Bra Saga – Part The First

Well I finally got up the nerve to start cutting out fabric and sewing it together! Man, that was hard to do. Harder than it should have been for sure. I was so sure that it wasn’t going to turn out right I was afraid to begin. To get over that anxiety I began with stuff that didn’t matter: leftover cotton knit, the powernet dye experiment and mismatched elastics. I used the pattern for a 36D. I also fused some tricot interfacing to the cotton pieces to hopefully reduce too much stretch in the knit and to add a soft slick surface. That latter move may have been a mistake.

It took the better part of the day yesterday to sew this darn thing together! Teeny little bits of fabric, some elastics and lots and lots and lots of thread. I was a little wobbly in a few places. Needed my trusty seam picker occasionally. But all-in-all I did a pretty good job:

And the inside with its flashy fuchsia channelling:

The band fits perfectly. But the cups…not so much. Phooey. I’m obviously a larger cup size than one would calculate from the traditional bra measuring techniques. I even went up a cup size from the one I calculated thinking I might have needed a little more room and it’s still not big enough. The bridge hangs away from my body about an inch and the straps are a little wide set in front. The back is good the way the straps attach both to the band and the hook-and-eye pieces at the same time. Much better than any of the ready-to-wear I’ve had. But obviously I have not been wearing the right size cups. However, I’m not sure I need more projection but more width? I seem to be more football-shaped than round. No wonder commercial bras never fit me properly! As always, I’m the odd one. I do try to usually be odd in a good way though. Gee, I remember back to when I was a 32A. Really. OK, that was before I had children.

Movingrightalong. Of course the pattern I have from Bra Makers Supply only goes up to a D-cup. Sigh. Why am I always in between pattern sizes? So now I need to redraft the cups which naturally affects the band and the bridge as well. Hopefully I won’t screw up what did work in the process! And while I’m at it, I’ll move the strap attachment over toward the middle a little. That’s my narrow shoulders’ fault. Bra straps never stay up on me. This is all just making me even more persistent. I’m just itching to have a bra that actually fits me. This time I’m going to cut into the “real” fabric and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Along with the BraMaker’s Manual from here, some good resources for bra-making and fitting:

http://www.foundationsrevealed.com/bra-making

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3729/the-bra-dilemma-solved/page/all

http://www.andsewitis.net/braclass/class_start.html

 http://www.herroom.com/solve-bra-size-and-fit-problems,909,30.html