How to adjust bra straps

How do you adjust the positioning of bra straps? Today, we’re showing you how to adjust your straps on your me-made bra.

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The Cashmerette Willowdale Bra is a full frame underwire bra sewing pattern for large busts in sizes 28C-54J with a 4-piece cup design for vital support and lift in a beautifully rounded shape—the perfect bra if you have big boobs.

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Start your bra fitting journey with the Cashmerette Bra Fitting Guide

To help you sew and fit your dream Willowdale, we’ve put together the Cashmerette Bra Fitting Guide! This post is one of the many tutorials you’ll find there, and if you haven’t yet checked out the main guide page, we recommend starting there. So much of bra fitting is interconnected, and the guide provides a checklist and order to work through the adjustments.

Check out the Bra Fitting Guide

In this post, we’re covering how to adjust the bra’s straps to achieve a better fit. Let’s get started!

How to tell if you need to adjust the bra straps

Bra straps should sit comfortably on your shoulder without digging in or falling off of your shoulders. If the straps are positioned too wide on your body, this could result in straps that are constantly falling off or cups that dig into the flesh under your arm.

Keep in mind that bra fitting is interconnected, and if the overall bra is not fitting properly, you may need a different size. (Head to the Bra Fitting Guide for a fitting checklist.)

How to move the strap position in

Start by determining how far inward you want to move the straps. We generally don’t recommend trying to move them by more than half an inch.

Draw a line through the power bar pattern piece at the middle notch.

Cut along this line and then slide the top of the pattern inwards by the amount desired.

Blend the top half of the pattern back into the bottom half of the pattern.

We then need to remove the same amount of fabric from the upper cup as we moved the top of the power bar.

Finally we need to remove fabric from the lower cup that is now being covered by the power bar.

Now that you have adjusted pattern pieces, you can make a new muslin and check the fit.

How to adjust the strap width

The Willowdale Bra uses 1/2″ wide bra straps for wire sizes 26-38 and 3/4″ wide bra straps for wire sizes 40-68. Depending on your personal preference or what strap widths are accessible to you, you may want to use wider or narrower straps than the pattern was designed for. This is a simple and straightforward change to make!

Let’s say that you’re making a size that is designed for 3/4″ straps but you’d like to use 1″ straps. All you need to do is lengthen the top edge of the power bar so that the seam line is 1″, then taper it back to the top notch.

No adjustments are needed to the back piece—you would simply use the 1″ strap instead of the 3/4″ strap, along with 1″ rings and sliders.

We hope this tutorial was helpful! Check out the full Cashmerette Bra Fitting Guide for more on sewing and fitting your dream bra with the Willowdale Bra.

Get the Willowdale Bra