Bright floral bikini

Bright floral bikini set

A little over a year ago I made a blue knit bralette using the Barrett Bralette pattern, and with the heat in June 2021, and the pandemic meaning fashion has been a LOT more casual (since I wasn’t really seeing anyone..) I was wearing it, and my one sports bra ALL the time. SO comfortable!

Also… although I haven’t been doing a LOT of sewing lately, the major heat wave also meant hiding out in my cool basement sewing room was WAY more appealing than puttering on my computer upstairs – so this was a perfect match!

(I thought I had blogged about the original bralette, but I guess not -oops!)

So, that meant I definitely needed to make more.

I had massively altered the original pattern to accommodate my uh… much more ample bustline than the original pattern intended. With the blue version mostly perfect- I just needed to make a minor adjustment, and was ready to cut out my second bralette!

Working on the Barrett Bralette in a bright floral swimwear fabric

I started with a bright floral that had been given to me by a former teacher when she moved out of province and had to majorly downgrade her ‘stash’.

Looking at it as one big piece of fabric, I really thought “I’ll never wear that” (as a swimsuit) but thought it would absolutely make a great muslin/toille/test garment to try out a pattern, so I kept it with my other swimwear fabrics.

Well… a bralette hardly ever gets seen either, so I grabbed it to make my second Barrett Bralette.

I lined it in a softer black spandex-blend knit. The original blue version was unlined, and I liked it, but thought a lined version would be somewhat more comfortable and last longer.

I had more of the black wide soft elastic that I had used on the blue one leftover, so I used that, along with findings from Fabricland.

In a smaller garment like this – I ended up really liking the print – especially for something that won’t really be worn with my regular (normally primarily dark, goth, black) wardrobe.  As a pull-on garment it’s really comfortable, and since I made it using fabrics that would be fine for swimwear – I am calling this a mix between a bralette and a bikini top.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll remember that this absolutely kicked off a bralette-making spree!

Bottoms too!

Bright floral bikini set

While I was wandering around the internet seeing if there were other bralette patterns I might want to try, I also found Mood Fabrics Ilana lingerie set.  Since I liked the bralette/bikini top – I figured it might be nice to make a bottom to match this as well, especially since I had lots of fabric still.

I made a few adjustments to the pattern, particularly how they handle the panty-liner area, but for a first run I largely stuck to the pattern.  (I’d do alterations later to the pattern for another bottom I made… which I’ll blog about later – a purple paisley version.)

Overall… I found the legs a little too low for me, so I needed to adjust that for the next version.  I also found it a little frustrating that they didn’t have a guide for the elastic in the legs, so I ended up redoing the first leg.  However… as a first run, I was pretty happy with it!

(And honestly… I’m not so body-confident to wear this anywhere I am not feeling super confident, so a less-than-ideal fit for a first run isn’t a big deal.)

The Ilana top

The Ilana lingerie bralette

While I had out the Ilana lingerie pattern, I figured I’d give a try to their bralette pattern too. It’s basically a seamed triangle top with a slight wrap to the back.

….. not a winner.  I did end up finishing it enough to try on with some “scrap” elastic (ei: stuff that doesn’t match the fabric, but worked for fitting).

The cups just were no where near enough supportive for me, but I LOVE the fact that their pattern was big enough for me! It’s fantastic to find an online pattern that doesn’t end at a B cup!

 

 

Come follow me

Stay tuned for some of the other bralette/bikini projects I did, before running out of elastic and needing to order more! LOL

• 

  Making the Barrett Bralette out of bright floral swimwear fabric.

  If you have a WordPress account – subscribe!

• If you’re on Instagram – follow me!  (I post costuming things, but also other stuff)
• Want to see all of my posts on Facebook? Come join me on Dawn’s Dress Diary! (I share every post from here – but also neat costuming, history, and sewing related links as well.)