I have an ongoing love affair with triangle bras. I was looking through my ever-growing collection and I had a thought- how easy would one of these be to make? And I’ve answered my own question in a little DIY put together with the help of my mother. She wrote out some instructions and left me to fend for myself- basically her way of fool-proofing the DIY. If I can do it, anyone can!
What you’ll need: Fabric of your choice (Something silky is always nice. How about a vintage scarf?), some ribbon, safety pins/regular pins, scissors and a sewing machine. If you really wanted to you could hand sew it, but I wouldn’t suggest it.
1. Cut or tear a strip of fabric about four times as wide as you want the band around your chest. It should be long enough to go around your chest and tie in a bow. Experiment until you get the right length.
2. Cut four squares for the cups. Your cups will have two layers, so you need four altogether. They need to be at least 9 inches/ 23 cm square, depending on your size.
3. Cut two lengths of ribbon for the straps. Measure one of your bras to see how long the straps are and then add a couple of extra inches, just in case!
4. See the image above? I’ve put one end of the ribbon at the corner of each square, running diagonally across. Then sandwich the ribbon between two of the squares. Pin. These are the straps that will come off the top of the cups to go over your shoulder.
5. Stitch two sides of each square in an L shape, with the ribbon in the corner.
6. Turn the squares right side out. On each of the two squares you’ll have two neat, sewn edges, two raw edges, and a ribbon coming from the corner.
7. Try the squares against your body, holding them in place and gathering the material up under your bust. Use something (I used a metallic marker) to mark the line against your chest. See I’m tracing it above? You’ll have a diamond with the ribbon at the top and a curved line running sort of from corner to corner across the middle.
8. Put your machine on its biggest stitch and stitch along the curved lines, making sure NOT to anchor or back stitch at all. Leave the ends of the threads long, too.
9. Pull gently on one thread to gather the square along that line, like I’m doing above. This turns your flat squares into cups. You’ll cut the excess fabric off soon.
10. Check the fit against your body or one of your bras. Adjust the gathers.
10. Fold the long strip in half length-wise and mark the middle with a pin. Like in the picture above, lay it out straight and place your cups along the strip. Note the lower edge of the strip is lined up with the lower edge of the cups, with the cups underneath. It seems kind of backward and wrong, but don’t worry.
11. Put your machine stitch size back on normal. Pin the cups to the band and stitch.
12. Flip it over and cut off the extra fabric. Fold the band into fourths lengthwise and pin. Now it should look something like the pic above.
13. Carefully stitch the entire length of the band along the edge. Try to make it as neat as possible, because these stitches show.
14. Tie the ends around your chest like a bikini and pin your shoulder straps in place. If you don’t have anyone to help with this step then use one of your bras to figure it out. Stitch the straps in place.
15. Now the only thing left is the ends of the chest band. They will be unfinished and if that bothers you, tuck the ends inside and stitch them closed.
I really suggest you try this out on some scrap fabric first, like I did. That way if you muck up you can just toss it and start again. Also, read through the instructions carefully before you start.
Let me know if I’ve confused you…
Happy DIYing. Isabella xo
