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I spend every day chirping with joy like a little cricket as I find beautiful fabrics, laces, elastics and tools for you. I am eager to give every budding bra builder the tools, materials and advice that I needed as I began my bra-making journey, and to support every bra builder as they create. I’m enough of an engineer to care very much that what you get works really well. I’m enough of an artist to care very much that it is beautiful. I’vebeen working with fabrics and sewing for a very long time, so I choose the best that I can find.
Hi! My name is Maddie and I have a serious love affair with lace and lingerie. I am a 33 year old lingerie designer and sewing teacher who turned her dream of sewing and blogging into a passionate career. On most days, you’ll find me in my studio, located in Philadelphia, designing my next collection or teaching women how to make a perfectly fitted bra. My overarching vision is to provide women with feminine lingerie that is equally beautiful as it is functional, whether that be through sewing their own or buying from the market.
As an 8-year-old child at my grandmother’s knee, I begged her to teach me to sew on her broken machine. My grandmother’s spirit of determination was not going to stop her from teaching me this valuable craft. One hot summer day, she gathered me and some fabric and taught me how to make my first garment…by hand. Without the use of a machine, I cut and created about 10 halter tops and was the most fashionable little girl on the block. After my halter top creation, I spent years dismantling and upcyling my old clothes, creating styles that caught everyone’s eye. I got my first sewing machine at 12 years old and I’ve been sewingever since.
I followed my dreams and spent
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Hi, I’m Erin -I’m a sewing pattern designer and lingerie/swimwear supply shop owner from Ontario, Canada. You might know me from my Black Beauty Bra or Jordy Bralette patterns, or you might follow along with my Bra A Week Challenge. I have a serious passion for all things bras & swim and I want everyone to love sewing bras and swimwear as much as I do! That’s why you’ll find me in my studio most days with my mom and my shop dog Gibby, where we spend our time filling orders, taking photos, eating chocolate and finding all the best bra sewing supplies.
Carla Musarra-Leonard dreamed of designing garments when she was a little girl. Life took her in another direction, but after her nest emptied she decided it was time. In 2010, she taught herself how to sew. Lingerie education was hard to come by, so she mostly learned by taking apart bras and studying their construction and grading. When she finally started to draft her own bras, she struggled but persevered and finally, on her 33rd attempt, she got a good fit.
Now she makes large cup bras under her own label, La Bella Coppia. She recently published her Josey Plus bra pattern as a follow up to the Josey pattern along with her online course Making the Josey and Josey Plus bras. She recently teamed up with Evyone Credle and Margarita Sheflyand to form
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Alison Smith, the UK’s premier teacher of dressmaking, tailoring and corsetry and couture techniques, isn’t only an online sewing teacher, she is also a best-selling author having sold over half a million copies of her book “The Sewing Book”. When she isn’t writing books or running her fabulous retail fabric shop, Sew (your own) Wardrobe, Alison participates in many sewing shows around the UK and writes regularly in sewing magazines. Alison has always been passionate about sewing and loves to teach people how to create beautiful clothes that fit perfectly!
Cora Harrington is the Founder and Editor in Chief of The Lingerie Addict, the world’s leading lingerie magazine, as well as the author of In Intimate Detail: How to Choose, Wear, and Love Lingerie. She is an internationally-recognized expert in the area of intimate apparel, having been featured in publications like The New York Times, Elle, Allure, Glamour, The New Yorker, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, The Root, and Jezebel. Bringing together a love of culture, history, and fashion, Cora’s mission is to make the intimidating world of lingerie more accessible, understandable, and fun for people of all sizes, shapes, races, and genders. Cora is currently planning her second book, a more intensive “deep dive” into the lingerie industry.
I absolutely love sewing and I love sewing lingerie in particular, so when Lynda of ‘Elle-Joans’ asked me if I’d like to take over her online lingerie supplies business then it was a no brainer.
It was perfect timing. I had recently decided to wrap up my 15 year long career in landscape design but quickly found myself getting restless being at home with nothing to do but housework. My skills definitely lie in sewing and not sweeping! I was needing a new way to engage my brain and creative flair.I remember when I first became interested in sewing my own lingerie and how bewildering it all seemed to be. I sketched up a large image of abra and with every blog or book I read I added more and more notes and
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Pamela Leggett, national sewing/fitting instructor and pattern designer/owner for Pamela’s Patterns, started sewing lingerie in the 70’s for small boutiques in the Chicago area that catered to the disco and punk party scene. Lingerie was just starting to be worn as street wear, and Pamela refurbished vintage slips that she bought in thrift stores into unique one-of-a-kind camisoles. A few years later, she started teaching lingerie classes using Kwik Sew and Stretch & Sew patterns to her customers at the sewing store she managed in Connecticut. Teaching and developing skills for making lingerie has become a part of Pamela’s teaching schedule ever since. When she started her pattern company, she knew lingerie and shapewear patterns would have
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AnnieandMyras was named as a tribute to my two grandmothers who taught me to sew at an early age. Having made my first dress with Myra at the age of eight, I have since enjoyed creating many things with various different styles of needle and thread. I enjoy an advanced level of construction detail, often a vintage style, sometimes whimsical, whilst aspiring to achieve a high level of elegance and finesse.
Over the years I have enjoyed many modalities: weddings, men’s tailoring ( I studied men’s pattern making and private order dressmaking in the early 1990s), millinery, but lingerie has always been a major passion. I have also been learning shoemaking.
Since the last Great Bra Sewing Bee I have immersed myself in
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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to sew – as a child I remember playing dress up with my dolls creating many outfits for them.
In the 24 years that followed my sewing pursuits have included many aspects of garment making but my primary focus and passion is lingerie, jeans, jumpsuits, bags, and jackets/coat making. My bra making journey began 10+ years ago when I took a class sponsored by the Baltimore chapter of the ASG. After a day and a half of class instruction, I completed my very own bra. It fit and an entire new world began!!! I really enjoy making custom bra and panty sets, the options are endless.
I am a member of Black Women Stitch and am passionate about
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Monica is a self-proclaimed geek, teacher, a mother to two wonderful boys (Ben Michael & Sam). She has a B.A., a B.S., and is credentialed to teach physics, chemistry, and math. Monica’s educational background and experience has allowed her to approach the pattern making and design process from a very scientific angle. To her, patterns are nothing more than complex mathematical nets and a bra is an engineered structure designed to support mass.
BravoBella combines Monica’s love of science, sewing, and teaching. She considers herself a teacher at the core of her being and hopes to empower her customers through her classes and instructional materials.
Outside of BravoBella and teaching, you can find Monica spending quality time with her
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I am a mother to a beautiful little stubborn redheaded child. She is the reason I do the things I do today. My daughter is my inspiration and I, hers. I started my business over 18 years ago and never envisioned it evolving the way it has. I was 26 when I started my path as a lingerie designer in San Francisco. I learned how to do things the hard way, or the wrong way. I struggled as a starving artist, worked 3 jobs while sewing all night and peddling my wares.
I have grown as a designer and small business owner over the years. I use my pattern releases as a way to design and have others wear my designs. I am actively creating sewing and drafting courses, books and
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Evyone Credle is an Intimates apparel design expert who began her training at the High School of Fashion Industries, where she graduated in 1971 with a focus on Women’s Tailoring; Special Machine Operations. There she fell in love with the intricacies of intimate apparel design. She moved directly into the industry working for major brands across all areas of the technical design development. Her first job in the industry was as a sample maker, and she loved it!
Now 50 years later, she’s still in love with the industry, and is still learning something new every day. She started her own company in 1993. Evyone’s Design Services catered to busty, well-endowedwomen, DD
cups and up, in a wide range of bands.
I started sewing in the summer of 2015 spurred on by the The Great British Sewing Bee. I don’t know how I could have learned if it wasn’t for all the wonderful resources available on the internet, for me the research was half the fun. In 2017 I made my first bra and never looked back. I, like many women, have proportions that don’t necessarily conform to fashion industry standards. Being able to make my own bras was an eye-opening experience that helped me to understand and love my own body for all its quirks and feel more confident in the body I have. Now with a few 100 bras under my presser foot I try to pay it forward by creating educational content and tutorials on YouTube to help other would-be bra makers as they start their own journey.
Naomi’s godmother, a multimedia artist, taught her to sew handmade dolls as a young girl at summer camp. Her godmother gifted a sewing machine for her 30th birthday. For a couple of years, it sat unopened until one day when she stumbled across sewing tutorials on YouTube.
Naomi is a mom always and a teacher by day. She has an after-school sewing club at the elementary school where she works. She teaches garment making and leads A weekly “Sewcial Club” and summer camp at an independent fabric shop in the DC Metropolitan Area.
Cultivating the local sewing community is a passion. Together with two DC Area fabric stores, Naomi hosted the 1st wildly successfu
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The middle of three girls, with very practical parents, I was equally at home with a needle as I was with a power tool. From making doll clothes to my school uniform (fortunately there are no pictures), to respraying cars and laying drives I tackled anything.
All went quiet when I went to University, then studied to be a Chartered Accountant and had 2 children. Everything changed when my children went to University.
For the following 2 years, I made so many quilts and bags that I didn’t know what to do with them. Many went to a suitable home, others remain in “stock”.
During a visit to Bambers to get my sewing machine serviced, I saw an overlocker course run by Lorna Knight of the Lorna Knight Sewing Academy
Meeting Lorna reignited the spark for dressmaking. At her sewing studio outside Leek I did courses in jeans making, bra and lingerie and dress fitting. She recommended Beverly Johnson’s Craftsy (now Bluprint) classes and off I went on another journey into bra making and pattern drafting.
Lily Fong, M.Ed. is the owner and lead designer of LilypaDesigns. She helps people achieve their dreams – of a well fitting bra – through her PDF Sewing Patterns, Blog, Sewing Community, Online Courses and Sewing Supplies. Her patterns pieces are designed to mix and match different sizes to better match individual body shapes while the Instructions read like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book.
Lily has studied multiple drafting methods and strives to help as many people as possible into comfortable bras. Her love of teaching and penchant for data led to a different method of selecting bra sizes – one that depends on breast measurement instead of chest circumference.
When not pattern making or interacting with clients, she can be found on various crafting adventures with her 3 boys – babywearing the youngest with coffee in hand.
I have always loved to sew, and I really love a challenge, so I was the first to sign up when I saw an ad for a bra-making course. To my unbelievable surprise, I was able to sew a really comfortable bra that also happened to look great. The best part was that it made the girls look absolutely fabulous.
So I took it to the harshest critics I could find: everyday people in everyday bras. I tested it out on a few friends and they unanimously agreed – it was the most comfortable bra they had ever worn. Silhouettes were sleeker, curves were curvier, and perkiness was off the charts. Friends told friends and a custom bra salon was born in what is now my sewing studio in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
Hi everyone, I’m Ruhee! Founder of Rubies Bras and The Lingerie Directory Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, I graduated with a Marketing Degree from the University of Alberta, and have been a Marketing Professional for about 18 years. So besides making bras, I am also a marketing advisor, which means I pretty much just tell people what to do and how to spend their money, a pastime that my husband doesn’t pay me for…but really should.
Six years ago I decided I hated my bra so much that I joined a class to make one. I remember thinking I was crazy, but when you’re desperate and determined (and frustrated with retail options), strange things happen. It took me six months of private lessons to make a proper bra and I was so excited, I told (and showed) all my friends, and decided to make bras on the side for my friends and family.
Fast forward six years later (with proper bramaking and designing designations), I run Rubies (a friend named it after combining ruhee + boobies over a night involving too many drinks) in my private studio, along with my marketing coaching practice.
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25 years ago, I found myself braless as I didn’t (and still don’t) fit in any RTW bras in the store so my husband challenged me to try a bra pattern from Kwik Sew and imagine my surprise when it came out too big! Then and there, my interest, curiosity and journey of bra making started. There has been countless of trial and error, as I taught myself to make bras, with one or two classes in the end to see I was climbing in the right tree. I don’t believe there is a strict “right or wrong” way of making a bra, as long as you feel like it fits and is comfortable throughout the day. I’ve always believed that’s the best way to learn and I still go by that principle in my classes. And soon, I found myself making bras, not only for myself, but for my friends and their friends. I started B,Wear 12 years ago, first as a hobby but realized nearly 7 years ago that my hobby was more a passion and full time job so I quit my job as an accountant, to pursue my dream of sharing quality supplies when it comes to bra and lingerie making with others, helping them create their very own dream lingerie wardrobe! Since the pandemic started, we realised the company needed to go out of our house and we had to relocate AND hire someone. Thankfully, my daughter Angelica chose to join me at B,Wear, truly making this what it’s been all along – a family business
Evie La Lùve is an online retailer of lingerie sewing patterns, kits and supplies, based in the UK and shipping worldwide. We strive to make sewing lingerie accessible to anyone who wishes to learn, through online video tutorials and patterns with lots of variations, from simple styles to more advanced. We also stock co-ordinating lingerie specific fabrics, elastic, findings etc. as well as kits, to make shopping for supplies as simple as possible.
I studied to be an architect/engineer for many years in Russia not knowing when I moved to the United States, I would take my previous studies and transform that knowledge to designing intimate apparel and swimwear for women and men.
I worked more than 25 years in NYC for big apparel intimates companies creating and developing many iconic underwear garments such as “Cross Your Heart” Playtex, “Tisha Bra” Le Mysterie, “Fabulous Fit” by MaidenForm etc., and becoming an expert at designing, patternmaking, fitting and grading. I love working on pieces that have special projects like plus sizes, augmented breasts, mastectomy and maternity.
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I have loved sewing for as long as I can remember. Years ago, I started a tailoring business providing alterations for evening wear as well as everyday items. The love of helping people achieve a great fit is how my interest in bra making was born. I began making bras for myself and when others found out I took the Professional Bra-making Course in Hamilton at Bra Makers Supply. Since then, I was fortunate to be able to assist Beverly Johnson at several conferences and she has become a great friend and mentor. I also teach classes of bra making, swimwear and other intimate apparel throughout northern Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan as well as providing custom intimate
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I grew up sewing with my mom since I was about six years old. By the time I was nine, I loved sewing so much that I had a sewing-themed birthday party.
In 2020, had the pleasure of coordinating the first Great Bra Sewing Bee. I learned so much from both the conference participants and the teachers! In 2021, I am bringing that experience to the table to help make our second conference even better.
This year, I have also been able to take my passion for art, journaling, and graphic design into a class about bra-making bullet journals.
I am Valeria, a textile and surface pattern designer based in Mexico City. I am passionate about all things DIY, reason why I sew my own clothing & lingerie. My favorite thing about creating as much as I can is definitely the – share the process & knowledge – part, which is why I want to share with you the pure joy of creating and sewing your own wardrobe, specially your own lingerie.
Masha Titova is a fashion designer who was born in Boston, raised in Moscow and consulted in Los Angeles. After working for Kanye West and BCBGMaxazria she took the leap and moved back to Boston where she officially launched TITOV in 2019. Pulling from inspiration from living around the world, she’s able to cater to a unique customer with one of a kind designs. She’s motivated by wanting every woman feeling like what they are wearing is made for them. She is a member of Rebecca Minkoff’s Female Founders Collective, and has been featured in The Boston Globe & NBC10.
Like many of us, my mother taught me to sew when I was a girl. My love for it never faded, and I relished every moment of what I considered a lovely hobby. It wasn’t a passion until it came time for my not-even-a-tween to buy a bra. She was mortified as we scoured stores looking for the perfect bra that wasn’t too scratchy, rubbed the wrong way or wasn’t too sexy. When I saw on her face the shame and worry that accompanied this part of puberty, I was carried right back to 4th grade when I got my first bra. I was determined to do better for her.
Several classes later, I made my first bra and I was hooked! Since then, I’ve sewn and designed numerous bras and undergarments that help women and girls not only feel comfortable, but also beautiful and confident in their bodies. Empowering girls (and women!) to learn about their anatomies and decide for themselves what they want closest to their bodies thrills me. These positive experiences are foundational to a life-long positive body image and are what I try to promote with every garment I make.
I started sewing as a young child, self-taught, sewing most of my own clothes by middle school age. Most often question asked of me in high school was, “Did you make that?” I always had a passion for swimsuits and soon began designing/sewing swimsuits for family, friends. With the arrival of stretch technical fabrics on the market, I found my niche in sewing for performers in dancewear, fitness, swim, and more. My enthusiasm for fitness and sewing melded into my business, Astrosportswear Activewear, a line of luxury athleisure. I completed my Master Seamstress Certificate in 2005, URI but was sewing as a business long before that. I was a contributing author in the April 2020 issue of Threads magazine on sewing sports bras. I have given lectures on sewing for Performers at the Rhode Island Sewing Network, and teach classes right here in Bridgewater, Mass at Sandi’s Sewing and Design studio. I can be found in my studio designing new items or sewing orders or out running, in the gym teaching fitness or a classroom teaching sewing skills.
