As I described in my introductory post to Project 1, on 1940s undergarments, I am working towards a set of late “general American late 1940s” underwear. So, instead of making sure every garment existed at that exact year, I will be considering the history of the 1940s, and combining features from various garments which were made during that time to create something identifiable as plausible in the late 1940s. I will also be making design decisions which will flatter my figure, and take full sized fashion of the time into consideration.
You can read all about my research into this garment, and how I came to design decisions (here).
Patterning, and making the first mock-up
Using methods that I described in my post on drafting, I first made some pieces by molding fabric around my dress form and pinned it into place.
After the pattern was drafted from the drape, I already anticipated several problems. This was one of my first times draping – so I did a horrible job of it – but it got me to a good starting point. The underarm was too low, the front bottom was too high, the whole thing would not be tight enough to be structural without foam, the cup seam was not horizontal enough, and it was likely that the cup would be all wrong when my actual bust was put in it. Keeping this in mind, I cut out all of my pieces out of muslin, and sewed together my first mockup, using zipper tape to close it in the front (keeping in mind that the zipper tape adds width where I did not intend any to be). I fit it on myself, marked changes, and transferred it to a new pattern.
I repeated this process of making changes to the pattern, then mocking up, two more times, for a total of 3 mockups and 4 patterns before I got to a pattern which I was happy with. The second mockup was so bad that I nearly lost hope. What was supposed to be the third mockup had seams which matched so poorly that I literally ripped it apart. The actual third mockup came together beautifully though. Do not lose hope!
Some things I learned when draping and drafting, and you should keep in mind when you create your own pattern for a 1940s brassiere:
- Try to reach a pattern-compromise in the bust, so that the bust point is forward, while also being as close to your natural bust point position as possible. This will not only improve the silhouette but it will also lower the chance of needing a bust pad to maintain a point.
- Watch out for gaping in the top of the cup. Try cutting the top half of the cup on the bias. Worked wonders for me!
- As tempting as it is to let the top of the cup take over, let the bottom of the cup have half of the spotlight.
- Definitely try this on with straps. I just used some ribbon sewn to the front, and pinned to the back about 3 inches from CB.
- Whereever possible, sew up the mockup in the same way that you will the final. I really did not get a good idea of how supportive the cups would be for me until I tried a mockup with stitching on the bottom cup.
Final assembly
Long line brassiere
Step 1 – Preparation: Prepare pieces. I cut out the following out of main fabric (I used cotton sateen): 2 upper cup , 4 bottom cup , 4 center front, 2 front lower , 1 back, and 2 20”x2” rectangles. I cut out the following out of stretch mesh: 2 front lower, and 1 back. When I cut the stretch mesh, I removed 1/4 from the vertical sides of the pieces so the stretch mesh would do its magic. Additionally, now was the time to cut the lace, and flat line all of my pieces to their lace or stretch mesh. I set aside other necessary material, including elastic, hardware, binding, hook and eye tape, buttons, etc.
Step 2 – Straps part 1: I collected the 2 20”x2” rectangles, folded them in half long-wise, and stitched down at 1/2 an inch. I then clipped each seam to less than 1/4 an inch, and each strap was flipped inside out. I cut 6 inches off of this length. The long piece of the strap was ironed so that the seam was at around the middle of one side of the tube. I stitched down the middle before hand stitching one end to the slide hardware (mine happens to be a heart – Not historically accurate, but very pretty). I was careful to attach it in a way where when the strap was laced back through, the side without the seam would show on the outside. For the 6 inch length that I cut off earlier, I ironed that 6 inches so that the seam was on the edge. I stitched down the middle, and I laced it through a 1/2 inch circle hardware, and pinned it in place just to hold it for now. This second piece will make the little dual strap triangular shape that I discussed in my design post.
Step 2 – Continued – Assemble the strap: I used my mockup to determine the ideal strap length for me. Using a 1/2 inch seam allowance made my 6 inch (folded 3 inch) triangle piece the perfect length so that the circular hardware was at my clavicle. From here I laced my longer strap piece through the circular hardware and back through the slide, placing the heart shaped slide about an inch and a half over the circular hardware so it would still show on the front of my body, and give me some wiggle room for adjustment. I then cut 3.5 inch long 1/2 inch elastic strips, because on the back of extant bras, several of them have elastic at the back. I removed length from the strap, and then connected the end of the strap to this elastic using a counter seam – which has a very similar effect to a flat fell, in that both raw edges are concealed within the seam. This made one long strap piece, ready to be sewn in. I set these aside.
Step 3 – Assembling the two halves of the cups: Next I stitched together the two halves of the cup together at 1/2 an inch, sandwiching 1 piece of the upper cup between 2 pieces of the bottom cup. I pinked the seam, then opened up the sewn together piece so all right sides were out, and ironed this seam. Next, I basted the bottom of the cup so the two halves would stay together. Doing this completely seals the raw edge of the cup inside, which will limit fraying, and make the cup more comfortable to wear (Since you aren’t finishing the seam on the inside, which would be more bulky and rougher on the ladies).
Step 4 – Structure stitching on the cup: I marked the bust point with a water soluble fabric pen, and used a pattern weight to draw a circle where the center is the bust point, only drawing on the lower bust. I stitched on this line, carefully backstitching at the seam to secure the stitching. I used the edge of a quilters foot as a guide to then stitch additional circles, in 1/4 inch intervals from the original, once again carefully backstitching at the bust seam, and I did this until the entire lower bust was sewn. I stitched 3 lines from the bust point to my first circle, backstitching at each end, evenly dividing this remaining area into 4 sections. After this, I clipped all offending threads, and I stitched 1/4 inch away from bust seam, on the side of the bottom cup, to further secure the seam, and provide more structure. I did this for both cups, being careful to make sure I was making a left and a right – because the bobbin side of machine stitching never looks as good as the side you worked from.
Step 5 – Actually starting to assemble: I stitched the lower halves of the cups to the upper portion of the lower front pieces at 1/2 inch. I finished this seam with a machine fell towards the lower front piece, stitching 1/4 inch from the seam line. Flat felling this seam provides a surprising amount of structure!
Step 6 – The front center: Now it is time to stitch on the center front pieces. This long line brassiere will connect in the front with a line of hook and eye tape, so the two sides of the front will not be sewn together. I sandwiched the center front edge of the piece we just sewed together between the two pieces of the center front pieces, so that the right side of the front of the bra was against the right side of center front (shown here with a lace overlay). I stitched at 1/2 an inch. I pinked this seam, and then trimmed the middle piece of SA down further to limit bulk. I ironed this seam similarly to how I did when assembling the cup. The other raw edge of this seam is finished by marking 1/2 an inch in on the long raw edges, and folding those raw edges in together. This edge was top stitched as close to the edge as possible, before each side of this center front band was stitched in at 1/4 an inch to flatten the center front, and secure the lace. This was repeated on both halves of the brassiere.
Step 7 – Sew in the hook and eye tape: I found this guide from Historical Sewing to be very helpful, and I did it very similarly to how the guide explains it. That guide is its very own blog post worth of instructions, so I will not repeat those instructions here. I will however, share the bits I specifically did for this project.
- Hooks on the right, eyes on the left
- Luckily my hooks and eyes were spaced out perfectly so that one ended up right at the top and right at the bottom (after taking SA into account). If yours does not, I recommend sewing in the hook and eye tape at a shorter length, and sewing in individual hooks and eyes at the top and bottom after finishing the seams.
- Because mine was just the right length, I cut the excess fabric all the way to the edge, so that it would be concealed when I finish the raw edges of the brassiere.
- When laid flat, the center front has an inclination to curve. To combat this curve, and also to provide more strength to the center front, which will handle the brunt of the force here, I slipped a piece of 1/4 inch synthetic whalebone through the hook and eye tape – The way the tape is made provides a slot to just slip it in, no fuss. Best practices in preparing boning ensures that it will not poke out, or be sewn through later.
After all of that, it looks like this:
I did note that the bottom of center front does not line up perfectly. A small trim corrects this. At this point, the front of the long line brassiere is fully assembled.
Step 8 – Sewing on the back: The back was stitched on at 1/2 an inch. There are two options here: simply flat fell this seam towards the back, or proceed with step 9, like I did. In post, I wish I had just flat felled. Step 9 is for adding boning on the sides. I opted to do this to limit the chance that the bra would slide up, wrinkle, roll, etc.
Step 9 – Adding side boning: I trimmed the side seams to under 1/4 of an inch, and ironed flat. I aligned the seam with the center of a piece of 1/2 inch twill tape. From the right side of the garment, I stitched down either side of the seam at just under 1/4 an inch. This created a channel of a perfectly snug width to slide in some 1/4 inch synthetic baleen, also known as plastic boning, or featherweight. I trimmed each side of the baleen to a curve, and made sure the boning was short enough to run no risk of stitching through it later – IE, about 5/8 of an inch from the edge.
Step 10 – placing the straps: Using markings made on my mockup, I marked on my brassiere where I wanted the straps to go. At this point, the straps are fully assembled, so it is as easy as pinning them in place, making sure to pin right sides together, and being careful to not twist the strap. I also took care to make sure that the way the triangle-strap folded was opposite on each side.
Step 11 – Finishing the remaining raw edges: I did this with 1/2 inch twill tape. From the right side of the garment, I stitched on the tape at 1/8 SA. This amount of SA is very scant, but it gives you enough width left to turn the tape to the inside of the garment, conceal the raw edges, and stitch down at 1/4 inch. I did this for the entire length of the raw edges by machine, hand stitching at the top and bottom of center front due to the hooks and eyes. For reference, this required roundabout 2.5 yards of twill.
Step 12 – Rejoice!: Check it out for any loose threads, then put on the fancy new bra and lounge for a while – you’ve earned it.
Regular length brassiere
Step 1 – Preparation: Step 1 for the long-line brassiere – Except I cut out “alternate” pieces for the parts affected by the shortened length. This change resulted in: out of main fabric: 2 upper cup , 4 bottom cup , 2 center front cut on the fold, 2 front lower, and 2 back, 2 20”x2” rectangles. I cut out the following out of stretch mesh: 2 front lower, and 2 backs. All other mentioned parts of step 1 are the same.
Step 2-5 – Follow steps 2-5 for the long-line brassiere
Step 6 – Assembling the front: Treat both pieces of your center front band as one, and stitch right sides together of each half of the brassiere to each half of this band at 1/2 an inch. Iron each seam towards center front. Finish these seams with a flat fell, machine stitching it down towards center front. At this point of the regular brassiere, the entire front is complete! All seams on the inside should be finished. The flat felling and circular stitching provided a surprising amount of structure to the garment.
Step 7 – Adding the back panels: I stitched each back panel to the brassiere, right sides together at 1/2 an inch, finishing the seam with a flat fell towards the back, clipping out fullness from the previous flat fells where needed.
Step 8 – Back Closure: For the back closure of the shorter bra, I mimicked some of the extant garments that I studied in my design post for the brassieres, where each side of the back has a piece of elastic, where one side has a G clip which links onto the other side to secure the brassiere… Now, I have no idea how strong this will be for a big bust as I began this project. To get this done I held the partially completed brassiere onto me while a second person measured the gap in the back between the two sides. Mine was 6.5 inches. I rounded down to 6, to account for the G clip and to incline the elastic to stretch by default as a fit. This resulted in a need for 1 piece of elastic at 3 inches, and one at 3.5 (explained by our next part of step 8), which would be sewed on at half an inch, giving even more stretch to the elastic. Please note – I had very stretchy elastic which extends to over twice its length, so I really did need it to have a tight default fit for this to actually work for my bust size.
Step 8 Cont. : For this next part, it is important that you have a polyester knit elastic – because we are adding button holes to the elastic. These button holes allowed the wearer to adjust the band of the brassiere similarly to several sets of hooks in modern brassieres. To do this, I marked lines on my 3.5 inch length of elastic so that they alternated between the width of the button hole, and half the width of the button hole. These half length sections were carefully cut down the knit section, avoiding the elastic. I then very quickly took a flame to each side of the hole to melt the polyester, and prevent the knit from fraying. On one half of this elastic strip, I clipped the corners and used flame again to prevent fraying. I only did this to one of the two pieces of elastic. Honestly – I do not think that if this was a garment I intended to wear all the time, that this would hold up. Eventually these button holes will fray. If at all possible, find elastic which comes with these already. For illustration, this strap is pictured below, with the button (which happens to be the same button used in my matching 1940s tap pants), and the 1/2 inch G clip hardware.
Step 8 – Cont… Again: Now we actually prepare this to sew on. This actually gets sewn in a later step, but I pinned it here for now. minding some space at the top and bottom for a later seam, I pinned the non-button-holed side to the left of the back so that the elastic formed a fold. On the right side of the back, I pinned only the top of the elastic down where it belonged. The bottom part is not sewn it – it attaches to a button which we will later sew on. The “bottom” part of this elastic loop was pinned down only to keep the G clip in place while this was handled, and for demonstration in the image so you can see how this should look after this is all stitched down. When I pinned them down, I made sure that the G clip connected from the bottom of the opposite elastic, as shown in the images of extant garments, and that how the elastic folded on each side was opposite of the other side, so that the elastic formed a visible X shape where one line overlapped the other entirely. That may have not made any sense. Feel free to check out the design post, or my pictures below!
Step 9 – Adding the Straps: Step 10 of the long-line brassiere.
Step 10 – finishing the edges: Step 11 of the long-line brassiere – only difference is we carry the twill tape all the way around the back as well.
Step 11 – Sew on the button: I stitched the small button onto the inside of the brassiere in a similar location to where the other sides elastic is sewn in. I slipped the button through one of the holes in the elastic, and adjusted as necessary.
Step 12 – Rejoice!: Check it out for any loose threads, then put on the fancy new bra and lounge for a while – you’ve earned it.
In Hindsight…
- If you are making this for casual wear, I advise you bind the bottom with something stretchier, such as fold over elastic, and not twill tape. the twill tape made the bottom quite tight, and uncomfortable.
- I wish I didn’t add the boning to the long line bra. It was a contoured enough fit to not need it. The very first time I wore it, the boning poked me through the twill tape. Honestly, I did remove it, and I wish I had just flat felled it.
- I placed the triangular straps perpendicularly to the edge – this made them pucker. You have to place them in the direction they will be pulled during wear.
- I definitely used too much elastic at the back of the regular length brassiere. I had to fold it towards the inside of the garment and stitch down.
