How to sew a satin covered band on a bra
When designing and making soft bras I try and incorporate a firm band on the under-band, though it does always depending on the design, but I know by incorporating this band that it will give the bra a firmer support. As 80% of the support comes from the under-band, without wires you need the firmness of the under-band to ensure the bra won’t ride up at the back and the cups pull down at the front with the weight of the breasts.
I love the look of satin covered elastic of the bra, it gives the bra the next level of premium, rather than just elastic. I used Boselli satin.
Now the satin stretches one way (selvedge to selvedge) and not the other (along the selvedge), so when I make lingerie out of satin I always put my pattern pieces on the bias (45 degree angle from the selvedge) as this allows the main stretch to go around the body and up the body.
When it come to covering the band though going on the bias will cause the band to twill which means to have wrinkles and not lie flat on the body which will get worse throughout the day.
The best way to use the satin covering the band is to go from selvedge to selvedge. If your selvedge edge has no distinctive edge which you can see the selvedge then you need to check out the stretches.
The direction in which the satin does not stretch is the selvedge.
For the width of the satin I double the amount of the elastic, so the elastic width I used was 25mm, so I cut a strip of satin that was 50mm.
Before I attach it to the bra, I fold the satin over the elastic and secure it with the single needle stitch, I put the stitch length at 4/5 it is long because too much thread and needle work can effect the elastic. Once all secure I attach the satin covered elastic by overlocking it to the bra, I pull by approx 3mm so the elastic doesn’t produce a wavy pattern once sewn. (If you have no overlocker you can zigzag along the raw edge to secure the satin and then attach it to the bra with single needle).
*I would like to thank CSF Online, for gifting the ‘Love’ Tulle fabric for this demonstration.
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