Bee Barrett Bralette

Holy wow these instructions are painful. I mean, cute pattern. Free. Beautiful layout on the instruction PDF too! But I’m almost certain the most painful instructions for a garment I’ve ever worked with.

The style of instructions is… chatty? Like a script for giving a class. Maybe a blog post! That is to say, they are extremely wordy, circuitous, and packed with little extra tidbits, but hard to parse what… the instruction is. I was prepared for this, having read a couple of blog posts and pattern reviews mentioning the poor instructions, but I was still surprised just how hard they were to get through. Add in no diagrams, and photos that lean more beautiful than functional, and I could see this being an unuseable pattern for some people.

Certainly, there is the caveat that this is a beautiful free pattern, so how much complaint is valid? I have a bralette and I learned much in the process. But I do think this is a fairly inaccessible pattern, and I can’t see myself paying for any of Madalynne’s other beautiful designs after this experience. However, I do have another bra coming, since I cut it out at the same time as this one, the Noelle. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I make more of these, now understanding what needs to happen, no thanks to the instructions. Thinking jot notes on the pattern pieces might be handier, kind of along the lines of how notches on vintage patterns are numbered to indicate construction order? I think that’s what I’ll do now I say it.

The first place the instructions lost me was on sizing. The chart includes three sizing types, Madalynne PDF Patterns (Alpha Size), Madalynne PDF Patterns (Band Size), and Madalynne Commercial Patterns (Band Size). There’s a paragraph to go with it saying refer to the Alpha Size row, then continuing on to how to choose based on your normal band size. This appeared to be replicating the PDF Patterns (Band Size) row of the chart, but in sentence format, and I couldn’t figure out why that would be. Did this mean the band size was in some way more important than the Alpha Size? Should I be choosing different sizes for cups and the back band? Also, what is band size here, because it’s bigger than the corresponding full bust measurements for all but the largest size - my guess is store bought band size and not sister sizes? Was I overthinking? Yes could this have been avoided with clearer instructions?

I went with a Medium. It fits. It’s fine. Fine.

Anywayyyyy on cutting, and this is my fault, I wanted to be non-wasteful with my cutting so let some bees land on seams. In practice, I didn’t know what seams I really didn’t want big chunks of big embroidery in, so both cup seams suffer from some issues on that note. I trimmed the backsides of the bees as much as I could, but, well, live and learn.

Coming to construction, remember, no diagrams to determine what part of the piece goes where. That’s fine, we can all guess at it. First you sew the center front seam (not labelled on the pattern piece), then you clean finish the cups together. I got a little lost here on the paragraph asking you to sandwich the pieces together, again, just because the way it was described was loooong and diagram-less. Then she discusses why you use a straight stitch here, then notes you should be using a shorter stitch. It’s messy. And my work was messy.

I muddled my way through, and to be honest, the construction isn’t particularly hard to understand, but mostly this has worked out muslin quality, as I figured things out as I went along. I ended up unpicking areas and resandwiching and just overall doing a messier job than I’d have ideally liked.

I just found out about Sophie Hines’ Euler Bralette, and I wish I’d known about it before cutting this out, or before assembling, because I suspect the instructions would have been more to my taste! Next time.

That said, the fit is fine for me, and other than a couple of places that are more irritating that they should be along the bottom band (an issue I’m not fully sure how to fix since I’m not fully sure I attached the bottom band properly…), It’s quite a functional piece for me. And as my fifth bra/lette/bikini top made, it feels like the first modern “proper” bra, which ain’t nothing.

another small point of pride: I used FOE instead of picot as that’s what I’d purchased from Leila in her story sale, and that I had no real instructions to go from, just some internet browsing. I do like when something like that works out.

Pattern: Madalynne Barette Bralette
Size Made: Medium
Measurements: 35 full bust
Fabrics and notions: bees and straps second hand from Leila_Sews, powermesh lining from stash, bottom band from fabricland
Next time: use a different pattern!! And if it’s free ESPECIALLY, read the instructions before CUTTING to see if its worth my time