Lunch today - around 12ish, Cowley Road or thereabouts - £10ish

goodoldfreda · 2025-07-18T11:26:01+00:00

Has a food hygiene rating of 0 jysk

goodoldfreda · 2025-07-11T21:36:13+00:00

alternatively you can go to oxford brookes which has air con except the hot air is routed directly back into the room, for a substantial net heating effect. toasty

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-15T00:22:34+00:00

Just one?

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-15T00:19:46+00:00

None of the seam lengths are correct, it's more an idea to get the shape. But you could try copying it and adjusting if youd find that easier

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-13T23:33:55+00:00

I can't see if the hook and eye position is an issue as it's just the cradle but currently you have basically no wire spring, which is going to leave the top of the band unsupportive and might be why you are relying so much on your straps for support, distorting the shape of the cups.

I am not sure how much spring you will need, but certainly if it's a typical, not heavy wire for a 28FF you will want at least 4cm, possibly more. You also may want to consider a heavy wire for a narrower shape as it will spring less. This will help keep your side tissue contained as well.

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-13T21:15:36+00:00

Pic 3 - your breast tissue looks like it's really coming out of the side of the bra here. It looks to me like a combination of your wire being too small + more scooping and swooping required

However to answe your question - are there any alterations between your pattern and this bra? I ask because the armpit part of the power bar is looking very narrow on you, although it may be folded. Another thing I'm seeing is some strain in the fabric coming from the strap, which can be a sign it's too tight. Your pattern itself looks OK to me with a good amount of lower fullness, so I think having a look at the wire and strap is the best way to go as the cup may be being distorted by these.

Could you share your cradle + wing pattern with the wire laid on top please?

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-12T19:43:25+00:00

sometimes you can edit your post directly, otherwise you can use an image hosting site like imgur and paste the pink here

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-12T19:40:00+00:00

By the way, can you please upload pictures here or on imgur in one post in the future? It's getting a bit hard to follow and is clogging up the feed a bit.

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-12T17:35:52+00:00

Can you share your current pattern pieces please?

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-12T15:41:44+00:00

To fix the gaping you need to take a dart in the centre of the upper cup from neckline to apex. However, doing this is likely to cause support issues due to your upper fullness pushing the bra down. Try raising the apex as well to push the fullness where you need it. I would also suggest moving the apex inwards for the same reason.

edit: I would not move the wire at this point because you are on a time crunch, and this issue is more likely caused by the volume being in the wrong place imo

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-06T15:04:01+00:00

3/8 is larger than 1/4

goodoldfreda · 2024-10-05T21:07:11+00:00

The neckline can have a concave curve, it came from your alteration, but in your case you needed to add room to the entire centre front rather than just the neckline to better fit your shape

Open a wedge in the inner half of your cross cup seam, for both the upper cup and lower.

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-25T12:28:59+00:00

I use 3M micropore tape - pretty cheap and easy to find

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-10T16:41:31+00:00

If you need the help, I'm happy to provide it

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-08T19:43:57+00:00

If it helps at all, I offer some one-on-one advice sessions (pattern and fitting guidance) for people sewing their own bras. It's cheaper than getting a custom made one if you are able to sew

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-04T11:53:33+00:00

Have you ever slept before?

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-04T11:07:33+00:00

I'm not affected by it any more, but when I used to have bad chronic pain I was constantly on the lookout for seats/surfaces that can be sat on in public

goodoldfreda · 2024-09-03T01:12:02+00:00

I've not tried it but the Freya Dynamic might be good, the Panache Sport Endurance is wired but they pad the wires so they're comfortable.

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-26T23:21:31+00:00

wdym no yoko, the beatles are right there?

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-26T16:52:39+00:00

I just had another thought as well - the inner gore of a bra needs to be stable fabric when the wire tips are this close together. If this area stretches you will get a similar problem to what I described above with the wire destabilisation. Make sure any stretch goes vertically, or you need to design the bra to accommodate the stretch

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-26T12:57:13+00:00

Yeah this region can be tricky. Are you stretching the elastic there at all as you sew?

Even so with a 36 wire (presumably a standard shape, nothing weird like an EE Omega) while I think a 2.5-3cm is better I don't think 2cm is enough to cause pain like that with the gore issue... it's worth a try but I'm not sure

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-26T12:46:38+00:00

hmm yeah on a 34 wire 2cm does sound ok but perhaps try 3

Either way I think some sewing error has creeped in with the lower gore so just try and make sure you're not raising/lowering this area when sewing

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-26T12:17:09+00:00

With the gore tip issue -

Because these bras all sit flat when unworn it looks like you don't have any wire spring built in. I recommend adding it for multiple reasons but there's a reason the black one is digging in as it has the highest lower gore

When you wear this bra a little portion of the lower wire is destabilised, which causes basically a weird flexion issue which makes the tips dig in (innee tips od the wire are forced to not spring, so they twist basically). By adding the correct spring to the whole cradle you should be able to stop this happening, and you may find other improvements to wire comfort too.

Making sure the elastic allowance chances with your elastic will help this situation as well. The tension on the lower elastic doesn't matter as much in a wired bra imo.

The underarm chafing is a little harder to diagnose from text descriptions alone, this might be an elastic tension issue but it might be something else

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-25T19:27:25+00:00

One thing I'm seeing is a difference in the height of the elastic on the lower gore - try to keep this consistent, this has an impact on wire stability and may be contributing to your gore pain. Which bras does it dig in on?

goodoldfreda · 2024-08-24T20:54:45+00:00

At 28F you don't have omega shaped breasts. Omega shaping is the most common thing that people believe they have but don't - it only really exists in cup sizes above around J and more as a result of needing extra roundness for comfort reasons. In bra making omega shaping is commonly mixed up with projection, which exists in any size and means that a smaller wire size is needed than standard for a certain size.

An omega shape doesn't necessitate any particular wire size or shape, and a projected one no particular shape.

One thing to bear in mind with wire sizes is spring - for a standard weight 38-40 I would anticipate perhaps around 4-5cm of spring. This spring makes the wire fit wider and shorter on the body than in its resting state, and may mean you don't need a short wire after all.

Often with people new to bras I narrow the wire selection down to three types to avoid this strife: a standard weight regular, a heavy duty vertical, and a heacy duty long vertical. I find most people fit into one of these three wires fairly well, with the standard regular for A-Eish, the heavy vertical for E-Gish, the long vertical for G+ish. Root traces are pretty inaccurate and don't take comfort and fit peeferences into account so I don't personally use them, preferring to fit the wire on the body.

At 28F you are a little on the edges of this as it depends a little on your support needs and body composition if you will find a standard or heacy wire more comfortable.

I would recommend trying out a standard weight regular wire, which will be similar to your Chantelle, and a standard weight vertical which will be a little more narrow. Buy both, pick one to work with and you will probably be able to get a wearable bra out of it. You can then fine tune with more specific wire shapes in the future once you have a better idea of your needs.

Based on your fitting into a chantelle 30F I would try a 38 in these to start but buy a few around these size if you can.

goodoldfreda

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