Grosgrain is your friend - Originally posted 1 August 2008

So I'm doing my first bedlah set... no kidding... I know... after all these years! But, yeah, I've been tribal and/or GBD for the past 3.5 years and, although I was cabaret when I was in Quebec, the only public dancing that I did was in the SCA and at a show where I was wearing a folkloric tunic.

I purchased about a year ago the book by Davine Brown on making bras (the workshop in a book one) and had yet to try it. I decided to buy it because I was not too happy with my bra for the Red Tour. It worked for that night but it would have been a stretch to wear it again... and now it's too roomy so I am thinking of redoing it on another bra base more to my size.

But I digress... as usual...

I decided to go "by the book", literally, and do the bra exactly as is recommended in the book and I even decided to just leave the straps in place and cover them so as not to have to deal with any shift in the cups. I better keep it simple for the first one.

So, anyway, as part of the preparation of the bra, the instructions are to put some grosgrain ribbon at the middle portion that links the cups and on the top of the cups to reinforce them because, with manipulation, they can end up sagging. They did have a blurb in there when they introduced grosgrain ribbon saying that it was the costumer's trick.

OH........... MY................................ GAWD!!!!............

They were not kidding!

I sewed that ribbon on and then the next step was to adjust the bra straps to the ideal position and they tell you to wear the bra, adjust strap, dance with it to test the placement, etc. I was watching myself in the mirror and I was like "Wait! This is more stable than it was before I put the grosgrain ribbon on." There was no sagging, no bulging, nothing was moving but what was supposed to move. And then, just for the ultimate test, I let my torso plunge down. Well, NOTHING shifted!!! Nothing sagged!!! That was rather impressive!

So, yeah... get the book... and use grosgrain! ;)

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Comment I had received:
From Lena:
Here, Here! Grosgrain is the best for making bra and halter straps, (especially for those of us with lots of boobage).