Saving The Princess

About a month ago I wrote a review of the Curvy Kate Princess bra, and how even though I loved the way it looked, I couldn’t get the right fit. Since then, I decided to commit to owning the red Princess I got from Brastop and try a few alterations that would make it wearable for me.

Altering a bra can always feel a bit risky because once you’ve done it, you can no longer return the bra if it still doesn’t work. For instance, I wish I would have returned my Panache Melody instead of altering it, as it still doesn’t fit right and it doesn’t look good on me. But there are other bras that I’ve managed to truly transform through alterations, taking them from ill-fitting to perfect, so I’m still willing to take the risk sometimes.

The first thing I did to the Princess was cut the tiny ribbon that goes across the top of the cups. I had found that no matter what I did, this ribbon cut into my boobs, but I also noticed that the rest of the embroidery and detailing in that area was actually slightly stretchy, so cutting the ribbon fixed the problem entirely. I cut it in the upper corner next to the strap, and since it looked a little odd with it taken out entirely, I just left the ribbons threaded through but unattached at the top. With the bra on, it lays where it should and isn’t very noticeable.

The bra technically fit me after cutting the ribbon, but I still wasn’t a huge fan of the shape, so I altered the center gore, as I do on almost all of my bras to make them fit better to my shape. 

I’ve found that this alteration looks much neater in Panache and Cleo bras because the center gore is wider to begin with. In Freya and Curvy Kate bras, the cups are already placed so close that putting them closer together makes the underwires overlap each other and get a bit warped:

This wasn’t the end of the world for me, though, as the center gore did still lie on my breastbone, and the alteration made the shape from the side look AWESOME:

For comparison, here's a photo of an unaltered Curvy Kate Princess in the same size (28J) but in black. Notice how much less lift the bra gave. 

My final problem was that the band was now too tight. I find the Princess has a fairly tight band anyway (a good thing!) but the alteration on the center gore took off almost two inches of that length—so it was technically now a 26 band! Since I do measure about 28” around, the tightness was painful, so I decided to investigate the world of bra extenders. I was able to find some very cheap ones on eBay that came in lots of colors and options of 2 hooks or 3 hooks. I ordered a red one and I’ve been using it with my Princess. 

This final step made my Princess truly flattering and wearable and I’ve been wearing it more than any of my other bras. I don't know if I would buy the Princess again, as I had to do so much work just to make it fit me, but I'm really glad I committed to altering this one. I just love the look of red lingerie--I think it can be much sexier than black, as black is so often used as a basic or continuity color. I’m really glad I was able to make this bra work for me, and I hope this can be encouraging for anyone with stubborn boobs and the desire to have fun with scissors and thread.