly. I’m personally going to use this mustard linen from Joann’s, but you should feel free to choose another of the materials I just listed.

If you’d like to use the same material I’m using, check out this link for other linens and linen-look fabrics available from Joann’s!

Choosing a Size for the Roseclair

Normally, at this point in the post, I’d go over very detailed instructions on how to measure yourself and choose your size.

But Cashmerette has made it so much easier than that.

Specifically, they have a magnificent size calculator. Literally just pop in your measurements, click “calculate my size,” and voila! It will tell you which size to make, including places where you might need to blend between sizes.

For me, I’m going to make a 10 G/H for the bust, then blend to an 8 at the waist. The size calculator also tells me to blend to a size 4 at the hip. However, since the Roseclair has an open hip (versus a fitted hip), I’m not going to continue to blend down from the waist, but am instead going to make an 8 from the waist down.

Similarly, if your hip measurement falls into a smaller size than your waist, don’t worry about blending down in sizes. But if your hip measurement falls into a larger size than your waist, you will want to blend up. To blend between sizes, follow this tutorial on Cashmerette’s site!

A note on cashmerette’s cup sizes

Remember back when I told you how to determine your garment cup size, and how I said it wasn’t the same as your bra size? Well, this doesn’t exactly hold true for Cashmerette. So, before you freak out about the cup size suggested by the Cashmerette calculator, let me explain:

You see, Cashmerette labels their cup sizes such that your size in their patterns will likely be closer to your size in bras. However, this does not mean that your cup size in Cashmerette will definitely be equivalent to your bra size. For me, for example, I wear a J bra, and the calculator gives me a G/H as my suggested Cashmerette size.

It really comes down to labeling. What most designers call a garment DD cup, Cashmerette calls a G/H. What most designers call a garment D, Cashmerette calls E/F. And what most designers call a C, Cashmerette calls a C/D.

All of this said, you shouldn’t need to worry much about this, because the size calculator will tell you what you need to know.

What if I need a full bust adjustment?

If you need a full bust adjustment on the Roseclair, hang tight! Later this week, we will have a tutorial on doing a full bust adjustment on a wrap dress.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Purchase the Roseclair pattern (sizes 0-16; sizes 12-32) and print and assemble it (or have it printed it at a copy shop!) by following these instructions.
  • Make sure you have all the tools you’ll need for sewing. For this project, in addition to the basics listed on the Tools of the Trade post, you’ll need:
    • a set of 80/12 universal needles (US/UK) (linked needles will work with most machines, but double check that your machine doesn’t use proprietary needles)
  • Purchase materials:
    • Yardage of a lightweight woven, such as linen – between 2-3/4 and 5-1/2 yards, depending on your size and the width of the fabric
    • Polyester thread to match your fabric (US/UK)
  • Get your fabric ready:
    • Make any necessary pattern adjustments, such as blending between sizes and doing a full bust adjustment.
    • Cut out your fabric and be ready to sew!

The next installment of the Roseclair Dress sew along will take place July 19! We’ll be sewing up the bodice.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Bra Month | Jet Set Sew Along Week D: Topstitching & Attaching the Front Straps

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At Sew Busty, June 2021 is bra month! Catch up on all the bra month posts here!

As part of bra month, we’ll be doing a sew along of the Firebrand Jet Set Natural bra. This bra, and all Firebrand patterns, are 20% off throughout July 2021 with code SEWBUSTY. See the full sew along here.

Per last week’s post, you should have:

  • Finished the keyhole edges and attached the front band elastic
  • Made your straps
  • Prepared your closure
  • Stitched the main fabric to the lining, then determined your wing length and closure length

WOW! That was a lot in one week. But, the nice thing about having done so much last week is that this week will be quick!

This week, we’re going to close up that keyhole, do some topstitching, and attach the straps to the front of the bra. Easy-peasy!

Give It a Good Press

I don’t have any pictures of this, but just pop this baby over to your ironing board and give it a good press, trying to keep the lining from peeking out from the main side.

Closing the Keyhole

Go ahead and pin the keyhole together, lining up seams and catching the elastic between the lining and main.

Stitch this 3 mm from the folded edge, trying your best to follow the stitching on the main fabric that you did in an earlier step. (I didn’t do amazingly at following this stitching, but do what I say, not what I do 😂)

Topstitching

Now, we’re going to continue stitching at 3 mm from the edge all the way around the bra. This will help keep everything in place. Again, try to make sure the lining isn’t peeking out as you stitch around.

It should end up looking like this:

Attaching the Straps to Front

To attach the straps to the front, you first need to install a ring to the front strap attachment.

This is the only place where you will have an unfinished seam. As I was telling those who attended our live chat yesterday, I’m sure you could come up with a creative way to not have an unfinished spot here. But, before you to that trouble, look at your RTW bras and note how they often also have unfinished spots at the strap attachment!

You are first going to fold your strap attachment over your ring, like this:

You can pin this in place or just hold it. I tend to hold it in place, but for the sake of this picture, I pinned it. Stitch as close to the ring as you can without hitting the ring with your needle. (Your needle will likely break; ask me how I know 😂)

I like to give a slight pull to the ring to keep it out of the way. Normally, my other hand would be giving a slight pull to the fabric to counteract the pull on the ring, but, in the picture below, my other hand was taking the picture 🙂

Repeat this on the other side. Your finished strap attachment will look like this:

Now, we need to attach the raw end of our strap to this ring. I like to close the bra in the back and use my fingers to trace the length of the strap, ensuring it doesn’t get twisted. I do this because I have one too many times sewn a strap on only to realize it was twisted. NO FUN.

You’re going to feed the strap through the front of the ring, with the strap shiny side up, then sew this with the same narrow zigzag we used in the previous steps. Once again, I like a zigzag that is 3 mm wide and 2 mm long.

And that’s it folks! You have a finished bra! Trim those loose threads, remove the basting on the elastic and lining, and assess for fit.

Something not quite right on fit? Check out Firebrand’s pattern hacks to see if your solution is there. If you’re not sure, feel free to feel free to drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit. You can also contact the Jet Set designer, Kerry, at hello@firebrandlingerie.com for any fit questions.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Close up your keyhole and topstitch around the edge of your whole bra
  • Insert a ring to the strap attachment point on the front of your bra
  • Attach your strap to the ring

Questions about these last steps on the Jet Set bra? Drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit.

Ready for the next sew along? In July, Sew Busty will be teaming up with House of Morozin for her monthly sewing challenge – to make a summer dress! Our sew along, which will be part of the Beginners’ Sewing Series, will be the newly-released Cashmerette Roseclair wrap dress. This sew along will start July 12!

Bra Month | Jet Set Natural Sew Along Week C: Sewing the Main to Lining, Making Straps & Applying the Closure

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At Sew Busty, June 2021 is bra month! Catch up on all the bra month posts here!

As part of bra month, we’ll be doing a sew along of the Firebrand Jet Set Natural bra. This bra, and all Firebrand patterns, are 20% off throughout June 2021 with code SEWBUSTY. See the full sew along here.

Meet the designer and ask all your fit questions! On June 27 at 3 PM Eastern USA time (UTC-4), the Jet Set designer, Kerry, and I will be hosting a LIVE chat to answer all your questions about this week’s sew along content! If you’re on Facebook, click here to pre-register. If you’re not on Facebook, no worries! Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 27 at 3 PM EDT.

Per last week’s post over the past week, you should have:

  • Sewn and topstitched your horizontal cup seam on your main and lining
  • Sewn and topstitched the underband and wing onto the cups for your main and lining
  • Sewn and topstitched the center front.

Today, we’re going to sew the main to the lining, make straps, figure out how long your wing needs to be, and apply the closure.

Finishing the Keyhole

Before we can sew our main to our lining, we need to finish the keyhole. Remember how you stopped stitching at the pattern markings? Fold the 1 cm (3/8″) overhang inward, pinning it into place, like this:

Stitch this about 3 mm from the folded edge. Do this on your main and lining. The result should look like this:

We will then attach the bottom band elastic. I like to cut about 3″ of your 1″ elastic for this, and we’re going to baste it to the lining.

Place the elastic on the wrong side of the lining so that the points of the keyhole are centered. (Note that you don’t want the elastic centered with the whole band, since we currently have 1 cm of seam allowance.) If you’re using an elastic that is plush on one side, place the elastic with the shiny side up, so that the shiny side will eventually be facing the same way as the right side of the main fabric.

Baste at the edges of the elastic. The result should look like this:

Put this aside. Time to make straps!

Making Straps

In my opinion, the best way to decide how long to make your straps is to measure them on your favorite bra. Specifically, look at the length of the adjustable part of the strap and the length of the non-adjustable part. Keep in mind also that the Jet Set is higher-set than most bras, so you may need straps that are a bit shorter. We can fine-tune the strap length next week, so right now just focus on getting a good estimate.

You’ll need to cut four lengths of 3/4″ strap elastic – two for the adjustable part of your straps, and two for the non-adjustable part.

Once you have estimated lengths cut, you’ll need to take the piece you want to be adjustable and add a slide to the end. Put the strap through the slide so that the shiny side is facing up, like this:

Now, fold it inward, and using a narrow zigzag stitch, stitch over the raw end. I like to use a zigzag that is 3 mm wide and 2 mm long. You should end up with this:

Follow this same procedure on the other adjustable strap length. Then, set your adjustable strap lengths aside.

The next step is to attach a ring to the end of your non-adjustable strap lengths. You’ll just feed the strap elastic through a ring, and stitch over the raw edge, as seen below:

Now, grab the adjustable strap lengths. Plush side up, feed the adjustable strap up through the ring that’s attached to the non-adjustable strap, like so:

Then, fold the adjustable strap back and weave the end of it back through the slide. The shiny side should now be facing up, like this:

Repeat these steps for the other strap. Set your straps aside so we can start sewing the main to the lining!

Stitching the Main to Lining – Step 1

Right sides together, begin pinning your main to your lining, matching up each seam and corner. I like to start by pinning seams together, and then corners, and then fill in the rest.

As you sew, you’re going to leave 3 places open: the last 2.5″ or so of each wing (on the top, bottom, and side), as well as the keyhole. Stitch everything at a 1 cm (3/8″) seam allowance. Your keyhole should look like this when you’re done:

Unfortunately, I don’t have a great picture of my wings being unstitched, because I got very in the zone and stitched all the way around, then had to seam rip 🤦‍♀️ Do as I say, not as I do!

Figuring Out Your Wing Length

Now, try your bra on inside out! I know it doesn’t have a closure, but the purpose of this is to figure out where to cut the wing. It may be easier to have a friend or significant other help you hold it in place and mark it, but I did it all on my own, so it is possible 🙂

You want to have about a 3-4″ gap in the back, where the wings don’t meet. Mark on one wing where it would need to be cut in order to have such a gap. Here’s my mark:

Then, extend this mark, making a line parallel to the current end of the wing:

Cut along this line, cutting through both lining and main fabric. Now, take the scrap from this side and place it on the other wing, like so:

This will show you where to mark your other wing. Make a mark and cut through lining and main on this side as well.

Pinning the Straps and Preparing the Back Closure

You can now pin your straps onto your bra. Do this by lining up the raw end of your adjustable side of your strap to the top of your wing about 1″ from the edge of your wing. You want the shiny side of the strap to be facing the right side of your main fabric, and you want the angle of the strap to be slightly inward. Do this on both sides.

Next, we’re going to make an adjustable back closure, very similar to our adjustable straps. For this, we’ll use our 1″ elastic.

You want to start by cutting two strips of about 2″. Fold these and pin them onto the main fabric wing on the right when it’s facing you. I put mine about 5/8″ from the top and bottom of my wing, like this (you can also see the angle of the strap in this picture!):

Adjustable back closure option (requires 2 1″ slides)

Now we’re going to make the adjustable side of the back closure. Cut two 5″ lengths of your 1″ elastic. This will almost certainly be longer than you need, but we will trim in the next step.

Follow the same procedure as above for putting it through a slide, then stitching. Then, thread the elastic through a G-hook. At this point, you need to decide whether you want your G-hook to face up or down. Down is more common, though I have one ready-to-wear bikini that uses an upward-facing G-hook, so I’m trying that this time. If you want your G-hook to face down, the open end must be downward when you’re looking at the back of the G hook, with the hook to the right.

Thread the elastic back through the slide. Repeat for the second length of 1″ elastic. The resulting straps should look like this. Again, remember that I am having my G hooks facing up this time:

For the next step, you’ll want these straps on their longest setting, so wiggle that slide as close to the G-hook as it will go.

non-Adjustable back closure option (No 1″ slides required)

Cut two 3″ lengths of your 1″ elastic. Follow the same process as described for applying the ring to the non-adjustable part of the strap, above.

At this point, you need to decide whether you want your G-hook to face up or down. Down is more common, though I have one ready-to-wear bikini that uses an upward-facing G-hook, so I’m trying that this time. If you want your G-hook to face down, the open end must be downward when you’re looking at the back of the G hook, with the hook to the right.

Determining the Closure Length

Now, I want you to stitch closed only the right side of the wing (the side with the loops). Once you’ve stitched closed the right side, temporarily flip the bra right-side out. Hook the G-hooks into the loops, and try on the bra. While it’s on, you’re going to pin the adjustable side of your strap to the other wing such that your band is the right length. Mark the spot where the straps meet the wing with your marking pen or chalk.

Take the bra off and flip it back inside-out. Re-align your adjustable back straps so that they’re 5/8″ from the top and bottom of the left wing (when the right side of the main fabric is facing you with the bra upward), aligning the marking you made above with the edge of the wing. The shiny side of the elastic (if your elastic has a shiny side) should be facing the right side of your main fabric.

Pin into place and clip excess strap, like so:

Now, we’re going to close this side. If you’re not 100% sure about the placement or length of your back straps, you might want to baste this first so that you can easily remove the stitching and move things a bit. Once you’re sure the length and placement of the back straps is correct, though, use a regular stitch to finis the 1 cm (3/8″) seam allowance all the way around the bra.

Flipping the Bra Right Side Out

The only opening should now be the keyhole. Clip your corners at the front strap points and wings, not getting too close to the seam allowance, like this:

Flip the bra right side out, pulling it through the keyhole. You can use the straps to help with this. It should look like this:

Use a point turner tool to massage the corners (at the front strap points and wings) into sharp points.

You should end up with something that looks like this:

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Sew together your main and lining
  • Try on your bra twice – once to figure our your wing length, and once to figure out your closure length
  • Create your straps and back closure

The next installment of the Jet Set Bra sew along will take place June 28! We’ll talk about some final topstitching and attaching your straps to the front.

Questions? Don’t forget to join our live chat on Sunday! More info here! Not on Facebook? No worries. Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 27 at 3 PM EDT.

^Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Bra Month | Jet Set Sew Along Week B: Cutting and Sewing the Main & Lining

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At Sew Busty, June 2021 is bra month! Catch up on all the bra month posts here!

As part of bra month, we’ll be doing a sew along of the Firebrand Jet Set Natural bra. This bra, and all Firebrand patterns, are 20% off throughout June 2021 with code SEWBUSTY. See the full sew along here.

On June 16 at 5 PM Eastern USA time (UTC-4),  I’ll be hosting a LIVE chat to answer all your questions about this week’s sew along content! If you’re on Facebook, click here to pre-register. If you’re not on Facebook, no worries! Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 16 at 5 PM EDT.

Over the past week, you should have:

  • Taken your measurements and chosen your size based on last week’s post
  • Purchased, downloaded, printed, and taped together your pattern. (Haven’t done this yet? Make sure to use our coupon code: SEWBUSTY for 20% off!)
  • Adjusted your pattern to suit your HH and underbust measurements
  • Gathered your tools, including fabric, elastic, strapping, slides and rings, and two G hooks

By the end of today, you’ll have something that looks like a bra! Woohoo!

Cutting your fabric

Some copies of the Jet Set Pattern don’t have grain lines drawn on them, so the first step is to draw on your grain line. It should be perpendicular to the apex on your cup pieces, and parallel to the bottom edge for your band and wing, as seen in this slideshow:

You’ll want to cut each pattern piece out of your main fabric and lining. For this post, I’m only showing you my main fabric. I’m using boring, cheap muslin for my lining! It’s not interesting. 😂

Before unpinning your pattern pieces from your fabric, be sure to transfer your pattern notations. I do this by sticking a pin through each mark and using my water-soluble fabric pen to make a dot on the fabric on each spot, pulling back the pattern paper to make my mark on the top fabric, as seen in this slideshow:

Sewing Your Cups

The first thing I like to do once I have all my pieces cut out and unpinned is to lay everything out, right side up. This helps me to make sure I don’t sew anything backwards, which, with bras, can be easy to do.

Then, I flip the upper left cup over on top of the the lower left cup, matching the apexes. Then I pin it together, starting with the apex, then each end, then filling in between those pins.

We’re then going to sew this with a 1 cm (3/8″) seam allowance. Do this on both main cups and both lining cups.

Topstitching the Cup Seam

Now, we’re going to finger press (or press, if you’re using fabric not easily finger pressed) the seam allowance open, and topstitch the horizontal cup seam. While topstitching, make sure to catch the seam allowance under each respective side.

I like to topstitch by using a foot with a clear center point. I then set my needle to somewhere between 1.5-2 mm to the right to topstitch on the right of my seam, following the seam with the center point of my foot. Then, I switch my needle to be between 1.5-2 mm to the left (matching this amount with the other side), and topstitch to the left of my seam.

While topstitching, I check from time to time to make sure I’m still catching the seam allowance. Check out this slideshow to see the process, starting with setting my needle:

Why do I switch the needle from right to left like this? Well, it’s important to start from the same spot when topstitching each side. Trying to topstitch from outer cup in on one line and then from inner cup out on the other can cause some funky tension issues.

Once it’s all sewn together, you may notice that your center cup is not a straight line, but is instead a bit bent. This is correct! This is what will create bust separation!

Attaching and Topstitching the Underband

The next step is to attach the underband. Before you do this, you need to snip the bottom of your cup at the point, snipping just shy of 1 cm (3/8″), like so:

With right sides together, start by poking a pin through the pattern marking on the underband and then through the corresponding marking on the cup, aligning the fabric edge. Then pin the very end of the pieces together, finishing by matching between these two pins. Stitch this at a 1cm seam allowance, stopping at the pattern marking. Repeat for the other cup.

Once you have this sewn together, finger press the seam allowance open and follow the same topstitching method as discussed above: position your needle 1.5-2 mm to the right, stitch down that side of the seam allowance, then position your needle the same amount to the left and stitch down that side of the seam allowance.

Combining the Cups

The next step is to sew the cups together. You want to make sure your horizontal seams match, so I like to start by putting a pin through my horizontal seam on one cup, then through the horizontal seam on the other cup, pinning the cups together here. I then check each side to make sure the pin is aligned with the seam on each, as you can see in this image comparison:

Pin the rests of the center seam up to the pattern marking.

Now, we’re going to stitch from the top of this center seam down to the pattern marking. Be sure not to go past the pattern marking!

Finger press the seam allowance open and topstitch, using the method described above.

Attaching the Wing

Remember how I said that, if your underbust measurement is less than 40″, to cut the largest wing? And if your underbust measurement is above 40″ to add inches to the wing per the instructions in last week’s post? You are not going to trim it at this point. We will trim it next week, if needed.

So, for now, we’re just going to attach the wing you cut to the cup and underband. Start at the bottom of the underband, and pin upward. You may have a bit of overhang on one piece or the other at the top. Don’t worry about this.

Sew at a 1 cm seam allowance.

Once again, you need to finger press the seam allowance open and topstitch!

The last step we’re going to do today is to trim that little extra where the cup meets the wing. You may not have this extra, as I altered my wing a bit, and honestly may have introduced this issue. But if you do have this little extra, just trim it off like this:

Make sure to do this entire process on both your main and lining.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Sew and topstitch your horizontal cup seam on your main and lining
  • Sew and topstitch the underband onto the cups for your main and lining
  • Sew the cups together and topstitch on your main and lining
  • Sew the wing onto the cups, topstitch, and trim if needed on your main and lining

The next installment of the Jet Set Bra sew along will take place June 21! We’ll talk about combining your main and lining, inserting the band elastic, and start talking about your closure.

Questions? Don’t forget to join our live chat on Wednesday! More info can be found here! If you can’t make it, feel free to drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit.

And, as a preview of things to come, on June 27 at 3 PM Eastern USA time (UTC-4), Kerry, the designer behind the Jet Set Bra, and I will host another live chat to talk with you about construction and fit! Click here to register on Facebook for the June 27 live chat. Not on Facebook? No worries. Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 16 at 3 PM EDT.

Bra Month | Jet Set Sew Along Live Chats

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Want to chat LIVE about your questions and successes while making the Jet Set Bra?

We will be meeting twice more this month to chat about the Jet Set:

  • June 16 at 5-6PM Eastern USA time (UTC-4)
  • June 27 at 3-4PM Eastern USA time (UTC-4)

Even better? The Jet Set designer, Kerry, will be joining us June 27 to answer all your questions about fit and construction!

Click here to register on Facebook for the June 16 live chat. Not on Facebook? No worries. Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 16 at 5 PM EDT.

Click here to register on Facebook for the June 27 live chat. Not on Facebook? No worries. Click here to join directly via Google Meet on June 27 at 3 PM EDT.

Bra Month | Jet Set Natural Bra Sew Along Week A: Common Bra Measurements, Choosing a Size & Materials

Published on by sewbustycommunity5 Comments

At Sew Busty, June 2021 is bra month! Catch up on all the bra month posts here!

As part of bra month, we’ll be doing a sew along of the Firebrand Jet Set Natural bra. This bra, and all Firebrand patterns, are 20% off throughout June 2021 with code SEWBUSTY. See the full sew along here.

On June 9 at 5 pm Eastern, I’ll be hosting a LIVE chat to answer all your questions! Click here to pre-register on Facebook. (The event will be view-able whether or not you have a Facebook account, but, since this is new, the event will be cancelled if pre-registration is super low.)

I’m so excited to show y’all the Jet Set Natural Bra! This bra not only makes me feel like a vintage QWEEN, it also is a pretty easy sew. For that reason, this sew along is appropriate for an adventurous beginner. So, yeah, even if this is among your first garments, I really think you can do it if you take your time.

Taking Measurements for Bra Making

I want to walk you through not just the measurements you need for this bra, but the measurements you’d need for pretty much any bra pattern out there. So break out our NEW bra project planner and measurements printable and let’s get started!

To help me with this, enter Tatiana the Tatas. She and her friend Bea, my dress form, will be modeling the measurements.

Underbust Measurement

The underbust measurement is important no matter what bra pattern you’re working with, since it determines your band size.

For this measurement, you are going to wrap your measuring tape around your ribcage, just under your breasts. It doesn’t much matter if you wear a bra or not for this one. You should hold the measuring tape snugly, but not too tight.

Now, a word of caution to the bra aficionados out there: You know that advice that you should buy a bra with a band that matches your underbust measurement, no matter what the size chart says? Well, while I generally agree with that advice for storebought bras, it doesn’t apply for patterns. Instead, you should follow the size chart.

For example, I’m also a 29.5″ underbust and wear a 30 band on all of my storebought bras. But on my favorite bra pattern, the Porcelynne Eve, I wear a 32 band? Why? Because this is where the size chart placed me. And it’s right.

the old fashioned bra measurement: full bust

So the first set of measurements is probably super familiar to you: full bust measurement. This is the measurement that, in addition to the underbust, the nice lady at Macy’s or another department store probably took on you when you shopped for your first bra.

Personally, I find this to be the most inaccurate way to measure for a bra or a bra pattern, but some patterns use this method, so I’ll show you it anyway.

As I explained in the Sew Busty measurements guide, you should measure your full bust with your best fitting bra on. Position the measuring tape parallel to the floor, around the fullest part of the breasts/chest.

On most people, the fullest part of your bust will be your nipples, but this isn’t always true. The measuring tape should go around the part of the bust that protrudes the most, like the peak of a mountain.

Hold the measuring tape firmly and snugly around your bust, but not too tightly. Nothing should be smooshed.

If you don’t have a well fitting bra, one option can be to take this measurement leaning forward, like #5 in this diagram from A Bra That Fits. Take the full bust measurement leaning, then take it with your best fitting bra (even if the bra isn’t great). Average the two – this average will get you close, and should be used as your full bust measurement.

Bottom Cup Depth (bcd)

This is a very common bra pattern measurement, and is the one we’ll use for the Jet Set Natural!

For the bottom cup depth, you’re going to measure this while wearing a well-fitting, non-foam bra. Measure vertically, from the root of your breast to your apex (again, usually, but not always, the nipple). This should follow the breast closely, but should not be so snug that something is getting smooshed.

If you do not have a well-fitting bra, do the same thing I had you do for the full bust measurement: Measure braless, leaning forward, then measure again wearing the best non-foam bra you have. Average these two measurements, and use this average as your BCD.

A note about The breast root

What is your breast root?

The breast root, otherwise known as the inframammary fold or IMF, is the place where your breast meets your chest. I’ve marked Tatiana’s IMF/breast root here in yellow. I’ve only marked the part that you can see, but it’s important to note that this measurement goes all the way around, from the front to the side, just like an underwire would sit.

This will become super important when we start talking about underwires, but that isn’t today 🙂

Horizontal Hemisphere

The horizontal hemisphere, or HH, is a slightly less common bra pattern measurement, but it’s important to getting a good fit on the Jet Set Natural and is also used in other bra patterns. Personally, I find this to be the most accurate measurement for my own body.

For this measurement, you’re again going to measure while wearing your best fitting, non-foam bra. Measure from the breast root on one side of your breast to the breast root on the other side of your breast, passing over the apex (again, usually the nipple, but not always).

If you do not have a well-fitting bra, we’re going to do the same combo we’ve been doing: Measure braless, leaning forward, then measure again wearing the best non-foam bra you have. Average these two measurements, and use this average as your HH.

Choosing a Size for the Firebrand Jet Set Bra

For the Jet Set Natural, we’re going to focus on three measurements:

  • Underbust
  • HH
  • BCD

Firebrand refers to these as measurements X, Y, and Z:

  • Underbust = X
  • HH = Y
  • BCD = Z

For choosing your base size, the important one is your BCD (bottom cup depth). Firebrand uses centimeters for these measurements, so all us imperial folx will have to convert!

For me, my BCD measures somewhere between 5″ (with my best fitting bra on) and 5.5″ (braless and leaning forward), so somewhere between 13-14 cm. I went with the 13 cm BCD size to start, and this was perfect on me.

When you go to purchase your Jet Set Bra pattern using the sewbusty 20% off coupon code, you’ll see a list of options with Z measurements. Choose the one that corresponds to your BCD in centimeters. Here, I’ve circled in yellow the size I would buy:

If your BCD is bigger than 15 centimeters, DO NOT FEAR. Simply drop Kerry a line at hello@firebrandlingerie.com letting her know your BCD measurement, and she will draft it for you.

Kerry is fantastic and doesn’t want anyone to be left out of her patterns, so, as she works to expand the size range that one can buy on her site, she’s offering this custom draft option. Thanks, Kerry!

Printing Your Pattern

The Jet Set is a bit unique in how it’s printed. It comes in a single page, which is perfect for all of you who use a projector or have your patterns printed on large-format pages. But, if you’re printing at home on letter or A4 paper, you’ll want to choose the “poster” setting in Adobe Acrobat:

You need to set your tile scale to 100%, and you can set your overlap to whatever size you prefer – this is the rough amount your pages will overlap. I like to set mine at 1/4″.

Once you print this way, you can tape the pattern together just as you would with other PDF patterns.

Pattern Adjustments

Figuring out your underbust measurement

So the band on the Jet Set bra is a little unique! If your underbust measures 40″ or smaller, I’m going to recommend that you cut the largest band. This is because the largest band measures 40″. (Please ignore the numbers on the band; they are confusing and we’re going to get around that.) We will then trim some off in a later step, but this makes things easier for now.

underbust greater than 40″

If your underbust measurement is greater than 40″ underbust, cut the largest wing pattern piece, then follow these nifty instructions from Kerry on how to make the band a bit larger. Again, the reason we’re doing this is because the largest band measures 40″. The numbers on the pattern are confusing, so we’re circumventing that by cutting the largest band and adding to it.

You need to find this number: ([your underbust in inches] – 40)/2. In other words, however many inches your underbust is over 40, divided by two. This is how much you’re going to add. So, if you have a 52″ underbust, you’ll add 6″ (52-40=12; 12/2=6). If you have a 42″ underbust, you’ll add 1″ (42-40=2; 2/2=1).

When Kerry says “add however much length you want to add,” go ahead and add the amount we just determined.

Dealing with HH in the Jet Set Bra

When you look at your pattern piece, you’ll see that they have a “Y” measurement listed. This is the horizontal hemisphere or HH. For example, on this 14 cm BCD pattern piece, the Y measurement/HH is 33 centimeters, or about 13″.

Smaller HH than listed y measurement

If your horizontal hemisphere/HH in centimeters is smaller than the Y measurement listed, Kerry has you covered with this video on how to alter your pattern:

Larger HH than listed y measurement

If your horizontal hemisphere/HH in centimeters is larger than the Y measurement listed, Kerry has you covered with this video on how to alter your pattern:

Choosing Materials

One of the things I love about the Jet Set Natural bra is that the materials can mostly be purchased at local sewing shops, though a few of the materials I’ll recommend you grab from a bra supply source:

  • 1 yard of woven/non-stretch fabric: I used a cotton poplin for my first bra, but you could use quilting cotton, satin, rayon, or even classic bramaking fabrics like duoplex or sheer cup lining. If you are newer to sewing, I highly recommend you choose cotton poplin or quilting cotton. You could, for example, use this brocade from Porcelynne, which is what I think I’m going to use this time …

  • 2 – 1″ G hooks: I bought these G hooks from Amazon. Of course, this is a way larger set than you need, but I forgot to buy them until I was almost done with my first Jet Set bra, and this had one-day shipping 😂 Porcelynne has them in smaller quantities in white, black, and even silver and gold!

Where to Buy Bramaking Materials

Here are a few of my favorite sources for the non-standard bra materials:

USA:

Canada

Europe

United Kingdom

Australia & New Zealand

Your Homework

  • Take your measurements and record them using Sew Busty’s FREE bra project planner printable
  • Purchase the Jet Set Natural bra pattern from Firebrand lingerie using the code sewbusty at checkout for 20% off
    • If your BCD is greater than 6″, contact Kerry at hello@firebrandlingerie.com to ask her to grade the pattern for you before purchase
  • Print and make any adjustments you need to your band and cup pattern pieces to suit your HH and underbust measurements, as described above
  • Purchase all the supplies listed above – fabric, elastic, strapping, slides and rings, and a G hook

The next installment of the Jet Set Natural bra sew along will take place June 14! We’ll be talking about cutting the fabric and sewing the lining and main fabric layers!

Questions about these last steps on the Jet Set Natural bra? Drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit. Also join our LIVE CHAT about this week’s sew along installment on June 9 at 5 pm Eastern time. Click here to RSVP so I know you’re coming ❤

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Using the affiliate links in Sew Busty posts is a great way to support the costs of running Sew Busty, as when you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me pay for the hosting, domain, design, and other costs associated with administering this site. All opinions remain my own.

Beginners’ Sewing Series Part 7 | Lago/Saybrook Tank Part D: Sewing the Hem & Finishing Touches

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Brand new to sewing? Start here. The Sew Busty Beginners’ Sewing Series will be your step-by-step guide to learning garment sewing. Each installment will build upon the last, getting progressively more advanced in skills and techniques. Catch up with the whole series here.

As part of the Beginners’ Sewing Series, we’re starting with a sew along of the Itch to Stitch Lago Tank and the Cashmerette Saybrook tank (with an exclusive 20% off through May 31, 2021 using code SEWBUSTY20). Check out the full sew along here.

YOU’RE ALMOST DONE WITH YOUR TANK!!!

Over the past week, you should have sewn your side seams, shoulder seams, neck band, and armscye bands, per last week’s post.

This week, we’re going to hem this baby up and do some topstitching, and VOILA! You will have a super cute tank!

Sewing the Hem

We’re going to start with the hem. You probably know what the hem is based on buying ready-to-wear clothing, but in case this is a new term for you, a hem is the bottom of a garment. So, on this tank, it’s the part that goes around your hips.

Note: If you’re making the Saybrook and have chosen View A (the knotted front), please skip the hem section in this post and instead head over to Cashmerette’s blog for how to finish that view. For Views B and C, you can keep following here!

The hem determines the length of the shirt. So, the first thing I want you to do is try on your tank. Fold it up to different lengths. Think about your favorite tank tops – where do they hit your body? Then use a disappearing ink fabric pen (for lighter fabric) or fabric chalk (for darker fabric) to mark where you want the bottom of your tank to be. I like to mark my top in the front and on each side.

For me, I decided I liked something close to the full length of the tank. Specifically, I thought it would look great by shaving 5/8″ off the bottom. So that meant I needed to do a 5/8″ hem.

If you want to shave more or less off your tank, you can totally choose! I wouldn’t go less than 3/8″, though. But, as far as shortening goes, the sky (or maybe your boobs?) is the limit! (Unless you want your boobs to peek out, in which case, ROCK THOSE TITTIES!)

Once you decide how high you want the bottom of your tank, you’ll fold the bottom of the shirt inward, to the inside of the tank, overlapping by the amount you decided. So, for me, I folded the bottom 5/8″ up inside the shirt, like you can see I’ve started doing here:

Now, we’re going to start pinning. Pin that fold in place all the way around the bottom of the tank. Then iron!

Now, we get to sew! But we’re not going to use that zigzag we’ve been using! Well, to be clear, you can use the same zigzag we’ve been using. But, since this is a stitch that is going to be seen on the finished shirt, you can also choose a different stitch. But stick with a stitch that has stretch to it.

Personally, I chose this stitch (which on my machine is #11, but may be a different number on your machine):

If you don’t have this stitch, feel free to choose any stitch that’s marked for stretch in your manual, or stick with the trusty zigzag.

My only word of caution is I would avoid the triple stitch/stretch straight stitch. Personally, I find that this stitch doesn’t stretch enough for things like hems and bands, which go around the body. It’s best suited, in my opinion, for vertical seams that don’t need quite as much stretch to be retained.

Now, I recommend feeding your fabric into the sewing machine with the right side of your tank facing up. This will result in a cleaner look, and the pins should keep the folded edge folded under nicely.

For hems, I also like to use the edge of my foot to line up against the folded edge, as seen in the photo below. On my preferred foot, this makes my stitch 3/8″ from the edge of the fold. This is perfect for my 5/8″ hem, as it will mean there will be 1/4″ of the raw edge above the stitch.

If you have chosen a smaller hem, say 3/8″, make sure your stitch is a bit closer to your folded edge. For a 3/8″ hem, I would probably put my stitch at 1/4″ from the folded edge.

If you have chosen a larger hem, I’d keep your stitch in the range of 3/8″ to 3/4″ from the folded edge. We will trim off the excess raw edge once your hem is done.

Starting at side seam, stitch all the way around the tank, pulling the pins as you come to them. Overlap your stitching for about 1/2″ at the end to secure. You may also want to use a lockstitch at the end, if you machine has that option, to make sure your hem is nicely held in place.

If you chose a hem that was greater than 5/8″, use your snips to very carefully trim the raw edge of the fabric to about 1/4″ from the stitching. VERY CAREFULLY. If it feels like you’re cutting through too many layers of fabric, you probably are. Ask me how I know.

Let’s Topstitch!

OMG we’re on the final step!

The last thing we are going to do is topstitch. What is topstitching? Well, it’s the pretty stitching that holds down all those raw ends and can be seen from the outside of the garment.

A word about your topstitching versus topstitching on ready-to-wear/store bought garments: Factories use a special machine called a coverstitch to topstitch. This is what gives your RTW garments that nice double straight line on the front, like this:

I’m going to assume you only have a regular old sewing machine, not a coverstitch. So your topstitching is going to look different.

You could get fancy and break out a double needle, and get a look very similar to a coverstitch. But sewing with a double needle makes me want to drop the f bomb more times than almost any other sewing technique, and since this is a beginners’ sewing series, we’re going to use a different method. Again, it’ll look different, but it’s going to look fab.

So I’m going to use that same stitch #11 that I used for the hem earlier. If you don’t have this stitch, go ahead and lean on that zigzag or another stretch stitch. Again, I wouldn’t use the triple stitch for the reasons I outlined earlier.

At your neckband, fold the raw fabric down toward the body of the tank. You can pin this all the way around, but I actually think you might be okay going commando on this one. Just let the presser foot on your machine hold the fabric down.

Working with the outside of your tank facing up, you’re going to sew that raw edge down, stitching just to the side of the seam line. Here, I’m using that red little mark on my presser foot to follow the seam line so I can ensure my seam stays even with the seam.

Be careful not to pull your fabric as you sew this, as it’s easy to pull at this point. Pulling will distort your neckline.

Every inch or so, lift your fabric and take a peek to make sure the raw edge is still facing inward and being caught by the underside of the topstitching. If you’ve missed the raw edge, stop, seam rip to where the raw edge stops being caught, and start over just before that point. If you find yourself struggling to keep that raw edge in place, turned inward, go ahead and break out those to help!

Stitch all the way around the neckline, either overlapping about 1/2″ at the end or using a lockstitch to finish.

The finished product will look a bit like this. Notice how, on the left, things look a bit wavy? Sometimes, even if we try not to stretch the fabric, this just happens. Don’t stress if it’s minor. Just give it a press and a steam and the waviness will likely dissipate, as seen here on the right!

Now, repeat these exact same topstitching steps on each arm hole, pressing the raw edge of the fabric inward and stitching just next to the seam line. Give it a press and steam with your iron!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR TANK TOP!

Please post your finished project on social media and tag @sewbusty (or, on insta, #sewbusty or #sewbustycommunity). I can’t wait to see how you’ve gotten on!

Here’s mine in action at the putt-putt course:

Lindsie wears her lago tank while standing on the green at a putt-putt mini golf course. She is holding a putter in her left hand and is wearing mustard shorts and sunglasses.

Your Homework

This week, you should:

  • Sew the hem on your tank
  • Topstitch your bands
  • Post your finished tank on social and make sure I see it!

Ready for the next sew along? In June, Sew Busty will be hosting Bra Month, and I’ll be doing a sew along of the Firebrand Jet Set Natural bra. This project is appropriate for an adventurous beginner, so I hope you join! If you’re a total newbie to sewing and don’t feel ready to make a bra, we’ll be jumping back into an easier project in July, so be sure to follow Sew Busty on social media and subscribe to this blog in order to be notified when that sew along launches!

Questions about these last steps on the Lago/Saybrook tank? Drop a comment below, or ask on the Sew Busty Facebook group or subreddit.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.