I mentioned on my instagram that my goal for me made may this year wasn’t really sewing related–it was to wean the babies in May (about 13 months) so that (among other reasons) I could wear clothes without thinking “can I nurse in this?” during this summer. My wardrobe is heavy on fitted short-sleeve dresses–which you decidedly can not nurse in–and cutting them out of my options all summer is hard. The one thing I was really feeling gloomy about was leaving my larger cup size behind! I never posted the handmade nursing bras I made here, only on instagram (I’ll have to fix that), but I went up a cup size and a band size from my first Black Beauty bra and was wearing a 30E over the past year. I knew that this larger cup size was not long for the world after we weaned and to cheer myself up I made this very cheery floral bra out of the leftovers from my recent dress!
This fabric was originally gifted to me by Minerva and after making my Roscoe, I had only a few little scraps left over. Good thing bras only use a few little scraps! This is an unmodified size 28DD with the foam lining, using bra materials from my stash and Erin’s orange underwires in size 34 (the style and size the pattern recommends). I love the combination of the bright floral with the nude straps and rose gold hardware.
The Black Beauty really fits me so well, but I do have a couple of issues I’d like to address eventually. The first is that I have a little bit of gaping at the top edge. I remeasured and this is the correct size but I’m going to try making the 28D next and see if I prefer the fit of that size. The second is that the powerbar cuts in vertically. I think I could add a bit of room along the edge of the powerbar and remedy this, but I’m more interested in leaving the powerbar off entirely. I don’t need the extra support, and it should be simple enough to just attach the strap to the top of the cup/the picot elastic as in the Berkeley bras I have made. That is my plan, as of now, for my next one–which I think will be just around the corner as I have a huge stash of bra supplies burning a hole in my pocket and a sadly cleared-out lingerie drawer!
xoxo,
allie
Here is my mandatory qualifier that people don’t generally understand bra sizing and think that DD = huge. I would have to disagree! 🙂 In non-Victoria Secret sizing, that DD just means there are 5″ of difference between your rib cage and full bust. My rib cage is 28″ so 5″ is…. a grand total of 33″. Nary a cup runneth over. Just a reminder to check your measurements and make sure you are wearing the right size bra!