How To Make A High-Cut Bra Lower-Cut

Have you ever put on a bra and thought that it would be so much cuter if it didn’t cover your whole chest up to your collarbone? I think we’ve all felt that way at some point. You might never have considered it, but it’s possible to change this. This alteration isn’t as simple as some of the ones I’ve posted about in the past, and it’s also not one that you can undo. So I’d recommend saving this alteration for bras that you can’t return, wouldn’t make money selling, and won’t wear unless they change.

This alteration is shown on the Freya Pippa, an older style. Here’s what it looked like to start with.

As you can see, that is just a lot of bra. There is no reason for it to come up so high on my chest, as I don’t even have any breast tissue there.

To start the alteration, position one cup of the bra in your lap. I find my knee is about the size of one boob (did I really just say that?) so it makes a good “dress form” for more advanced bra alterations.

Cut down and around the lace at a right angle, starting at the shoulder strap.

Can you see how the seam on the bra is right at the bottom of the lace, close to where you are cutting? If the bra you are altering doesn’t have lace at the top, you would want to cut right under the seam. The alteration would be trickier in that case, though, and harder to make it look nice. The lace on the Pippa and on many Freya bras helps conceal the alteration when it’s finished.

Now slowly and carefully cut down along the seam that goes diagonally down the cups. DON’T CUT ALL THE WAY.

You want to be able to position the lace so that the TOP of the lace is where the BOTTOM of the lace originally was, like this:

By doing this, you’ll lose about an inch of the excess height you don’t want. This will generally be enough to significantly change the look of the bra, but you can also go further, if you want. But cut ONLY until you can position it the way you want it without any wrinkling. Don’t cut any further. It will probably be about this far:

Now, hold the lace strip in position (this is where your knee comes in handy!) and TAPE it in place. Yes, tape it. 

It’s a good deal faster and easier than using pins to hold it in place while you sew. It will hold a lot better, even if you need to get up and pee or something and have to take the bra off your knee. Yes, you probably will need a thimble to get the needle through the tape and fabric. But this is an alteration best done by hand because of the curve of the bra, and this is the easiest way to make sure that it is perfect.

Now sew along the seam, starting in the middle of the cup where you stopped cutting, and moving towards the shoulder strap. Make sure you are sewing the seam you cut away from the bra TO the fabric still attached to the bra. Don’t just sew the lace and don’t just sew the fabric still attached to the bra, as that will of course accomplish nothing. The easiest way to do it is to literally sew along the stitches that formed the original seam.

When you get to the corner, take a ninety degree angle and sew up towards the strap.

Once you’ve tied off your thread, you can cut off the extra fabric, making sure not to puncture the lace.

Here’s one side done and the other side still undone.

What a difference!

The bra looks MUCH better from the front now. But for some bras (like the Pippa) it won’t change the shape from the side, which I found was still quite pointy. 

But don’t worry—this isn’t the end of the road for the Pippa! There is still hope.

Stay tuned for Monday's post—How to make a pointy-shaped bra give a round shape!

What To Do With Your Hideous Work Uniform

In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been doing the past two weeks I haven’t posted, I started my summer job at the beginning of June and have been CRAZY busy. I work in the office at a summer resort, and since I am the only returning staff member, I had to train the five new people joining my department. In addition to this, we host weddings in the early season, which can be very chaotic and difficult to keep organized. Since I didn’t wanted to leave the new girls alone with anything too complicated until they were ready, I was working loads of extra hours. Throw in a really slow internet connection and that should hopefully explain my two-week absence. Anyway, I’m here now.

My job requires everyone to wear a uniform, and for the office, that means a navy blue polo shirt. For some reason, the sizing for these polo shirts is just crazy. I also choose an Extra-Small, but even men’s sizing doesn’t explain the sheer vastness of this Extra-Small:

It’s not like I am a particularly tiny person; I typically wear a women’s size Medium. This “Extra-Small” is comparable to a normal Men’s Medium or Large. This leads to a conundrum. The whole point of having a uniform is so that we look presentable in the office. But wearing a tent-like polo is the opposite of presentable. So I have to take matters into my own hands.

The alteration I’m going to describe is really simple. It hardly even deserves a tutorial. But I think the pictures speak for themselves in terms of the amazing difference a simple alteration can make. You can do this alteration by hand or by machine, so anyone who has a basic idea of how to sew can do it. It’s obviously a lot faster on a machine but of course not everyone has access to one. I used to do this alteration by hand all the time before I had my own sewing machine.

First, turn the shirt you are altering inside out. Make sure that it is lying flat with no wrinkles, and pull it so that the side seams are all on the side (most shirts have a seam along each side, but if the shirt you’re altering doesn’t have one, just make your best guess for where the sides should lie). Now, select a shirt you already own that fits you well and has a similar level of stretch to the shirt you are altering. Turn that one inside out too and arrange the side seams so they are perfectly on the sides. Lay it on top of the shirt you’re altering, making sure that the shoulders are at the same level.

Now, trace the edges of the smaller shirt onto the larger one. 

I use a special white crayon/pen that supposedly can write on anything, but you can use a regular pencil for a light-colored shirt, or for a dark-colored shirt, you can use any light or bright shade of eyeliner. (Buying a $1 white or lavender-colored eyeliner pencil made by NYC at your local pharmacy, supermarket or Wal-Mart is probably cheaper than finding the same kind of marks-anything crayon/pen that I have, which I stole from my mom seven years ago.) Don’t use a pen or marker because that will permanently mark the shirt and the ink can bleed, while cheap eyeliner tends to evaporate or come off in the wash.

There are various schools of thought on what to do with the armpits. I tend to take the lazy route and just flare out to where the armpit seams lie.

If the shirt you are altering also has massive sleeves, though, you can also take in the sleeves by simply tracing the smaller sleeves of the shirt that fits. It wasn't necessary to do that for this polo, though, so here are the lines I traced:

Now, just sew a simple seam right along the lines you’ve traced. When you’re done, try on the shirt. Keep in mind you are going to have a lot of extra fabric bunched up inside where you took it in, so the fit will be a little looser once you’ve cut that off. With that in mind, decide if the shirt is too big, too small, or just right. If it’s not right, make adjustments; you can take out the seam you’ve put in with a seam ripper or with a pair of scissors and a lot of patience. If the fit is correct, turn the shirt inside out again and just cut off the extra fabric. I usually leave about half an inch between the seam I sewed and where I cut to prevent fraying. If you are altering something especially nice and you’re feeling nervous, you don’t have to cut the extra fabric off at all. But I’ve found the alteration isn’t much use if I don’t cut off the extra, because then all the fabric bunching up inside ruins the look anyway. But do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

And here’s the result:

Before and after:

From frumpy to polished in a ten-minute alteration! I do this alteration to all kinds of clothes. I do it with dresses, tank tops, and even sweaters. I did it to every single thing I owned one time when I lost weight. I can’t even guess at how many  hundreds of dollars this has saved me over the years.

Do You Want A Sheer Bra Up To A K Cup?

Are you disappointed with the “extra lining” that plagues bras above a G cup? Do you long for a sheer bra that actually comes in your size? Well, it’s possible… but you’ll have to get crafty!

I really like the look of bras that are sheer all over, not just on the top section, because I think it is more flattering when all three sections are the same. In the past, I’d experimented with cutting the extra lining out of a G+ Freya Arabella and had great success because the outer mesh has no stretch whatsoever, so the shape and support weren’t compromised by the removal of the inner opaque layer. But the Arabella isn’t a good shape for me, so I’d sort of given up on making it work. For some reason, I’d never considered cutting the lining out of a different bra—until recently, when I realized that just because a bra has opaque layers in all the cup sizes, doesn’t mean that it couldn’t still become a sheer bra!

The bra I made into a sheer bra was the Panache Confetti, but I think there are many bras that could potentially be made into a sheer bra. They just need to meet several requirements:

-The bra will need to have two layers, an outer layer of see-through mesh or lace (which is often the only layer on the top section) and an inner layer of a non-see-through fabric. These layers need to be separate. Sometimes they get stuck together and you can pull them apart (which is as fun as popping bubble wrap), but in certain bras the layers are fused together and can’t be separated—you can’t perform this alteration on a bra like that. It can sometimes be possible to cut out padding—I know one person who cut out the padding of the Masquerade Anise because it is only attached in a few places to the outer lace. In my experience it is mostly Panache and Cleo bras that are made like this, with two layers--I can't think of any Freya bras other than the Arabella that have two layers. I know a lot of Bravissimo's own-brand bras have two layers, but I'm not sure whether the layers are separate or not.

-The outer mesh or lace (they layer that will remain once you’ve cut out the inner layer) must be non-stretch or have very little stretch. If the outer layer is stretchy (like in many Curvy Kate bras) the bra won’t be able to support you without the inner layer, so avoid trying the alteration on any bras like that. Make sure you test the stretch of the outer layer by tugging it in all directions—up and down and also diagonally. If all it has is some slight diagonal stretch but not too much, it is probably fine. The mesh on the Arabella literally has no stretch at all, so it’s probably the best bra to do this with. The mesh on my Confetti isn’t quite as rigid, but it doesn’t stretch more than very slightly in any direction, so I figured the shape and support wouldn’t change much by removing the inner lining, which is actually a bit more stretchy than the outer mesh.

-Don’t perform this on any bra that you are too attached to, that you paid a lot for, or that you might want to sell later—unless you are okay with the fact that it might fail and not be salvageable. This is just my typical warning that this is an alteration that you perform at your own risk. It worked well for my Confetti and Arabella, but the results are likely to be somewhat unpredictable on other bras or with other sizes/colors of even the same bras I used, so I really wouldn’t recommend trying this except on a bra that you are not too attached to and aren’t planning to sell. Bras that you’ve gotten for a low price and can easily replace are probably the best candidates; or if you have a bra that’s worn out that you want to turn in to a bedroom bra, that could also be a good candidate.

The actual cutting out of the lining is not complicated, but it is tricky. What you want to do is cut along the seams without nicking the outer layer—if you do cut into the outer layer by mistake, it can compromise the structure of the bra and be difficult to repair, so proceed slowly and carefully.

To start with, make sure the outer layer is fully separated from the inner layer. Then pull the inner layer towards you while pulling the outer layer away from the underwire in the other direction, like so:

Now make a tiny cut in the inner layer. Start small! This first cut is tricky because you’re cutting “blind” and can’t see inside, between the two layers, yet. Don’t worry about trying to get too close to the underwire or the seam with this first cut:

Now, carefully put the scissors into this cut and, while making sure that the outer layer is nowhere near the scissors, cut towards the wire or seam. Proceed to cut all the way around. It’s easiest to do so while simultaneously pulling the outer layer away from where you’re cutting. Be extra careful when turning "corners" between the underwires and the seams or between two seams. 

Just make small cuts and keep readjusting so you can be sure you are only cutting the inner layer. Don’t worry about getting TOO close to the underwire and seams—as long as your cuts are smooth, leaving a little extra space will just make the non-sheer seams a little wider in the final appearance. And make sure you don’t cut too far into the seams, too! If you cut over the thread that keeps them together, the whole bra might disintegrate.

 Now, repeat this with the other sections. You will have to do the two bottom sections on each cup separately, of course, because otherwise you would compromise the seams.

Final result:

I think it comes out looking quite nice on the Confetti because of the floral embroidery that really stands out against the sheer mesh. I think I would also be able to do this alteration on my Cleo Brooke, Bonnie, or Lucy, but I don’t think they would end up looking as nice so I will be sticking with just my Confettis for now. 

The support is not quite as good as before I cut out the lining, but I am able to get the proper amount of lift by shortening the straps. The black Confetti is a J-cup, but in a 28 band. I'm not sure how removing the lining would work out on larger cups in terms of still getting the right support (remember that a 32J is bigger in the cups than a 28J!) but it seems to work pretty well at least at my fairly high cup size. The less stretch there is in the outer layer, the better this alteration will work.

The shape I get in the bras is still nice. I do find I get a bit of bulging above the seam in the top section of the cup, which is odd because that didn’t happen before, but when changing the structure of a bra this radically, one must be prepared for weird surprises! I’m happy with the results—I wouldn’t wear these newly sheer bras for any really strenuous activities, but so far they have proved functional for a normal, low-key day. I think it will be a big relief to have something so light in the summer when it gets really hot and I have to work in a non-air-conditioned office. 

Adventures in Showgirl: Curvy Kate's "Thrill Me" and "Tease Me"

I already positively reviewed Curvy Kate’s Tease Me bra, but since I owned it in the rather outdated size of 30H, I decided to update my collection recently with a couple of 28Js—two Tease Mes and a Thrill Me. The past-season colorways are still available for good prices on Brastop and Lovebras, plus if you’re in the UK you can find them in certain sizes on Amazon for good prices.

The fit is pretty similar between the two styles of bra, but to be honest I have always had a bit more trouble fitting into the Thrill Me (the one with ruffles). It doesn’t exactly run smaller, this is down to very subtle differences in shape, and most people who have tried both seem to have one or the other that they prefer.

With both these Showgirl styles, I always find it a bit of a wiggle to fit into it at first. Most people like to size up in Showgirl, but since I already wear the biggest size in this range, I can’t. Plus, after a few days’ wear, these bras seem to loosen up a bit and fit me better. However, I still do need to re-adjust a couple times a day. The reason I put up with that is the superior shape offered by the construction of the cup. They are fairly low-cut bras, but with a much higher gore than plunge bras like the Freya Deco, so it’s a balance that I love—they show more skin, but less cleavage. (Still more cleavage than I get in my normal unpadded bras, don’t get me wrong, just not as much as I get in the Deco.)

One hilarious and depressing thing I discovered this winter was the fact that when it’s cold and windy, my boobs go numb (which HURTS) unless I wear a padded bra. So I bought these Showgirl bras to wear as normal, everyday bras, and they do work for that—depending on the clothes you wear them with. The Thrill Me, since it has ruffles, is only suitable for wear under a double layer of tight clothes (ie cami and stretchy top) or something tight and thick-knit like a form-fitting sweater. I also personally wouldn’t wear the Tease Me under anything other than a double layer of tight clothes, just because A. that’s really all I wear and B. because my boobs are full on top, I like to have something holding me down where these bras don’t cover.

I LOVE the back bands on these bras. This is a big deal for me; I hate the back band on every other bra I own! The bands on the Showgirls have a firm stretch all over—they don’t have that pesky tighter strip of elastic, enemy of back fat, on the bottom of the band. A lot of people find that they prefer to go down a band size in Showgirl bras to get a firmer fit, but I’ve never found this. I think the reason it works for me in my normal band size is that it’s a little wider (3 hooks, yay!) and situated a tiny bit lower on the cups than many other bras, so it sits a bit lower on my back, where my ribs are. My ribs are a little bigger than my underbust, so the 28 band works well for me even if it is a tiny bit more stretchy than your normal band. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that people go down a band size; I’d say only if you’re between sizes or like a really tight band. I would, however, recommend that you try going up a cup size if your boobs are full on the bottom—there is very little volume in the bottom section of these cups.

Now, when I got my ivory/black Thrill Me from Amazon, it wasn’t exactly the most perfect bra I’ve ever seen. Notice anything odd?

The ribbon was missing from one side! At first I planned to return it as faulty, but it had been the last one available in my size, it was very cheap, plus I realized if I sent it back they would probably just throw it out. So I decided to just put in a ribbon and sew it into the corners. I actually used the ribbon from the long bow on my worn-out ivory Panache Confetti, since it was the right color and width.

This wasn’t the only issue with my Thrill Me, though. As a much older colorway, the ivory/black is fabled to run almost a cup size larger than other colorways made at the same time. This manifested itself in an odd way—I got a lot of gaping, something that has never happened to me before.

But I figured this would be an easy fix, too—the ribbons going across the cups (one of which I had just added) simply needed to be tightened a bit. I just pulled them a bit tighter, folded them at the upper corner, and stitched the fold into place.

And voila! The gaping was much improved.

I still feel, in general, that this specific Thrill Me (perhaps the colorway, or perhaps just this one lonely faulty one I happen to own) isn’t as reliable as my Tease Mes. The Tease Me lacks the ruffles that makes the Thrill Me a bit tricky to wear, and I find it a bit more basic and workable in general. But BOTH styles suffer from a design flaw—the part of the band that runs under the cups in front has a very sharp, stiff edging, which rolls in toward my body and cuts in horribly, to the point of shooting pains. I eventually decided it wasn’t worth it to put up with this in hopes that it would stop happening once I’d broken in the bras, so I decided to try a quick fix. I simply rolled the edging up and out, so it folds towards the outside, and stitched it in place. I imagine if I’d spend a bit more time, I could have made this look a bit nicer than the sloppy way I did it…

But hey, compare the before…

…to the after!

The sharp edging is now nowhere near my skin and the bras are wearable.

Now, it may sound like I’ve had to do so much work on these bras that they aren’t worth buying. But don’t worry! All of these alterations were quick fixes, took less than ten minutes, didn’t require any materials other than needle and thread, and can be easily undone with no damage to the bra if I should decide to re-sell them used later (unlike my alterations on the Princess). Plus, the fix I did on the edging under the cups is something that not everyone will need to do, as not everyone has a problem with the edging rolling in towards them. It just depends on your body and how you move. But it is a very easy fix for anyone who loves the Thrill Me/Tease Me and wants to make it a bit more wearable for everyday.

One last note, I wanted to try to show you what the true color of the Silver/Back Tease Me is. It's another of those bras that seems to look different in every photo (sometimes it's indistinguishable from the Lemon/Black, the Almond/Black, or even the Pink/Black). This was my best attempt to capture the color on camera, but it's still less pink-toned than this in real life--more gray than shiny silver, which is what I'd wanted. You can also see that the alteration, even though I did it a bit haphazardly, isn't very noticeable when you see the whole bra!

What To Do With Those Pesky Wide Underwires

When I talked about breast/bra shapes, I mentioned that wider underwires can be used to create an hourglass shape from the front that looks more minimized from the side. Not everyone seeks this shape, but for those who do, wider underwires are a pretty easy way to achieve it. They’re also good to wear if some of your breast tissue has gotten squashed into your armpit through years of wearing poorly-fitted bras. What's more, if you wear a very high cup size, you may find that ALL bras have wide underwires whether you want them or not.

But you may be left disappointed because wide underwires can be SO PAINFUL! When you buy a bra, the underwires are flat—you may have read articles expressing frustration with the fact that women aren’t shaped like this:

The thing is, although women are not triangular, they also aren’t flat across the front:

 The flat shape of underwires is all wrong for the curved shape of a human torso. If you find your underwires cut into your sides or the front of your ribs, there’s a miracle fix—just bend your underwires into the shape of your body. You’ll probably experience amazing relief in the way your bra feels around your body. You also may become enraged that bra manufacturers never thought of doing this simple favor for their customers.

How do to it:

Put on your bra and find the point on the bottom of the underwire where your torso begins to curve back around.

Take off the bra, and bend the wire at that point. You do have to use a bit of force to bend it so the metal will keep the shape, but be slow and gentle—you don’t want to bend too much at one point. Keep moving along the wire and bending, so the curve will be gentle. You don't actually have to curve the underwire very much to make a difference. Only about this much:

Now, try on the bra again. If the front section now feels unnaturally flat, you can add a slight curve to that by gently bending it. If the underwires now cut in between your boobs or on your sides, you can also very slightly bend out the last inch or two, so it will no longer poke you.

Now your bra is shaped like a person!

A few words of caution: I do this to all my bras and I have never had any problems with underwires breaking or slipping out. But it is definitely an alteration that you do at your own risk; make sure you are totally set on keeping the bra before bending the underwires, since you may not be able to bend them back if you change your mind and want to return it. Also, there may be some bras out there that have underwires that wouldn’t bend, but would break. According to my experience, you should be fine doing this with any Curvy Kate, Panache, and Freya bras, at least. Finally, although I think it MIGHT be possible to bend the underwires on a molded bra (I’ve never tried it), this fix is best suited to non-padded styles.

Cleo "Lucy" Review

I’m planning to do more reviews of bras in the new year. I’ll focus, of course, on bras available in small band sizes and up to the highest cup sizes, since that’s what I have to wear. I’ll start with one of the few bras I like enough to own in multiple colors, the Cleo Lucy. It's a bra that I really appreciate while still having some grievances with it. I still consider the Cleo Lucy to be the closest I’ve come to that elusive "perfect bra", but I also want to draw attention to its flaws.

The Lucy is a bit of a hybrid shape-wise. It has the wider underwires typical of Panache and Cleo bras, but the fabric structure of the cup bears more similarities to Bravissimo’s Alana bra. While many Panache and Cleo bras have a softer upper section that isn’t meant to do any shaping, the Lucy’s upper section is tighter and has stiff lace along the top. Because of this, I had to take in the center gore to avoid major quadraboob. Fortunately, the Lucy has a rather wide center gore to start with, so there is lots of room for this alteration. As you can see, on my older-season coral Lucy in 28HH, the alteration I had to do was so severe that it made the bra look a little ridiculous from the front:

However, I didn’t have to take in as much of the center gore on my white or black Lucy bras. The newer ones seem to not be as tight at the top as the older coral version.

I have the pink and the white in 28HH, and the black in a 28J. I normally wear a 28J, but I feel a bit like I’m swimming in this 28J—the cup fits perfectly, but the underwire goes back MUCH further, which is totally unnecessary and obnoxious. Plus, I still needed to alter the center gore. The 28HH versions fit better and have much narrower underwires, but I would prefer if they were a bit bigger in the cup, so I think I’m between sizes in this bra. If you’re between cup sizes normally, I would recommend choosing the smaller size to avoid the underwires of Doom. However, as you can see, the Lucy gives a very round shape in either size. The black 28J is clearly giving less uplift in the middle photo, but since the cup is bigger, I can tighten the straps to improve the shape without cutting in.

The Lucy also only has two hooks in the back, which bothers me. 

I find that this tends to cause the back band to cut in more because it is so narrow. If you like two-hook fastenings, you’ll be pleased to know that the Lucy has just two hooks all the way up to a J cup. Personally, I think it’s a stupid design choice because the back band is supposed to be providing so much support, and I wish they would update the design to have three hooks.

I'm not the world's hugest fan of the flower embroidery on the top of the cups. I do, however, love the little dots along the top of the cup, and I think they look really cute peeking out from under a loose, low-cut top. 

One more flaw I want to highlight is that the Lucy is a tough bra to break in. My pink one was pretty uncomfortable for the first month or so that I had it—the section of band right where it meets the bottom of the cup has a sharp edging that tends to rub a lot. After owning it for a few months, though, it’s become one of my most comfortable bras and the back band hasn’t loosened up much, unlike most bras I have. I’m assuming my newer Lucy bras will undergo a similar process but I’m bummed at the thought of the discomfort I’ll have to go through until then. No matter what you believe about breaking in bras, I still don’t think it’s necessary to make them with materials that can cause pain.

I think if you’re used to the shape Panache and Cleo bras give, you will probably have to alter this bra to get that same shape, but once you do, it’s one of the best. And if you’re suited to the shape the Lucy gives without alteration—a shape more common with certain Freya and Bravissimo bras—you probably won’t like the Lucy’s wider underwires. That said, it’s still a bit of a compromise between the purple and green types of shapes I talked about in my last post, so for people between the extremes, this could definitely be a crowd-pleaser. I would recommend this bra to a friend, but only with several stipulations.