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starting fresh... this is gonna be pretty long
I've been wearing DD+ and sub 32 bras since 2011, so I wouldn't say I'm that new to bra fitting. I ended up going extreme in thinking I needed the tightest bands, shortest straps, and biggest cups in order to be supported. I felt that I needed to scoop and swoop as much tissue as possible and that I needed to cover my whole chest. I'm not really sure why I felt this way, maybe a lack of body confidence? Anyway, I posted a while back that I realized I was doing it wrong.
My current bras are better, but I feel like they're still not 'right'. I would post fitting help for them all, but I don't want to post too many fit checks at once. I'm wearing 28J - Cleo » Bonnie (6191) , 28J - Cleo » Brooke (5141) , 28J - Cleo » Lucy (5851) , 28J - Cleo » Bella Balconnet Bra (7001) , and 28J - Panache » Confetti Underwire (4071) . Okay, now on to my fit issues.
Bonnie's band felt a bit loose at first, and the wires and gore were too wide. The cups were also too tall. I sewed the gore closer together, and I folded the tops of the cups and tacked them down. Bringing the gore in made the wires narrower and the band felt better. I feel like the depth of the cups is good and I'm worried going down a cup size would make them too shallow (I think that's the word for it). I can post pics of my alterations on imgur if needed.
The band on the Brooke is too tight. I can fasten it but it feels restrictive. If I wear it with an extender the straps are too far apart in the back. The wires are narrow enough for me but a bit tall near my armpits. My main issue with Brooke is that the wires cut into right under my boobs to the point that I can't wear it for more than a few hours. I'm not sure why this is. It leaves my infra-mammary fold red and sore and I get bumps that look like pimples but aren't. I also can't fill the bottom all the way no matter how high I try to pull it up I have like a fold in the cups.
Lucy fits well in the band but the wires are too wide and I think they're being pulled back. I think this means the band is too small, but if I wear an extender I don't feel as supported. The top of the cups cut it at first but I think I was over scooping again. I've been wearing it to where I just do a normal scoop and swoop and they don't cut in. The cups are a bit tall at the top. Also with an extender I can adjust the wires to be narrow enough but the cups wrinkle on top a bit. I'm wondering if this bra would be better in a 30H.
Bella's band felt too tight/short at first. The week that I got it I ended up sick and lost a couple of pounds and now I can wear the band on the loosest hook comfortably. The wires are narrow enough. I get wrinkling in the bottom of the cups and no matter how much I try to pull the wires into my infra-mammary fold the wrinkles are still there. The straps also fold inward at the armpits if that makes sense.
Confetti's wires and gore seemed too wide. I sewed the gore closer together and I can adjust the wires narrow enough now. The straps near my armpits cut in if I lift my arms, so I get the arms sawed off feeling. I have large areolasand the tops of them creep up over the seam the connects the top of the cup to the bottom. This makes a small bulge, in cup quadraboob I guess.
All the gores on my bras sit flat, my bands don't ride up, and my straps don't fall down. So those aspects of bra fitting are okay. I've seen a lot of comments on fit requests suggesting sizing down in the cup and up in the band to get narrower wires and a more comfortable fit. I'm hesitant to do this without some feedback first. I have a small budget for bra buying and always have to shop sales/eBay. That's why most of my bras are from past seasons.
My boob info:
Breast shapes
-High on chest
-Narrow shoulders
-Big areolas
-Close boobs
-Full on bottom
-Full on top (I've listed both because my shape is even)
-Round
Measurements in inches
-Comfortable ribcage 28
-Loose ribcage 32
-Tight ribcage 26.5
-Horizontal perimeter 13.5
-Vertical perimeter 12.5
-Laying perimeter 13
-Nip 2 Neck 9.5
-Breast base 7.5
-Frame width 11
-Bust perimeter 41
-Hips 41
-Waist 29
-Height 5'1" (possibly 5'0", my measurement may not be that accurate)
Basically I just want some help/advice. I've been hesitant before to ask for help. Thanks in advance, and I'm sorry for how long this is. Like I said, I don't wanna clog up the fit request section.
edit: I fixed it to where my pics show up when you click on the links up there ^
Filed under Bra sizing and fit
5 comments
I wonder if a more "Polish" fitting method would be good for you? That is, you can go up in the band some when you have narrower wires. Have you gotten to try anything in, say, 65HH in Ewa Michalak, maybe?
I haven't tried EM or any other polish brands mostly because I don't know which size to try. The most I can afford to spend on one bra is $30 so that's also made me hesitant to try Polish brands.
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