By: Babs Woods

Tips on making nursing bras


    On the subject of "has anyone been designing a better bra",
further, and to tie in with others in the part of the bra discussion
on nursing bras, someone mentioned the brand name of the nursing
bra I had used.  I went, for what must be the millionth time, and
looked at the one good one of the two I had originally bought, and
found that it is:

Leading Lady Nursing Bra, Style 488 (36G)
(100% cotton single-knit (t-shirting) in two layers throughout, flaps,
cups and chestband)

    I then measured the underwire:  6-3/4" wide by 5-1/2" deep.
The wire it actually uses measures up against Sew Sassy's 921-1
44B/42C/40D/38DD (7" X 4-1/2"), measured without opening up the
garment but laying out wires until the one that comes closest to
a match.  This one matches exactly, but the size designation is
much bigger.  Note that the garment is sized as 36G.  This comes
to a rough translation of 38DD/36E-F, but it's the right physical
size.

    Anyway, why am I writing this?  For a good 6+ years I've been
trying to figure out how to make a nursing bra (and countless years
before then I had set my sights on just making a proper-fitting
bra to begin with).  I'm having some success with not only finding
underwires to use without recycling, but with a pattern I originally
copied from RTW and have been playing with recently.  I then went
over to my one surviving nursing bra and made the one alteration to
the ordinary bra pattern envelope I hadn't made before.  In a
previous post earlier today I wrote about working with a 3-pce cup
bra design, well this one has a roughly baseball cup (if I understand
what others have meant by this correctly), and a cut out portion
(which is often done in lace btw) that comes down from the top of the
upper cup most of the way to the bottom of the curve on the cup
lower section.  Made out of less-stretchy material, this provides
some lateral support in the center front.

    I took the upper cup and this piece and oriented them to
overlap the seam allowances, then copied each piece.  I then studied
both how the original nursing bra felt and fits when worn and reviewed
my complaints about its fit when I was nursing.  Then I compared this
to the way the current bra trial fits and feels and where I had always
wanted to have the inner flap actually lay in this nursing bra.
I redrew this to suit what I had always wanted (I love being able to
do this!) and made the necessary alterations to the side seam of the
armhole so it would be independent with its own elastic.

    I think I may eventually stick this in its own envelope with
its own instructions, but another thing I'm adding when I have some
more time is either an extended center back or instructions to use
extra eyes on the center back, so it can be adjusted in back as well
as in the cups with the vertical hooks to the upper cup top.  Put the
strap and ring in backwards, so that the ring is in the back, too.