This post will help you add a pocket to your bralette, handknit or otherwise. If you've seen my Instagram post about the inspiration behind the Carol Bralette, you'll know that my girlfriend Candace has had a single mastectomy and uses a thin pad on one side to fill out her bra and silhouette.
Please note, I am not an expert sewist by any means. If you've got a better way to complete this project I would love to hear from you!
Start by Making Your Bralette!
Before anything else, I knit the Carol Bralette pattern as written for Candace in her size. I did the armhole edging but left the neck edging off.
Now Press and Pin, Like Three Times!
I steam pressed the bralette so it would lay flat nicely. Then I also pressed a piece of polyester lining fabric which I had on hand.
I laid the polyester over the bralette and used pins to mark the size of half of the front of the bralette PLUS 1/4" on all sides. I used the rule of measure twice, cut once and made sure as I trimmed that I could still fit the pocket as intended against the bralette.
Then, I folded that extra 1/4" in, pinned it down, and sewed a simple hem stitch on one side of the fabric. I repeated this step on all sides.
Once the pocket was hemmed, it was pressed again. Then I placed it onto the inside out bralette and pinned it everywhere that I intended to sew.
Pin Your Hemmed Pocket Into Place and Voila!
As you can see, I left the center of the outer edge unpinned. This is the opening which allows you to add or remove the pad.
I used regular sewing thread to sew the pocket into place. I used a whipstitch and sewed to the lower band edge, up the center of the bralette and across the top. Where I could I sewed to bound off stitches, however the white thread I used was invisible even in the center of the bralette where there is a vertical seam. I was really thrilled with the end result, it turned out just as well as I could hope on the first try!
I'll certainly be knitting more bralettes for Candace in the future, and will update this post if I have anything to add. I'd love to hear your questions or thoughts in the comments below!
Posts like this one are made possible by my Ko-Fi subscription! Folks who add to this fund help me make time for educational content and answering questions. As a benefit, you'll also receive great discounts (up to 100%) on all of my indie release patterns! Find out more about my Ko-Fi here.