Vintage Underpinnings: Brassieres

Today's post is all about vintage-inspired brassieres!  Each decade has had it's particular silhouette, and nothing completes a vintage outfit more than the right foundation wear.

As you all know, I love sewing vintage patterns and have sewn items spanning many different decades.  One thing I have noticed is that the patterns fit much better with the appropriate foundation wear, including brassieres.  Of course, you can make slight alterations on the pattern (I'm thinking specifically about bust darts here) to change the look of the garment to suit more modern foundation garments.  I know a lot of people do this, but for me one of the reasons I love sewing vintage patterns is specifically for the vintage silhouette it creates!!

The three decades I sew the most patterns from are the 1930s, 1940s and the 1950s.  

Perhaps the most iconic decade in terms of brassieres is the 1950s and the infamous bullet bra look:

What Katie Did Harlow Bullet Bra

I list some resources at the bottom of this post for sourcing or sewing up vintage-inspired brassieres, but the most popular source at least in the UK is 'What Katie Did'.  I have several of their pieces including the Harlow Bullet Bra pictured above.  It's amazing what a difference it makes to the look of a vintage piece.  As an example, here I am wearing my 1950s me-made shirtdress:

In the left photo I am wearing the Harlow bullet bra and in the right photo I am wearing a regular modern fit bra.  It's amazing how the silhouette changes.  I only really feel comfortable wearing the bullet bra under 1950s dresses and I'm not so comfortable wearing it under sweaters or tight-fitting garments.  It is quite a 'pointy' look.  It helps having a very busy print to distract from that aspect!  I have to say that I always wear my vintage-inspired lingerie underneath a camisole or slip.

I don't do the 1950s silhouette very often, but it's fun to wear a midcentury frock every now and then.  I do wear my 1940s dresses almost every day!!  The only option I know of for a vintage-inspired 1940s brassiere constructed using vintage techniques is the CC09 bra from What Katie Did.  I wear it underneath all my 1940s me-made outfits:

I have yet to sew my own foundation garments.  I've seen a lot of great sewalongs and projects from the online sewing community… and am curious to try.  Though, at the moment, my sewing queue is growing longer and longer.  So, it might be some time before I actually get to try it out!  In the meantime, here are some amazing resources I've collated from the sewing community on sourcing and sewing vintage-inspired brassieres:

Resources:

• What Katie Did, the UK-based vintage-inspired lingerie shop
• Secrets in Lace, a US-based vintage-inspired lingerie store
• A fabulous post from By Gum, By Golly on recreating a 1940s bust silhouette
• Ohhh Lulu's Pin-Up Sewalong using this bra pattern available from Mrs Depew's Etsy store:

• An interesting discussion by Gertie on bullet bras
• A fabulous post by Mrs Depew about what vintage bra patterns are worth and a fabulous compendium of vintage lingerie patterns!
• Craftsy tutorial by Christine Haynes on sewing a vintage-inspired bra
• Va Voom Vintage's Bullet Bra Sewalong and pinterest board

What about you?  Have you sewn any vintage-inspired lingerie?

Vintage Underpinnings: Thermals

This week I thought it would be fun to have a little series called 'Vintage Underpinnings', because what goes on underneath the clothes is often as important as the clothes themselves for creating a vintage look!  I'm looking forward to exploring some different types of vintage underpinning garments and will try to link to sewing patterns and places to source different pieces.  I'm also looking forward to hearing about some of your favourite vintage-inspired foundational garments!

For this new series, I've been trying to find 1940s vintage underpinnings and in this case, thermals--for those cold days and nights!  And boy, it's getting cold in Scotland.  Pretty soon I'll be packing away the dresses (except for those that layer well and go with winter tights) and wearing my me-made trousers.  I love trousers…specifically Simplicity 3688 trousers (a reproduction pattern from 1941).  I've made them in navy, tweed, green and black (with more to come, hopefully!):

Awhile back Cargo Cult Craft (...we miss you Susannah!!) posted about thermal 'vests' that women wore under dresses:

And I've seen some vintage ads for what we would call long underwear or thermal leggings.  But I had yet to see anything that might work well under high-waisted 1940s trousers.  So when I was contacted by Marks and Spencer (the UK equivalent of a Macy's or Nordstrom's--but they ship internationally for free!) about styling lingerie with vintage fashions, I was bowled over when I saw these...

High-waisted thermals!!!  How cool!  So I decided to give them a try to see how they would work under my 1941 trousers:

The high-waisted bit is a 'tummy control' panel that comes up quite high (just under the bra for me).  It's not too tight at all around the stomach--so I'm not sure how much 'tummy control' there actually is…Though, I did find it a bit difficult in the beginning getting them over my *ahem* thighs and bum. lol.  But once on, I found the thermals to be quite comfortable and I liked having the extra support!

Whoever thought of these--is brilliant! Thank you--now I can wear thermals with my high-waisted trousers, which is good since the green and tweed pairs of trousers I made are of lightweight wool. Definitely not warm enough to keep out the Scottish wind without some sort of thermals underneath.

On a side note, isn't this sweater set cute?  I got it a local vintage fair and I've been wearing it a lot because the white embroidered paisley designs remind me of winter snowflakes!!

Thanks to the Marks and Spencer team for letting me try these out!

Have you seen any other high-waisted thermals?  What about vintage-inspired thermals?