Dart Trap

 Why is this dart so big? 

The Dart Bra by Booby Traps was one of my first bra pattern  purchases. I have printed it out several times, but not cut and sewn the actual garment.

 The patterns from most companies that sell bra patterns seem to have a formula wherein the band is the starting point, and the difference between the band and the cup determines the name of the cup size. For each band size, the A cup is a different size. As the band gets larger, the A cup gets proportionately larger. Because of this, they have a technique in the bra industry called “sister sizing.” The sister cup of a 40A in the 36 band is called B. On the 36 band, it’s called C, and on the 34 band, it’s called D. The cups are literally the same pattern.  Now, in ready to wear (RTW), they may actually shorten or give more height to the “extreme” ends of the spectrum, but in bra pattern sewing, I can trace the 34D to get a perfect 38A cup.

The Booby Traps pattern is different. It measures and suggests sizing in a similar way, but there are only 5 cup sizes for the 6 band sizes. The cups are labeled B, C, D, DD, E. The bands are labeled like clothing sizes: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. The band sizes approximate others size wise. I usually wear a 34D in RTW bras in the U.S. I can wear a 36C, that’s where many bra patterns place me, and it often works fine when I sew my own (heavier duty powermesh for the back helps it stay in place), but RTW bras in that size often slide out of place. 

Booby Traps places me in a 14B, which is more like 36B. It can’t hurt much to just sew it up, maybe foreign sizes are different. My Merckwaerdigh pattern also sizes me to 80B (I hope to sew that one up soon!), so I cut and sewed some of Mom’s lace.

I marked on the pattern piece a shorter dart along the wire line. When I measured it, I realized that the width just wouldn’t work. I do want to check how the pattern fits, though, so I made it exactly. I have a short Bottom Cup Depth (BCD), that’s the length from the wire to the bust point. The four inch dart ran well past my peak and left wrinkled empty fabric an inch below the upper edge, which dug in a bit. I think I need to go up a cup size, and follow my instinct to shorten the dart.