Don McCunn's Blog

Changing One Dart to Two

I am working on a design concept for custom-fit bras based on the Bust Sling from my eBook How to Make Custom-Fit Bras. This design lends itself quite naturally to a bra for nursing mothers. A neighbor of mine is about to give birth to her second child. She has graciously agreed to test this concept for a bra. She has indicated that she prefers nursing bras that have foam in the covering portion of the cup.

As I was developing the pattern for the foam for this design I found it was going to have a rather large dart. In the past we have discussed in my group How to Make Sewing Patterns the problems of darts for women with larger cup sizes. They can become quite pointy.

I decided to tackle the problem of changing one dart to two for this particular design. I wasn’t sure how to best approach keeping the shape while changing the dart. I like to advocate the use of poster board to test out pattern shapes. Particularly for the complex curves of bra patterns. The photo below shows the evolution of changing a single dart to two darts.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. The first photo shows the shape of the pattern for foam with a single dart.
2. I wanted to spread the distance between the two darts based on the Bust Circle which I describe on page 58 of my book How to Make Sewing Patterns. I opted to spread the darts by 5/8″ to either side of the existing dart. Those are the two pencil lines in the second pattern that are parallel to the sides of the dart.
3. I taped the single dart in the poster board closed, then cut along the two lines from the step above. I flattened the poster board.
4. When I made this pattern I discovered that the bottom curve of the pattern needed to be adjusted slightly when the poster board was flattened. Both the body and fabric have give. This minor change in the shape of the pattern does not concern me. I show this adjustment to the pattern with the red line in the fourth pattern above.

The last two images compare the poster board shapes of the one dart and two dart shapes. I was pleased enough with the results that I decided to make them up using the swimsuit techniques I describe in my eBook How to Make Bikinis and Bandeaux.

The final test will be to see which of these two styles looks best on my neighbor with her input being crucial to the final decision. I am intrigued by the process of exploring pattern shapes as a collaborative process with the person who will wear the final garment. I recommend that if you follow this procedure, you take it in the kind of small steps I have indicated here. I would be very hesitant to change my concept if this was the final product. But it isn’t. It is just one small step in a larger process.

If you are interested in learning more about the evolution of this particular design, I am sharing the process with my Yahoo group How to Make Custom-Fit Bras.

Custom Bra Sizing

I was working with a new model, Bonnie, to make a custom-fit bra mold the other day. To see this process, view my Overview. Bonnie said she never wears an underwire bra. The pain threshold becomes unbearable after two hours max. She was told she should wear a “B” cup. That one had me rolling on the floor laughing.

Out of curiosity I compared her measurements to the charts in Beverly Johnson’s “The Bra-makers Manual.” For those of you who don’t know this is one of the major reference books for custom bra makers.

The chart said she should be wearing a 32D bra. She does have a small rib cage and a good size bust. I never go by cup size as I find it rather meaningless for custom-fit bras. So okay I’ll believe Beverly on that one. I warned my model Bonnie that not all bra manufacturers would necessarily use that standard.

We had found Bonnie’s underwire size using the approach I recommend in my eBook, How to Make Custom-Fit Bras, and show in the video on my Bra-Making Resource website. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see it.

When I compared the copper wire I shaped on Bonnie to my chart I discovered she needs a 42 underwire. I pulled out my underwire stash for the 42 size and tried one on her. It was a perfect fit if a little long.

So then I took a look at what Beverly’s book said she should be wearing based on the measurements. According to Beverly the correct underwire size for a 32D bra is a 36. This is 4 sizes smaller than the one that actually fits Bonnie.

So now ask me why I have such an inherent distrust of standardized measurements and mass produced bras?

I firmly believe the only way you are going to truly have a bra that fits is to rely on getting the shape from the actual body.

About Underwire Sizing:
The standard way most suppliers refer to underwire size is by the underwire size for a “B” cup. I developed my chart for underwires by ordering underwires from 7 different suppliers for sizes from 30 to 60 including all the different lengths from demi to extra long. I recorded the results including the necessary order number for each supplier. This is the free Bra Underwire Chart.

How to Make Sewing Patterns — book update

I wrote my book, How to Make Sewing Patterns, back in 1977 and have been asked if I had plans to revise it. There are only two things I do differently today than when I wrote the book 33 years ago. So I am focusing my time on teaching my online Patternmaking Classes and developing supplemental material to my book as Pattern Design Guides rather than taking the time to revise the existing book.

The two things I do differently are I use gingham for fitting the bodice and skirt. And I have revised how I draft the woman’s front bodice pattern.

Gingham for Fitting:
When I was teaching Pattern Design at San Francisco Community College Adult Education Division back in the 70s I would stress the importance of looking at the grain of the fabric to determine whether the fit was correct. As we were using muslin, I would carry around a magnifying glass so that people could clearly identify the direction of the grain.

Then one day I was in the fabric store. When I walked past the display of gingham, I did a double take. The woven pattern of the different colors of threads in the gingham made the grain jump out. It was so easy to see what was happening to the grain as it is shaped on the three-dimensional human body I knew I had found the perfect fabric to achieve super accurate fittings. When I teach my online Upper Torso Sloper (aka Bodice) and Lower Torso Sloper (aka Skirt) classes I can use student submitted photos to help them achieve accurate fits within an 1/8″.

Woman’s Front Bodice Pattern:
Throughout my book I show how to draft the initial patterns without any darts. I do this because nature never repeats the same shape twice. So it is my contention you will never be able to determine the size, location, or length of darts accurately from measurements. If there were corners and sharp angles in the human body, maybe you could take accurate measurements. But the human body is a series of continuously changing contours. From what I have heard even body scans using sophisticated equipment cannot accurately create a two dimensional representation of an individual’s body from the measurements they take.

The one exception to “no darts” in my book is that I show how to draft a woman’s front using a dart. Once again when I was teaching back in the 70s I had large class sizes and lots of bodies who were willing to helping me develop data. So I came up with a chart for how to adjust the woman’s bodice pattern based on the difference between the full bust and above bust measurements.

But the chart does not cover the full range of possible bust sizes. But more than that, it creates a pattern that has a bust to waist side panel that is tricky to design from. It is essentially off grain. So what I do now is draft the woman’s front pattern without a dart. It creates the size you need so that you can establish a very accurate dart in a fitting.

I have a PDF file with the two revised pages for this draft which you can download and print out to revise the drafting procedure in my book: Women’s Front Bodice Pattern Draft.

To fit this pattern I use a dart into the armscye for the above the bust shape, the “A” Dart, and a dart to the waist to establish the below the bust shape, the “B” Dart. What this fitting procedure does is it allows you to use the horizontal grain around the full bust to create a very accurate “A” dart. You can then adjust the “B” dart to ensure that the vertical grain of the fabric is correct at both the center front and on the side of the body.

With the sloper designed in this way, whatever design lines you draw for the side of the body can be envisioned as they relate to the horizontal grain.

The Joy of a Custom Made Garment

Previously I wrote the post “Tyranny of Standardized Sizing”. I am pleased to be able to follow that up with the results a student in my “Swimsuit, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses” class had. With Deborah’s permission I thought I’d share this experience. But first…

I use my eBook How to Make Bikinis and Bandeaux as a text for my Swimsuit and Lingerie class. In this eBook I describe how to make fitted briefs. The idea is to create the design lines on the body using bias tape and velcro, measure key places, then draft the pattern.

When Deborah said “The most comfortable panties I’ve ever worn!” I wanted to follow through so I asked Deborah the following.

Theoretically I thought that should be the case. But I’d be very interested in knowing if you can pin point the reasons.

• Fit at Waist?
• Fit at the Leg Opening?
• Custom-Fit at Side Seam?
• Cotton/Lycra Material?
• Plush Elastic in the Leg?
• Lace Waistband?
• All of the above ?

Deborah very graciously responded (and again she gave me permission to share this).

Don:

To answer your questions. For the first series, I’d have to say “all of the above.” Everything is where is should be and the cut is like I wanted. (They actually sit below the waist, the legs give full coverage but with a little bit of rise on the side seam.) The material is baby soft. Because they are made to fit me, nothing digs in, nothing pulls, nothing rides up, nothing slips down, and I can’t even tell I have them on!

They look big compared to store bought panties. That was shocking at first because I’m used to the smaller look with more stretch to fit multiple bodies (although not fit all that well.)

The body is a single layer of fabric, with a double layer for the crotch piece.

The “elastic” I used for the waist is the stretch lace. It is 2-1/4″ wide. I just sewed the stretch lace on at the seam line, stretching as I went. (putting the bottom edge of the lace about 1/4 inch below the seam line, and thus the lace itself adds two inches to the height of the panties — that is, when deciding where my waist would be for drafting the pattern, I considered the width of the lace in the calculations and lowered the waist location on the pattern for cutting the material.) Then I trimmed the seam. So that seam under the stretch lace is “unfinished.” But since it’s a knit, that’s not a problem. In addition to the zig-zag for adding the stretch lace, I stitched a row of the lingerie top stitching. It doesn’t show, but adds some more reinforcement to the seam. The stretch lace has a plush backing. It’s lovely.

I think that when all was said and done, I had taken in about 2 -1/8″ to 2-3/8″ on each side seam, according to comparing the measurements I wrote down, and measuring the latest version of the pattern which I used without taking it in any further on the side seams. The stretch lace is a length about 5 inches shorter than the measurement around where it attaches to the panties. It’s pretty stretchy, so that holds the panties in place without stretching the lace out of shape or having it dig in at all.

I made some significant changes to the crotch piece to get the fit I needed. I narrowed it both in the front and back, and shortened it in length. Shortening it allowed me to lengthen the material over the buttocks without distorting the shape of the leg opening too much. I’m getting the coverage over the cheeks, and it is fitting perfectly. I played with this a lot until I had it so that it fit the way I wanted. I had a fantastic time working on these panties (I’ve made four pairs so far, each a little better fit than the one previous.)

I got all four pairs out of the 1 yard of fabric, 5 yards of the stretch lace and 5 yards of the picot-edged elastic. The only thing I ran out of was the plush-back, picot-edge elastic for the legs. I might have had enough to do the fourth pair of panties, but it was a close call. I have enough of the stretch lace for another pair. I pre-shrunk everything, and did lose a bit of fabric length that way. But nevertheless, I got four pairs of very nice, extremely (and increasingly with each pair) comfortable panties (with a bit of leftover lace & elastic) for $15.50, plus the cost of thread. I know cost is not the focus of our group, but you can’t beat that for quality panties. And I had a lot of fun doing it and can’t wait to make some more.

Anyway, on the final pair, I used a knit elastic and enclosed it in a fold over seam allowance, and then added my lingerie top stitching. That leg treatment looks fine on the outside, but not as pretty on the inside. Also, it’s thicker around the leg opening due to the layers of fabric. Still comfortable, but I like using the plush-backed elastic better for a thinner layer around the leg opening.

Well, I guess this is more than you asked for.

Absolutely you may use my quote. I greatly appreciate your missionary zeal and your passion for teaching, your creativity and your patience in helping all of us learn.

Deborah

Susan at the Fabric Depot has been wonderfully helpful as a fabric and notion consultant for this class. So I asked her to provide the information about the fabric that Deborah used. Here is that information with links to the appropriate ordering information.

• #FL600 Cotton Lycra (Suntan) @ $10.00 yd.
• #E270 3/8″ Picot/Plush Elastic (Nude) @ $.50yd (minimum 5 yds)
• #LTS0246 2 1/4″ Stretch Lace (no plush back) @ $.75 yd

Susan also made the following comment:

Since this panty is made with cotton lycra, you can make the crotch out of the same cotton lycra. If using nylon lycra, then it is recommended to use #FL675 T-shirt Knit Lining for the crotch pattern piece. (Or you can even take one of husband’s old t-shirts and cut the crotch pattern piece out of it.)

Birth of a Bandeau Bra

In preparing for my next online patternmaking class Swimsuits, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses I was describing the many different types of garments that can be made using my pattern design system for bikinis, bandeaux, and fitted briefs. The topic of bras came up in my How to Make Sewing Pattern group.

I have been using my bikini pattern to create Bikini Bras for different models up to a “C” cup bra size. But when I started experimenting with larger bust sizes I realized that my bandeau pattern offers a better solution. Good bra engineering for large bust sizes provides support for the bust from the rib cage rather than shoulder straps. The bikini pattern relies on straps tied around the neck. My bandeau pattern on the other hand uses the support provided by the difference between the above bust and the full bust circumferences. My bandeau pattern is not just a straight strip of fabric. It uses a dart between center front and the apex to create the shape of a custom-fit bra cup.

While I have used the bandeau for costumes, gowns, and swimsuits, I had not applied it’s shape to creating a bra. Now I have. It is still in infancy as a bra design but I find the potential very hopeful because these bras are so quick and easy to construct. It can be made from one pattern piece using quality bra making supplies such as Tricot bonded foam, plush back elastic, powernet, and bra back closures. Straps can be added if desired but they are not the primary support structure as can happen too often in commercial bras. This bra does not require underwires and the pattern may be easily adapted for the prosthesis of women who have had radical mastectomies. My next project is to try this bandeau bra on my model who wears a 38DD in a commercial bra.

In the video above you can see my first bandeau bra. I made it from a wonderful powernet like fabric called Rubenesque. Susan of the Fabric Depot has been very supportive of my online classes. When she acquired this fabric as a special purchase, she sent me a sample to see how I would respond to it. I love it. It is one of the friendliest fabrics I have ever worked with. I just regret that when she sells out her current inventory it will no longer be available. Fortunately the bandeau bra can be made from regular powernet as well.

The Tryanny of Standardized Sizing

In preparation for my class Swimsuits, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses I was reading The Lingerie Handbook by Rebecca Apsan. Rebecca owns “La Petite Couquette” lingerie store in New York City. She goes into a fair amount of detail about the ins and outs of buying lingerie from her experience running this store and helping her customers get the best fit. When I came to the section on panties she includes a size chart. Here is a brief summary of sizing:

The chart includes every size from 4/XS to 15/8XL. If you analyze the numbers, each increase in size is two inches larger than the preceding size. This is reflective of how the industry grades from one body shape to an entire range of sizes.

From the perspective of someone who helps people achieve a custom fit, not everyone has a proportional difference of 10″ or 11″ between their waist and hip measurements. If your body shape falls into this proportion, then you are lucky as you should have no trouble finding panties that are comfortable and fit you well.

I don’t do surveys of the various panty manufacturers so maybe there are companies that use a different proportion. I sure hope so because this shaping does not work for a lot of the people who I have helped over the years.

So it was interesting to me to read Rebecca’s solution to helping people find a fit that works for them. One solution she mentioned is that if you have a large waist, then she recommends the low rise boy shorts. She also touts how well thongs work to eliminate VPL (visible panty lines).

My personal feeling is that if your body does not fall into the proportions that the industry uses, you should be able to have both the fit and the look you want for your specific body shape, size, and personal aesthetic.

Fortunately for those of you who sew, or are interested in learning to sew, this is easy to achieve as shown in the photos above of three of the different models I have worked with. Each had a different body and a different way they wanted it covered.

The fitted briefs, or panties, shown here are one of the focuses of my online class Swimsuits, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses. They are derived from the research and development I did for the pattern design techniques I describe in my book How to Make Bikinis and Bandeaux.

Homage to Heidi Klum and Project Runway

I have been a fan of the TV series Project Runway since the first season. I find the challenges interesting as each designer uses their individual aesthetic to resolve the issues. I also appreciate the fact that this show is encouraging more people, not just the contestants, to explore their creativity through fashion design.

When I started to explore the background of the series I ran across the YouTube videos of Heidi Klum modeling the 11 Million Dollar Bra for Victoria Secret. I immediately knew I had to make a similar garment. I had just completed my eBook How to Make Bikinis and Bandeaux and knew I could use this design system to create my version. When my model Alex agreed to model this garment I went ahead with this project.

While the bra Heidi Klum modeled was made up of diamonds, sapphires, and rubies I did not have the budget to do an exact replica. So my version is made of Swarovski crystals and rhinestones. Still the materials cost over $250 and it took a week of careful hand sewing to complete.

With the introduction of my class Swimsuits, Lingerie, and Empire Dresses which uses this same unique design system I felt the time had come to pay homage to Heidi and Project Runway. Fortunately Alex once again agreed to be my model. So here it is.

I have additional photographs of this garment in my Photo Galleries.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my model Alex for all the wonderful work she has done to make my Online Patternmaking classes possible.