The first person on my gift giving Christmas list was myself. The holidays are as much of a time to treat yourself as it is to treat others. That’s my motto.
My recent endeavors in lingerie sewing narrowed my scope quite a bit this holiday season. Next to an adorable Kate Spade watch I had my eye on was 1950s lingerie. Vintage lingerie was not originally on my list – it wasn’t until Anna from the blog A Few Loose Threads posted about a handful of 1950s French bras she got her hands on. “Oh la la,” I thought. “I want that!” Like vintage patterns, vintage lingerie comes with a high cost. No cost though, is high enough for vintage. That’s also my motto.
This bra came from a lot Anna acquired from a super secretive contact she has (she has connections!) and out of the handful of bullet bras, this one appealed to me for several reasons.
SILHOUETTE: It has a deep plunge front and the underwires are along the CF edge (ONLY). This silhouette isn’t seen today and if it is, there certainly aren’t underwires along the CF (I’ve only see underwire at the bottom of the cups). When I asked Anna about the placement of the underwires, she said that it may because this bra was one of the first underwire bras and brands/manufacturers were still playing around with the placement. Even if the location of underwires was shifted to the bottom of the bra in later years, it would be neat to try to replicate/pattern a bra with this silhouette. Unlike the vintage bras, my bra/pattern would WORK. In my opinion, I think a bra like this but modernized would cause a stir.
BOTTOM BAND: There is a tapered band at the bottom of the cups. Bands of any sort are a sporty detail but because it’s made of peach satin, it’s feminine.
CLOSURE: There is no hook and eye closure. Called a ‘French closure,” elastic is angled and turned back on itself with a button and eyelet thread loop sewn onto it. This type of closure was popular from the 1930s-1950s.
Also, the stitching the SPI (stitches per inch) throughout the entire bra isvery low. If I had to approximate, around 1.5. I wonder if over the years, SPI has been increased for production reasons (cheaper and quicker to have less SPI) or if SPI was increased for better construction (too small SPI causes puckering).
My oh my how lingerie has changed!
