January bra: Merckwaerdigh BHS10 in lace

What better way to start off the New Year than with a new lingerie set!

This is again my go-to pattern, the Merckwaerdigh BHS10 and three different panties: Watson Bikini, Milano Slip and Lacey Thong from Fehr Trade. I decided to use a well known pattern for the bra as I wanted to sew it with lace and without foam and this meant a few new to me techniques. There was a lot of try-and-error, a lot of unpicking (I had the feeling that I sewed this bra at least three times), some mistakes and wonky stitches, but I am happy how it turned out in the end and I am really proud of it. It looks like a real grown-up bra!

When I asked my teacher last summer if I should make any changes to the pattern if I wanted to skip the foam, she said I should just use non-stretch lace. So I did not change my pattern. As the lace I used is a stretch lace I lined the cups with a non-stretch tulle in nude color. Despite labelled as “non-stretch” it had a slight give in one direction. I placed the pattern pieces so that the give would be in the horizontally direction. For the lace I made sure to have mirror images for all the different pieces.

I sewed the cups like this:

I put the lining and lace upper cup pieces together and finished the upper edge with small decollete elastic. I made sure that the lining edge ends at the lower edge of the lace scallops.

I sewed upper and lower cup together with the upper cup sandwiched between the lower cup pieces (as explained here).

I sewed the lining piece of the side cup piece to the cup.

I clipped the lining at the point where the upper cup ends:

I trimmed the seam allowances and flipped the lining piece over. I layed the lace side cup piece on top and sewed with a 3-stitch zig-zag along the scalloped edge. On the inside every seam was enclosed and neat:

You see that I also finished the inner edge of the straps with a small elastic. On the outside you barely notice the stitching:

I thought a bit how to finish the lower edge of the bra as I wanted the scallops to show off . I did not found any tutorial how to do this. In the end I first sewed the elastic to the lining in the first step, keeping the lace free:

I did not have any elastic without decorative edge at hand, so I used one with a piping. Then I turned the elastic to the wrong side and sewed through all layers. In the same step I attached the end of the back straps to enclose this as well.

I did forget to check the width of the band and compare it with my closure. Luckily this was a rather wide one, but I cheated a bit as my band was still a bit too wide. You see that I just turned the edge of the elastic to the inside:

Look at that pattern matching of the bridge:

The bra feels more tight than my foam bras but it is comfortable to wear. I wore it already twice and barely noticed it. And this is also the first bra that really stays in place the whole day! Even with my other bras I have the problem that they tend to crawl up a bit, although to a much smaller degree than the RTW bras.

Now for the panties. I used three different patterns. First my TNT pattern, the Watson bikini. I added some lace for more interest. I did not care too much about any pattern matching for the fabric.

I did forget to trim the seam allowance….

The second pattern I used is the Milano from Spitzenparadies in size 36:

It features a nice lace inset at the front piece. Else it is very similar to the Watson bikini.

Last I tried the Lacey thong pattern from Fehr trade. I found it a bit tricky to sew the lace to the crotch pieces and I did not get it right for the front.