Do you ever do something, and then wonder, What was I thinking?’ Well, I was either over-thinking or not thinking at all!

Here’s the lovely bra I made:

You saw a bit of this last week. It’s lovely, the fit is pretty good. I’m still not quite getting the bridge back to the chest wall (Grrrr!), but it’s almost wearable.

Almost. Did you notice that. I did wear it and here’s what my problem was: the underwire was flipping up at the front under the bust and twisting along the bottom of the bra! What? This was a completely new one for me. I had no idea what wasn’t working. And it made it a bit uncomfortable.

So a call to Bra-Makers Supply and a question for Beverly. It kind of felt like deja vu – her answer was similar to one from a long time ago in my journey – something was either too big or too small. Last time it was the wires, this time the cradle.

And yes, duh! The cradle was too big. I have no idea what I had been thinking but I did not use a 38 cradle – used a 44 and folded it to take away some of the width. I eye-balled it, but clearly not well enough. There was an inch in there that needed to come out. It should have been so simple – use a 38 cradle and make it the same length as the 44.

So, one bra that is in the pile to take apart and redo. I don’t love fixing my mistakes, so I have a pile of them and they wait for me. That bra is now in the pile. I’ll pin a note to it so I don’t forget why it’s there.

So, this week, I made a tester for my friend. Thankfully, she is an easier fit than me. Her cup and wire size match. That makes it a LOT easier. However, I did up a 30 F for her, and the band is too big and cup too small. I do know her wire size, so I can figure out where to go from here for her.

One thing she commented on, that I haven’t loved either – she wanted more lift in the cup. I understand that – I need all the help I can get.

So, off to the drawing board again. I know from the Bra-Makers manuals that the straighter the upper cup, the more lift the cup has. Hmmmm. I thought about the patterns I have with a really straight upper cup. But none of them are ‘classic’ patterns.

I used what I knew from making my own Shelley pattern from the Designer Bras By YOU! CD, and did it backwards.

I used my Sewy Rebecca upper cup and put it together with the powerbar from the pattern.

Then I re-drew it.

I added the strap tab, and gave the top a nice smooth curve rather than the straight edge for lace. On this one (which is reversed, sorry) I also took in the under arm.

Here’s the tester I did with my new pattern:

It’s almost there. I tried this one before I did any adjustments just to see how it would fit. I found out I did need to take in the underarm in both the upper and lower cups, take in a bit of the length at the wire line, and add a bit to the bridge depth. So, I’ve adjusted my pattern, and I’m off to cut out my new pattern.

I do have another pattern that has an ever straighter upper cup, so I may do this same technique with that pattern this week too.

Happy creating!