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The beginnings of a custom bra?
Today I had a meeting with Linda of Linda's Lingerie (not to be confused with a certain infamous store in NY, USA). She does bra alterations and makes custom bras, and travels to different locations in Australia a couple of times a year, though she's based on the Gold Coast.
I was pretty happy with the meeting. I was a bit worried at first when she wrapped her tape measure loosely around me, shirt on and pronounced me a 10G, but she said that her measurements are really just for reference and that she's much happier working off existing bras and such.
I brought along basically every bra I own which has any semblance of fitting me in a bag, and we had a look at them and discussed my fitting issues. Basically, all wires are too wide, cups are too shallow at the gore but too tall/wide elsewhere, the straps are off my shoulders and such.
She said that she's done some courses related to mass production of bras and said that all bra cups are based on the wires and a hemispherical design, which is somewhat illogical when you get to large cup sizes and the wires are wide and wrap around you. Even if you have breast root on your sides (which I don't), you don't need the same cup depth at the side as at the front, and the apex of the bra should be placed according to your torso size!
After looking at my bras, I've sent my Cleo Meg with her to alter. It's a bit small for me these days, but the shape is quite nice and the design seems as though it would be quite supportive if we had better strap placement and such. I'm going to get a pattern based on the bra drafted, so I can use that to make my own bras, which was my goal. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll waste a lot of time and money on fancy equipment.
Linda's website didn't really impress me that much, but I think that's actually mostly because of poor/outdated web design. (Even though I couldn't see any on the site, she does make three part cups!) She was lovely and seemed to be quite knowledgeable. I'll certainly be reporting back on my pattern and altered bra.
Mum and I are planning to do a bra sewing course and get some help with the bra sewing basics, and then we can tackle my bra when we get a pattern for it. Watch this space. Or another space.
http://www.lindaslingerie.com.au/
http://www.lindaslingerie.com.au/
Filed under Bra sizing and fit
7 comments
I could not agree more! The cup system is a joke. I wrote a lengthy reply that I again decided not to post since I don't want to upset people. It took 3 hours and now I go back too sleep.
eliza - you can email me if you want. I'm interested to hear what you have to say and unlikely to be offended. If you don't still have my email, you can PM me for it.
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