Bra fitting help » Side boning digs in at bottom
Freya » Deco Moulded Strapless Bra (4233) » 28F 28:7
Issue resolved
Decided it's just the bra, not a size issue.
Original problem
My main problem is the side boning in the band. The bottom of it seems to curve under and dig into my ribcage. The top of the boning and underwire does not dig into my armpits, it's just at the bottom. The band fits me (although tight) on the loosest hook - the side view picture (I think it's the last picture) where my left breast is in front is taken without an extender. I added an extender for just a little bit more reach, and took the rest of the pictures with an extender, but doing so creates slight gapping at the top of the cups and does not fix the side boning digging into me. So I'm not convinced it's a band size issue. Otherwise the bra fits well and I've never had this problem before, so is it a shape issue? I don't have a perfect strapless, this is as close as I've got, but it gets painful after a couple of hours. I'm not sure what style to try next. I consider myself fairly shallow, FOB, somewhat wide set.
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Suggestions (2)
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helpful
Ouch, I can see where it stabs you! Perhaps this bra was manufactured by your enemy, who wants your blood?
It looks to me like there might be a mismatch between the cup depth of the bra and the measured horizontal perimeter of your breast. If I understand correctly, you want these measurements to roughly correspond. Right now you are shoving 12 linear inches of breast into 8 linear inches of cup. This could be pulling the bottom of the band too tight and causing the bottom of the boning to go into your flesh.
Can you try going up in cup size and doing a really good swoop-and-scoop?
(I am one to talk. I currently quadboob out of all of my bras. I swear I have ordered more in some bigger cup sizes.)
Updated on April 7, 2015 Flag this
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I am having a similar experience. I am used to being "fitted" into a 32AA and my measurements on here have recommendations right around 28DD. What the what?!? I have read that size shock is pretty common with newcomers so I'm trying to be open to some possibilities.
I am not completely sure about the measuring thing either. Hopefully someone will school me if I am wrong. When I measured my horizontal perimeter, I measured horizontally across/around a single breast (side through nipple to center) and tried to include everything that seemed like it should be encapsulated by a bra cup. It is sort of difficult to make that judgment call on the side by the ribs, like I could be off by an inch and not know it.
When I measured the inside across a bra cup, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The measurement of an actual breast should indicate that it will fit inside this cup. Wow, how did I not think of this before? Boobs are squishy and some bra cups are stretchy so there is probably some wiggle room, so to speak, but probably not 4 linear inches worth.
I agree that the cups don't look too small on you in the pictures. Does anything change if you do a scoop-and-swoop? This would decrease the tissue that is under the band, move it into the cup, possibly fix the band fit, and potentially give you quadboob. Either that, or re-measure?
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The size shock isn't killing me, I'm not brand new to realizing I might need an E or F or even FF... but G? Just unfathomable to me. If I s&s, I do quad-boob a bit on the left side, my bigger breast, and it does not fix the side boning digging into me :-( I did just re-measure, decided I was measuring too high into my ribcage and re-measured where I thought the bra underwire should stop. I came up with 10." But somehow I still feel like that's not a reliable way to predict bra size, even if logically it makes sense. My overbust, bra-less, leaning forward to let them hang free, is 36" and that is an 8" difference from 28" and more in line with the bras I've found most success with. But who the heck knows if those are correct either!!
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Hmmm. It looks like a lot of people have commented that they need to go up a band size in this bra.
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So I just measured my Fantasie smoothing strapless that is way too big in the cups, and it has a cup depth of 9.5" - only half an inch off the 10" of my last measurement. So I'm having a hard time buying into my horizontal measurement being a prediction of proper size... I do think a 30 band (in this deco style) would be more comfortable in terms of tightness (the extender helps) but the extender doesn't solve the side boning digging in. So frustrating, because otherwise I adore this bra! It's just painful!
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I hear you. My best fitting bra right now has issues and I don't even know. Ugh.
The Freya Deco Strapless (4233) is so pretty though, I wish it would work for you. Is there any chance of getting your hands on a 30F or even a 30FF just to see if the boning is any better?
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I'll have to stalk eBay for it, that's where I found this one... I live in the middle of nowhere 3 hours from the closest boutique and can't afford full price anyways ha ha. I've thought about trying a different size because I do love it so much. Guess I can resell it if the boning issue doesn't go away. I think I'll hunt for a 30F, considering these cups aren't too small as-is I'm afraid a 30FF would be too big.
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helpfulI wonder whether it could just be this one specific bra having a bit too much bulk in the sewn finish at the bottom of the boning, or whether this model is just not right for you? Sometimes just trying a different garment can fix the issue of one specific point causing an issue. But this particular bra certainly does look painful at the bottom of that boning. I know that this is probably a silly question, but did you try pulling the band upwards? Did this help at all? I was reading somewhere (goodness knows where) that the band on strapless bras does sit a bit differently due to different stress points, and that some are intended to have the top edge of the band more horizontal with the bottom edge tapering upwards, as opposed to bras with straps, where the bottom edge is meant to be horizontal and the top edge tapers down. This would obviously change the angle at which the side boning sits and might help with your problem. It would also alter the fit of the cups. Anyway, not sure if it's right, but I thought it might help. Happy bra hunting : )
Updated on April 8, 2015 Flag this
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Thanks! I'm pretty sure I've pulled it upwards but can try again today. I wondered if there's a way to bend the bottom part of the boning away from my body a bit to, to prevent that.
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It depends on what the boning is made from. If it is metal it can absolutely be bent outward a bit, but I think most side boning is plastic. In theory, plastic should be able to be bent, too. Heat would probably make it easier and less likely to break, but how to apply heat to the boning without damaging the fabric is a difficult question to answer without removing the boning first - speaking of which, have you tried the bra without the boning? Depends on whether or not you are prepared to attack the bra with scissors/seam ripper and/or use a needle and thread as to whether or not any of this is helpful
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Ooh! Good idea! No I haven't tried that, but I have done many an alteration to skirt waistbands made for "curvy" girls (which I am not), shirt straps that don't adjust short enough, and bra bands of years past when I was blind to both my actual size and the availability of such sizes and trying to alter larger bands down smaller. So if all it takes is removing a seam and I can pull that boning out and stitch it back up, I'm game. I don't think I really need it for extra support, especially not where it's placed.
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Soooo... I looked at the side boning again, and I don't think it's the actual boning poking me :-( The boning itself seems to be a long piece of plastic that stops above the part of the bra that really digs in. It seems like where the housing of the boning (the sleeve? tube? lol) and the bottom of the bra meet, the seam is just really thick, like there's what feels like a thick square of extra material and it just gets really painful. Ughhhh. I SO wish it could be fixed by a looser band but my extender does not seem to help.
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Alrighty, could you snip the end of the boning and make it shorter then cut away the extra channel fabric and make the channel shorter too, so that there isn't so much fabric down where it is digging in? It sounds like the sheer amount of fabric at that one point is the culprit, so maybe you can reduce it : )
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FMC - I'll look at the material and see what I think I can do about it. The thing I love about every strapless bra I've met is the wider/taller band. When I was on the VS bandwagon, all I ever wore was strapless/multi way, even in regular tees. I think it's because I have a small rib cage but I'm not bony so I have back fat, which I'm super self conscious about. Genetically I just carry my weight in my upper body. And strapless bras tend to have wider/taller bands for more support that hold that fat and my armpit fat in, whereas so many regular bras have skinnier bands or J shaped bands in the back that leave my back fat on display and give me "chicken wings" by my armpits. The lady at this boutique shop in the city told me once that any properly fitting band is going to give most people back/armpit fat. I gave her the side eye.
Some of that armpit fat might be breast tissue but any bra that's ever held that in has been too big in the cups. So I don't know if I'm super wide set and shallow and just barking up the wrong bratree or what. But I really want a bra that doesn't give me muffin-back, and strapless bands are the ones that do it. So naturally my instinct to wear this bra all day every day, and I just can't. I wore it around a couple days ago and got a good 4 hours before it got painful, so I need to just save it for when I really NEED it.
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LOL, you crack me up. I think I must have measured myself wrong maybe, because bratabase was spitting out sizes like 28GG and H and I cannot imagine filling those out! I actually have a Fantasie 30E that is 100% perfect on me except I'm afraid the band will stretch too much over time. So maybe I wasn't sure on the perimeter thing, because yes there is a huge mismatch between what I measured and what the bra measures, and what you said does make sense. But I don't quad-boob out of this bra at all, but I guess it could be pulling the band too tight. I love this bra other than this one painful problem, and I would consider trying to find a 28FF or 30F in it, if I thought that might help with the side boning digging in thing... but then if you look at my other pics I actually have some gaping at the top when I loosen this band with an extender. So I'm like, WTF? I had a raw red spot when I took it off last night - ouch for sure! I have the Fantasie smoothing strapless style in a 30F and the cups are laughably big on me, I should measure the cup depth of that one just to see how it compares to my current 12" horizontal measurement. I wasn't sure when I took that measurement where to stop on my side by the ribcage...