After the last post, hereafter known as the ‘back fat special’, I need to show you how I fixed the problem, with thanks and enormous gratitude to you, dear readers.
Karey had success with converting horizontal darts to french darts in the past but I was scared about the bias pull, I haven’t had much success with oblique darts in the past, but perhaps they need to be conquered. Lots of you commented about ‘simple shapes’ being just too simple to FBA. There’s no doubt that the more panel lines a garment has, the more opportunities for adjustment there are. And those adjustments look less obvious and more purpose built. JIC you need references, I think you can’t go past the Curvy Sewing Collective for FBA tutorials – crikey, how many times have I linked to those full bust adjustments?!
Chris from Make and Wear suggested I add a panel to the back of Claudia. As soon as I read that comment I was off to the cutting table. Thankfully #1 son was home because adding to the back needed someone with a good eye and an aversion to stabbing pins into live bodies! Thanks to Chris, the Claudia is wearable. There will always be bra strap showage – bodies and garments move, thankfully my bra straps don’t. But maybe a happier colour fit to be seen?
By the way, choosing a nearly black wall as background will cause your camera to overcompensate with under exposure – blah! I’ve just been listening to the Stitcher’s Brew podcast. In episode 7, the girls interview 2 Rachels, 1 of whom is a professional photographer and the other the lanky british/brazillian blogger – great discussion about blog photos. Episode 8 they interview 2 bloggers about colour – great info.
There is a very excellent bra made by Lululemon which the Princess alerted me to. She was especially impressed by the broad high strap that supported the fatty area under the arm in us broad shouldered weightlifting types!
It unfortunately didn’t come in a size that fit me, the cups did indeed runneth over. But this strapping would be fantastic to add to a bra (me made) in an attempt to counteract the many years of compression causing fat atrophy in the bra band region. It was a lovely smoothing silhouette. Have you ever tried one of their bras? This one is the Enlite and it was very smoothing ‘in real life’ on the princess.
But I really do prefer Claudia with a denim jacket for coverage!
sewniptuck 
That’s brilliant. I gave up on tops that made me bulge like that. Will have to relook. I have plans to make a bra to wear with garments like this that reverses the standard strap attachment on adjustable bras. I want the slider hooks on the bra where the strap attaches, and I’ll put the fabric loop on my dresses below the dress strap on the inside, so I can hook tbe bra onto the dress or top, and the dress strap doubles as my bra strap. No more bra straps showing, and more comfortable than strapless styles.
That sounds a perfect solution Karey, have you a blog? If nit feel free to write something up and send to me. I’d be very happy to host a ‘guest’ post on bra strap/sundress fixes.
I’ve been thinking about blog but struggling with health issues from allergy and asthma and the moment.
Ooops, looks like you write fir The Monthly Stitch?
I haven’t written for them. Don’t kniw why that came up. Thanks for your offer. If I haven’t started blog by the time I sort bra & straps I’ll get contact details from you to send uou copy
It appears next to your name on the comment in WordPress FYI.
Glitch in settings when I was setting up my account. Can’t figure out how to delete it lol
How mysterious to have an alias!
Looks lovely and I love the last photo! I have the best running bras by Moving Comfort and often wish my regular bras could provide that much support.
It is so funny about the denim jacket as just this past week I pulled out the denim jacket that I used to wear over sundresses in the 1990s and was thinking of taking it to Italy to wear over dresses again. Have you always worn one?
Off and on, but when i found this very stretchy one in Athens – well it’s the holy grail of denim jackets! I think they’re great for dressing down otherwise prissy pieces! I’ll have a look at Moving Comfort, sports bras are my favourites! Soooo minimising!
Exactly! When I wore mine in the 1990s it was always over a fitted black dress. It brought the “fancy” level down. I saw one styled over the maxi dress I bought when I was in Florence and it got me thinking about how that would be a nice look.
PS I think the model of running bra that I buy is the Juno, but I could be wrong. Super comfortable and tight enough that I can run without that annoying bounce. 🙂
That is an excellent fix, it looks great! I love that fabric, glad you saved it 😀
1960s avec a few brown spots, but there won’t be another like it! X
My straps are always cutting and uncomfortable. I’ll have to check this one out. The dress is lovely, the yellow insert is a good idea that I’ll have to keep in mind when I run into the same problem!
Yes, great solution when more back/underarm coverage is needed and we have Chris to thank!
Yay! It looks great – really glad it worked out. It looks fab with the denim jacket too. I bought a colarless cropped denim jacket a few years ago and it goes with everything. I love to wear cardigans but sometimes they can look more twee than cool!
Thanks for your keen observations Chris. Claudia is saved and now I swear to only look at patterns that have full backs! But it’s so hard not to be tempted by the pretty! I too love a cardi, got one cracking on the needles now 😉
Great save with the dress. I agree it looks great with your denim jacket, but you now know that it will be fine without.
That bra looks gorgeous but I suspect I’m outside the size range too 😭
Bras have always depressed me!! Took a bra making class insisting I was an F, made an E and it was huge – pleased to say. The whole cup system is quite different from one country to another. I wear a US DDD or F and in Aus that’s an E, but who ever knows??? Oh the struggles KIm!!
I agree, and if they would only stay the same size! 😂