We are going to sew curved seams which many of you know, are quite tricky. That’s why before the actual sewing we have to prepare the cradle.
Fold the band on center front line. Take the paper pattern piece. There are two notches.
Place the paper piece on top of your band. Fold line on the band matches the edge of the paper piece. Careful trace both notches.
Do not unfold. Turn the band and repeat the process on the other half. Now you can unfold. These is what you should have – two notches on each curve.
These notches are points that will match seams on our cups. They are mandatory! Not having these points when sewing the cup to the band, may result in wrong cup insertions
Ok, these is not the only thing to do prior to actual cup attaching. With seam allowance, the curve that must match the edge of the cup is smaller. In order to allow it to surround the cup, we’ll have to cut bits along the line. Use any cutting tool, these is mine.
Make small cuts – only on the edge that the cup is to be sewn to:
You should make cuts at a 7-10 mm distance from each other. The cut must be 4-5 mm deep. This is strictly related to my 8 mm seam allowances. If you’ve traced a different amount for seam allowance, than the cuts should be approx half the amount of the seam allowance.
Do this for both cups. This is why we did that.
We will be able to spread the band to encircle the cup edge.
This article is part of a series of articles about How to sew a bra.
Previous step: Step 8.2
Sewing the band
Joining the cradle with the back wings
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Next step: Step 9.2
Attache cups to the band
Sew cups to the band
