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More Band Shortening Adventures!
I've been playing some more with my PL Toffik, which is pretty much my official experimental bra, as it's not a great fit, and probably will never be a fabulous fit, so I don't feel too bad messing around with it to improve the fit.
When I initially fixed up the strap placement, I shortened the bra band a little by reducing it's stretched length, and it seemed okay, for all of about 2 days. I sewed in some more stabilising/anti-stretch panels, and that felt okay for all of 2 days again. I'm not sure whether it's the fact that I'm a glutton for incredibly firm bands, or whether EM bands just stretch out a lot upon wear. If my band isn't at the point of being almost uncomfortably firm on inhale, the weight of my breasts tends to drive the underwires at the front into my torso. My breasts are heavy, and without really firm band support, all that weight is focused on a very small part of my body.
I didn't really want to start chopping off bits of band, because I really wanted the straps to sit further in at my back, so I settled on a home-grown Rixie Clip type alteration. I've sewn on a second set of salvaged bra closures next to the first lot, further reducing the stretched length. I can now wear it on the loosest set of hooks of the second set, and I'm hoping that this will be firm enough for me to wear like this for a while.
I had to hand sew it, as my sewing machine is out of commission (it seems to have some kind of intermittent fault, which is the most irritating thing in the world), so I've just used small back stitch to secure the fastening in place. I haven't popped the stitches yet (as opposed to when I tacked it on to test for fit and they went flying within 30 seconds of fastening the bra), so I hope that it will hold up! I've included a picture of my (ugly) hand stitching in a non-matching colour. I need to get some more threads and stop trying to use the last bit of tapestry/embroidery kits for small alterations.
As a completely unrelated side note, which isn't quite big enough for an adventure of it's own. I have a bra which I ordered for my sister in my hands at the moment, and like all good Bratabasers, I've taken the measurements of it, and I'm planning to mark it as not owned. My question is though, should I set the fit on this bra? It's a 60G, so it hasn't got the slightest chance of fitting me. Do other people set fit of bras which they don't use?
imgur: the simple image sharer
http://imgur.com/lOBiE60
Filed under Bra alterations