A Seamwork Florence Bra for Travel

When I have an impending 11+ hour international flight, I stress out about what to wear. Comfort is key. I start mentally putting my outfit together to figure out which clothes I could stand to be in for a very, very long period of time and what would also work between trains, planes, and automobiles to get to my destination.

When I was getting ready for my trip to Japan last March, I knew whatever RTW bra I wore would be agony by the time I landed in Tokyo. That and the thought of the return flight to the U.S. with a 9-hour layover in L.A. almost made me lose my mind.

I have been a subscriber to Seamwork Magazine for quite a few months now and accumulated a good number of credits. I perused through the patterns I had not yet downloaded and came across the Florence Bra. I had heard the praises of a similar bra pattern, the Watson Bra, and decided to give Florence a try.

Y’all, this was a life changer. It took me a little longer than the 3 hours suggested time, but I’m slow.

The great thing was I already had everything I needed to make the Florence Bra. It calls for 6-inch stretch lace and I just so happened to have enough after using it as trim for my awkward Christmas Plantain Tee. Score!

The gray fabric is from GirlCharlee.com. There were few knits in my stash that would have gone so well with the light, girly lace… plus I didn’t want any dark colors to show through my lighter colored shirts.

Per my measurements, I cut a straight size small. The small fit well enough in the bust area, but I had to take in the band by a lot… maybe a couple of inches or so. Looks like I’ll have to try parts of the XS size next time. Is it just me or does that sound really depressing for a bra size? Whatever, I’ll blame the extra stretchiness of the fabric it calls for!

The pattern has you make adjustable straps with bra rings and sliders, but I skipped that. I didn’t want to go shopping on such short notice (I made this the weekend before my trip) and I figured my shape and size wouldn’t change that much. So I just measured, pinned, tried on, adjusted, and sewed the straps as is. It worked out very well and I’ll never have to worry about the straps loosening.

The Florence Bra has really easy construction and you don’t even need to worry about finishing most of the cup edges as you just use the edge of your stretch lace for the “hem.” Perfect!

I used a combination of my regular sewing machine and my serger, but the sewing machine made up the bulk of the construction. I only serged the cup seams, where they attach to the band, and the back band seam.

Here’s a pretty terrible picture of the guts, but you can see where I’ve serged.

The only part I sort of messed up was where the straps attach to the outer cup. I pulled the elastic too tightly while sewing, so it curls up when it’s not being worn as you can see above. Oh well, at least it’s still wearable!

This bra worked out very well for those long days of travel.

I only had 2 complaints:

• The lace was a little itchy, but not enough to drive me nuts. Next time, I’ll look for a better quality lace or maybe use a non-lace stretch fabric.
• I was a little self-conscious when DD and I were hauling butt around the airports. It doesn’t provide that much support (which is probably why it’s advertised as a lounge bra) but at least I had a light jacket to mask any crazy movement. TMI?

Anyway, I will definitely be using this for another international trip I’m taking in September. I know, I know… all this travel! But better now than never, right?

Before I leave you, I would like to thank Brunhilde for being such a lovely model for this bra. She has less shame than me and I love her for it.

-RED