After a few bras, I made a call to Bra-Makers Supply with a question. You see, every bra I wore, whether RTW or one I’d made, all left a line or imprint about an inch or so under the bust line. I was simply wondering what caused this.

Beverly, the owner of Bra-Makers Supply, and author of two manuals on bra-making gave me my answer: the underwires I was using were either too big or too small. She said the best way to check the size of the underwires was by lifting my arm over my head.

I was off to the bedroom to stand in front of the mirror to test this new bit of information. And to my surprise and dismay, my underwires did NOT fit me. They were quite a bit too big. I had been wearing a size 44 wire. It was the same size as had been in the RTW bras I’d bought – I know, I took them apart.

So now I had to find out what size of wire I needed. I ordered a few wires to see what would fit. It turns out there are 4 sizes difference between what fits me and what I was wearing! But the cups were fitting correctly, so what did this mean?

This image shows the difference in the wire sizes between what I had been using and what I am using now.

Well, I went back to my very-well-used manuals: The Bra-Makers Manual Vol 1 & 2. Both manuals explain about one particular fitting problem described as an Omega shape. This shape is smaller at the base (hence why a smaller wire is needed). The manual also gives some information on fitting for this. I had to alter things again – but this time it wasn’t the pattern.

I really can’t recommend these manuals enough. After my first attempt at bra-making, I had a fitting issue. I went to the manuals and saw what I needed to change AND how to do just that.

My first alterations were to shorten the underarm area both in the upper and lower cup. That gave me a very good fit.

This photo shows how I shortened the underarm area. My cup pattern is on top, the original pattern is on the bottom. I did this both to the upper and lower cups at the under arm.

Now I was going to attempt changing the wire size. This now meant I had to put a larger cup into a smaller wire frame. For this, I’m having to build some ‘ease’ into the cup. To do this, I either run some gathering stitches around the lower outside edge of the cup or put small darts at seam lines – which I like better.

This has given me the best fit yet. But I still have one little area I want to correct. Now that the fit is almost perfect for me, I’m noticing I need to bring in the apex a little bit.

I think that will be the next project.

Happy creating!