Removing the wires from a bra

 This blog post is going to be about how the fit of a bra changes when you remove the wires.

I will be using my Impimi Nicole bra, and the original review for that can be found here.

I chose this bra specifically because the wires are extremely painful for me. Literally when I put the bra on this morning the gore was stabbing me. I love the color of this bra, but it’s virtually unwearable with the wires.

 

What I did first was get the sharpest scissors I have and gently go back and forth with one end of the blade, against the wire channel above where the wire is.

 

The wire didn’t slip out easily, so I had to use a little force.

 

As you can see, the wires are definitely in a plunge shape.

 

Once I took the wires out, the cup immediately widened.

Left side has wire, right side does not.

 

The width with the wire is about 5 inches

 

Without the wire the width is 6.5 inches

 

When putting the bra on after removing the wires I immediately felt a difference. For one, it was more comfortable, there was nothing stabbing me. With the wire removed there was nothing holding the cup into place, so on my bigger side the cup kind of collapsed. This bothered me very much. I found myself constantly touching my chest. It felt weird.

 

Here are some comparison pics

With the wires

Without the wires

 

You can see the cup is too small (now)

The cup looks a little lower without the wire.

 

The gore doesn’t tack.

This bra felt somewhat like a padded bralette. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I hate bralettes.

 

I don’t know what I’m going to do with this bra. I can’t wear it with the wires, and I don’t like it without the wires.

I dyed the Portia/Princess hybrid

Original post can be found here.

I used Rit Dye in the purple color. As the water was boiling, I read the side of the bottle that says not to use it on polyester fabrics. I already had my mind set, so I was going to do it anyway. But I had a feeling that it was going to dye, because I the dyed a white dress with pink Rit Dye, and the back of it that had mesh, didn’t dye. So I crossed my fingers. I probably used more dye than I needed to, but I wanted to make sure that the bra came out dark. I really wanted to dye it brown, but I forgot to go to the dye section when I was there yesterday.

On to the pictures:

In the above picture it looks blackish, but it’s not. It’s very purple.

I believe the polyester warning on the Rit dye bottle was for the stitching, in my dress the stitching stayed the original color. And as you can see the thread is still white, as is the floral design and the lacing. Well it actually got tinted somewhat.

I don’t know if this occurred because I used hot water & dye on the bra, but the lacing is comIng undone form one area on both of the cups. Oddly enough, on both cups it’s on the right side (when looking at it).

Inner part of the cup

Band

The floral design

Underneath the floral design

The fit:

I don’t know if it was the dye, or it was the scorching hot water, but the bra shrunk. From my experience being a denim addict, I know that really hot water (too hot to touch) can shrink jeans.

so yeah, it shrunk, a good amount. Before I needed to alter the bra, now I don’t think there’s enough room to alter it. It shrunk enough that now it fits. The band, however feels really tight. I ordered some new extenders, so I’ll probably wait to wear this until those come in. Enough blabbering.

Right side

Left side

No gapping.

A little space in the upper panel on smaller breast.

Side view

I initially was going to make this a two part post, with the dye being one post, and the actual alteration another post, but I’m not going to alter it now.

What do you think?

Coffee dyed bras

I have more than a few bras that are beige. Beige is not a color that I like, especially in bras. So I decided I was going to change the color of some of the beige bras. I actually wanted to dye all of them, but I forgot one.

Anyway, I really wanted to get the bras as dark as I could– dark enough that they would look ‘nude’ on my skin. I googled and say that with something that has polyester as a part of the fabrication, rit dye or something similar, may not take, if it did take, it wouldn’t be as dark as an animal fabric. I saw that there was ‘idye’ for synthetic fabrics, but it says that you have to keep the items in boiling water for 30 minutes. Given that I was going to dye 2 Ewa bras, I wasn’t going to take the chance of damaging the bras before I even wore them. (Years ago when I tried to shrink some jeans I would put them in boiling water. They never got damaged-and I tried it on at least 20 pairs-, but they did shrink temporarily. Shrinking bras isn’t what I wanted to do.) So I decided to dye them using coffee. Using tea was another option, but in all the pics I looked at the coffee dyed items came out darker.

Here is what you’ll need (if you want to try this):

• Water
• a pot
• coffee (preferably instant)
• a large container
• a stirring utensil
• a strainer/coffee filter (if using regular coffee)
• Measuring cup (or something similar)

 

I got a large pot filled it about 2/3, then poured coffee into it. I didn’t actually measure how much water or coffee, but I used about 2-3 scoops with an ice cream scooper.

I let the coffee come to a boil. I put the hot coffee in the fridge for 5 minutes or so, to cool off a little. Then I put my bras in.

This is why you need a filter if not using instant coffee. I am no a coffee drinker,no it didn’t dawn on me the grounds wouldn’t be dissolved until after I put the bras in.

I stirred red the bras/coffee for a few minutes, then put a smaller pot with the coffee container on top so that all the bras were completely submerged.

I took the bras out after an hour.

I wasn’t happy with the color, thinking I could get it darker if I let it sit longer, so I poured the coffee into a large container. I used the remnants from the Marcie baby doll to filter out the ground coffee (smart!)

This is how the pot looked after. 😧

As as you can imagine there was ground coffee in the bras.

I put the container with the coffee in the microwave for around 10 minutes. I put the bras in, and then put the small pot filled with heavier items back on top to keep everything submerged. I left it like this overnight. So the bras were essentially soaking for 12 hours in coffee. I just knew when I took the bras out of the water they’d be darker than my skin.

They weren’t. They were the same color as before. 😔 Except now 2 of the bras had a black mark on them. Boo.

After I rinsed the bras off, there was still coffee grounds in the water.

Here are some comparison pics. As you can see the bras became a caramel/golden color. Better than beige, but still not what I was looking for.

Gorgeous bra

Top- new color Bottom- original color

Left- new color Right- original color

Closeup of the bow that didn’t change color. You can see the difference

CHP cappuccino

Top- original color Bottom-dyed

Top- original color (natural sunlight. No flash) Bottom- new color

PL Triumf

Top- original color Bottom-new color

Top- original color Bottom- new color

I adjusted the straps longer & you can see the slight color difference

The unlined bra took the color the best, while the chp cappuccino looks very close to the original.

So this may be ideal for someone where beige is a little too light for. Also you could probably get away with leaving the bras in the coffee for an hour, no need to keep it overnight like I did. I do wonder though if I would have been able to get a darker color if I put the bras in the hot water immediately.

Also, another thing worth mentioning, these bras have a scent to them. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not the same as when you spill coffee. It’s slightly irritating. I did wash & (briefly) dry the bras and the smell is still there. But I suppose if I were to soak something in bleach for 12 hours whatever didn’t get dissolved would smell like bleach.

I may attempt to dye the triumf again.

 

Eta: I decided to quickly try the 2 Ewa’s on before going to bed, and they both shrink in length. The original I stretched length that I measured for the pl triumf was 21.75″, but the current I stretched length is 20.5″. I decided to re measure because the straps felt like they needed to be adjusted longer again. Also with the cappuccino, the original unstretched measurement was 22.75″, it’s now currently 22″. Which is actually a good thing for me because when I first got it, I had to put it on the 2nd set of hook instead of the loosest because it was a little loose. (This one has 4 settings)

Altered Claudette Dessous 30E

The original post about the pink Claudette Dessous can be found here.

I felt the band was too stretchy to fit properly. I’m not particularly busty, and my breasts are self supporting, but I wanted the band to be tighter. I did want the cups to be a hair smaller, so I tried to shrink it via the hot water method. The heat did seam to mess up the fibers on the lower half of the cup. Oddly enough it seems like it’s on the upper portion of the lower half (if that makes sense), not the lining part. The hot water didn’t shrink the cups/bra.

First part. I used a non matching thread so you could see. The one website where I saw this used beige thread on a beige bra, so I couldn’t see where exactly they sewed. Initial stitching. Band was still stretchy.

So I went over it in the opposite direction.

This is how it looked line on:

You can see the space at the top of the cup on my smaller breast

Side view

Band is is still very stretchy. 😣

And the gore still doesn’t tack.

As a side note, I went to my room to get something, and you could see my nip through my shirt. I wasn’t even cold.

This was still to stretchy, so I decided to take in the upper part of the band as well.

The gore still didn’t tack. 😕

Initial S&S

Second S&S. Looks better, but I had nipple showing in the ultra sheer area.

I stitched the bottom of the wing

How it looks on:

Although I didn’t adjust the straps, it doesn’t look like the band is riding up anymore.

From the side

The gore still doesn’t tack at the bottom, but the bra feels a lot better. It’s not overtly tight like some of my other bras, but I can feel the difference from before. The cups also fit better. The smaller breast still has some space at the top, but there isn’t much wrinkling. I don’t want to redo what I did, but it looks crazy with the red & blue stitching. If I do end up redoing it, I’ll probably dust off my sewing machine and use that.

Curvy Kate “alterations”

I really tried to make this bra fit. I really did. But nothing worked. 😩😩

This post is mostly going to be pictures, and it’s going to be long. You can see the original thread here.

Attempt #1. I just randomly folded fabric over, and pinned it into place. Looked “okay” from the front, but there was still a lot of space at the top.

Attempt #2

Attempt #3. I tried to take out the top portion, by folding it under, hoping that it would take out some of the top openness… But it was still too open at the top.

Attempt #4. I took out considerably less than in attempt 1 & 2. It was way too open at the top.

Attempt #5. I took in the bottom, but it started from the middle, instead of by the gore. Doing so, oddly made the bra very shallow at the bottom. This wasn’t the smartest idea, because it also left a lot of space between the top of the gore, and the top of the cup closest to the gore, and also at the back of the cup.

Attempt #6. This was just a mess. I gathered some fabric, and pinned it in place.

This probably could have turned out better if the fabric of the bra wasn’t as thick as it was. And f the cup wasn’t so big.

I really don’t think there’s a way that I can successfully alter the cups without getting scissors involved and breaking out the sewing machine. I’m not going to do that. 😔

Raspberry Marcie alteration

As I’ve said before, I bought this bra specifically to alter. So here is what I did to alter the band.

First off I want to show the differences in length between this and the yellow Marcie in 30dd:

As you can see the raspberry is longer on both sides.

I pinned the bras so the seam behind the wire is lined up as well as the part of the band where the strap is attached.

Here you can see the excess fabric

So I just folded it over. (I was going the lazy route with this)

I pinned the excess fabric in place. * I attempted to try it on, but the pins started sticking me*

I measured the top and compared with both sizes.

The pink was 4 inches

The yellow was 4.25 inches

I hand sewed using the backstitch  method. I actually did the stitching backwards. I wanted the neater part to be on the outside, but it was on the inside. I didn’t want to do that stitch in the first place, but it seemed like it would be stronger than doing a running stitch.

Outer side of bra

Inner area of bra

I thought the .25″ difference would be okay… But it wasn’t. The band was too tight.

A closeup of the alteration while wearing the bra.

Obviously the fit of the bra is better than it was originally, but the band was a little too tight. I was thinking about keeping it like that and just wearing an extender, but it just makes more sense for me to do it over and leave a little more fabric.
I took measurements, and unstretched the band is 22.75 unstretched (close to the unstretched measurement of the yellow), but stretched, it’s only 26.75, which is smaller than what I need/prefer.

I took out the stitching, and redid the while thing. It literally took my about 2 hours to re-stitch the bra. I kept getting knots in the thread, so I had to cut it and start over. When I sew by hand, I like to make sure I have enough thread, so that I don’t have to re-thread in the middle of my project, but I think I had too much thread.

I remeasured and got about 4.5″ this time (.25″ longer than the yellow Marcie)

When I re-stitched, I did it on the right side.

Outer side of bra

Inner side of bra

The new fit:

A closeup of the alteration while being worn

As you can see, on my smaller side there is some wrinkling in the cup,  that can probably be fixed my tightening the strap a bit. The band is looser, perhaps a hair looser than what it should be, but I’m not redoing it.

Currently, the band unstretched is 23.5 inches, and 28 inches stretched

 

---

 

So, I would recommend anyone thinking about doing this to:

-if you can, measure out how much on each side you want to take out. I didn’t, and I could have saved myself 2 hours if I did.

-try the bra on when you have the pins in, before you start sewing. That way if it is too tight or too loose, you can fix it easily. Also place the pins on the outside of the bra (so they don’t stick you when you try them on)

but really, if you can, try to avoid doing this alteration altogether. Because while the bra fits me now, it doesn’t fit as well as a 30dd would/does. And one thing that most likely will end up bothering me with this particular bra, the gore is higher on 32d than it is on 30dd.

Unfortunately, I will have to do this again, because I have a 32d Freya doodle that I need to shorten.

**update:

I wore this bra today. (2/10/16) I wrote the post a few days ago… It wasn’t the most comfortable. It’s actually the most uncomfortable out of all the Marcie bras I have. The gore irritated me a good portion of the morning. I attempted to bend/push the wires forward (although I’m not entirely sure how to do that), and it did alleviate the pressure I was feeling, but when I looked down at my chest, it looked like one wire was where it was supposed to be, the other was resting on my tissue, like this _/

Also, on the left side where the alteration is, was stabbing me. 😕 It wasn’t bothering me on the right side, which is odd. I’m thinking I may have to add a piece of fabric. It was mainly irritating me at the top and the bottom of the band, where the thicker fabric was.

Altered Black Cleo Marcie (babydoll)

As I’ve said in a previous post, I bought this bra specifically to alter.

I didn’t want to make this a lengthy post, so I didn’t take a lot of photos. But it’s pretty straight forward.

This is how the inner part of the babydoll looked.

This is how the inner part of the babydoll looked, with the skirt pulled back

This is how the outer part of the babydoll looked.

I think the skirt part was sewn in between the two layers making the front and back of the bra. So without taking the whole thing apart, I decided to just cut the skirt off.

Now it looks like a regular bra. 😁

You can’t even tell it was a babydoll

I accidentally cut one picot off accidentally on one side

And I accidentally sniped a picot on the opposite side.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with the excess fabric.

The bra:

I did wear this out the day I cut the skirt off. I only noticed that for about 5 minutes or so in the middle of the day the gore was stabbing me. But somehow it went away and didn’t come back.

The gore on the 32d Marcie’s is slightly higher than it is on the 30dd, and that little bit of length is enough to irritate me.

So as it stands the yellow 30dd Marcie is the best fitting.

Cleo Juna 34DD + alterations

I bought this bra last week from Bare Necessities, because I noticed that my 30DD Cleo Darcy was currently too small. When I first bought it, it fit. Technically it may have been too small, because the lace was flat, and not ‘puckered’, but I wasn’t quadding out of it. I did originally have the 30E, but I returned that because at the time the cup felt too wide & the wire was poking me. My how times have changed. I reviewed the 30E around this time last year, and the 30DD in April of last year.

Anyway, I really always wanted the black Juna, because it’s a black bra, and will pretty much go with anything. Obviously, my choice would have been to get the correct size (30E), or 1 sister size up (32DD), possibly down (28F), but not 2 band sizes up. But when I was on bare necessities, they only had black in 34D, so I bought it. I figured if by chance it didn’t work out, I wouldn’t have an issue reselling it (because it’s black, and it was only $17).

This review may be long; I’m going to talk about the way it fit when I first got it, the alterations I did, and how it fit after the alteration.

When I first got it:

The unstretched band measurement was 26.5 inches- my breaking the tape measurement. But stretched the band was 30.5 inches, which is small for a 34 band, but too big for me. Naturally when I had the bra on the band rode up, and it felt too big, even on the tightest setting. I’m not one that needs a very tight band, but this was too loose.

 

The straps were almost halfway adjusted, but I still felt like I needed to angle the straps inwards to get some stability- tightening the straps further would have made them dig in. The straps are the perfect width of half an inch.

 

The gore is 2.5 inches high, and almost an inch wide. Too wide for me, but I don’t think it looks too wide. The bottom of the gore was not touching my skin, you can best see this in the frontal pic.

 

The cups fit, with a width of 5.25 inches, and a depth of 8.25, it’s perfect, but since the band was so big, my swoop and scoop wouldn’t stay and after a few minutes the wire was sitting on tissue.

 

The alteration:

Initially I was going to alter this bra by adding ribbon to the band to keep it from stretching too much, but I did that, and it seemed to not really work. The band was still loose, and it still rode up. I was however, able to loosen the straps a bit. I didn’t take pics of how it looked, because I wasn’t happy with the alteration. So, I ended up altering the band similar to how I shortened the Marcie, but instead of folding the fabric over, I just let te extra fabric hang. My reasoning for this was, when I altered the Marcie, it was okay when I first put it on, but after some time the altered part became painful. So I ended up not really wearing the bra after altering it, and I didn’t want to re-alter it.

What I did to get a good band size, was put the Juna on top of a 28E Mimi.

I pinned the Juna on top of the Mimi where the side seam was and near the elastic/closure.

I then pinched the excess and pinned in. Then I sewed it down. This took probably 10 minutes or so. I  did try the bra on before sewing it to see if it was okay, and it was. After the alteration was complete, the bra fit perfectly.

*If you’re wondering why I don’t alter bras in a more permanent way, it’s mainly because I’m too lazy. For the last 3/4 years, I haven’t used any of my sewing machines. I just don’t have a desire to. I used to hem a lot of jeans keeping the original hem in tact, and alter a lot of my clothing. (I actually have a tutorial on how to do that, somewhere on the internet). If this was a few years ago, I’d have the desire to permanently alter a bra.

 

After

 

The band unstretched measures 23 inches, and stretched it measures 26.5 inches. I probably should have made it a little looser, but I was able to wear it without an issues. As you can see the excess material is visible when worn. It doesn’t bother me.  The band no longer rides up.

I forgot to take the picture when I was outside

So now that the band fits, the cups fit a lot better, although the lace on my breasts lays flat. I think that because the band only stretches to 26.5 inches that the wires are distorting a bit. The bottom of the cup fits perfectly, it’s not too shallow for me. The depth ratio for this particular bra is 1.6, so on the scale of deep to shallow (from ABTF) it’ has “average depth”

You can see there is some cutting in/slight quadding.

 

The gore tacks. the bottom of it also tacks. It is sitting on tissue, and for most of the time it didn’t seem to bother me. It’s only wearing after 8 hours or so that it may start to bother me.

The wires go around my breasts perfectly. I I initially thought the wires were a hair too wide, but they followed my root.

I was able to let out the straps more, so they feel very comfortable, and I was able to wear them in the correct position- not angle inward.

 

 

Before

After

I love this bra, and I’m happy that it fits now. I do wish I could have bought it in 30E or 28F. I do have another Juna in 28F, and a sister cut Cleo Martha 30E on the way, so I’m happy to be getting some with smaller bands.

Have you tried Cleo Juna, or any sister cuts? How did you like them?