Thread: HOW do you cover a bra with fabric that doesn't stretch??

I'm so frustrated ! i've recently started my first bedleh-project and i was stupid enough to choose a non stretcheable fabric... so my question is, how do you cover the bra cups (or any 3D curved thing e.g. back of egyptian style belt)???
somewhere i read that you have to make darts, but where and how (cut and sew the overlap or make a fold?)
HELP me, almighty costume gods/goddesses!!

I generally make my darts at the bottom of the cups. Smooth and pin the fabric to the top of the cups. Then you should have a big flap on the bottom. You may need to make more than one dart depending on the cup size. Simply fold the flap neatly to one side and pin. Then neatly sew the flap down.

It can be done with non-stretch fabric. Make sure not to pull the fabric too tight to avoid warping the cups.

Yes, darts. You want to cut your fabric like a lopsided U with the top being straight across the grain line. I used the book Embellished Bras to make mine. None of the bras in that book use stretch fabric.

You have to do lots of smoothing and draping and darting. I heard a dress form will help. I still need to make one!

Here are some pictures, where you can see the darts....

Don't know if this pic can help but if you cut two piece of fabric as its shown (upper cup and lower cup) it might be easier:



I have never try it this way yet, personnaly I would use frabic scrap to try fisrt, good luck!

Qamar

Someone posted a link to a photo 'how to' a while back, I'll try to find it for you.

Found it:
http://www.bhuz.com/forum/fitness-be...-tutorial.html

I've never tried this technique, but I am going to with the next bra I make.

Direct too tutorial (I hope you don't mind Misha).

TUTORIAL: Creating a Costume Bra - a set on Flickr

A little trick to make things easier for those without magic hands: I found (while lining a bra) that using two-sided fabric tape to keep the fabric in place can make sewing a 3D thing more manageable. The whole shebang stays in place, but one can still adjust things a little bit if necessary.

Originally Posted by steffib

A little trick to make things easier for those without magic hands: I found (while lining a bra) that using two-sided fabric tape to keep the fabric in place can make sewing a 3D thing more manageable. The whole shebang stays in place, but one can still adjust things a little bit if necessary.

Woohoo! Thanks I will try that on my next project!

Qamar

thanks, everybody!!! where would i be without you?

I had non-stretch material and had to do Major Darts, see photo.



Since I was putting a piece of rectangular fabric over the top of the cup afterward, as per mishakitty's tutorial, I placed all the darts on the top of the cup. Although the darts were very deep and did peek out from even the rectangular piece, the embellishments disguised everything further!

Gotta love embellishments, LOL

I did 2 darts too:
glitter.JPG - tribe.net


I followed the method described in this book:
Embellished Bras By Dawn Devine Brown and Barry Brown
Embellished Bras by Davina aka Dawn Devine Brown - Author - Costumer - Dancer - Historian