Alterations on the Brain: Fantasie Smoothing
I have a friend who wears pretty close to the same bra size that I do. She’s most comfortable in 30F-FF bras, whereas I wear 26G-28FFs generally speaking. We like to try on each others bras to get a sense for how they fit, see if we’d like to buy them ourselves, all that fun stuff. I expressed some interest to her in going the route of having bras altered in order to expand the my bra options. I’m specifically interested in Fantasie, as I’ve heard their bras give a great round, uplifted shape even in their unlined styles. She let me try her Fantasie Smoothing Balcony bra (the unlined version) and well… here it is!
Fantasie Smoothing, 30F
As you can see, the profile I get with this bra is fantastic! There is some wrinkling at the top of the cup, but when I pull back the band to tighten it almost all of it disappears. What’s strange is it’s not that there isn’t enough boob there to fill it out, so I think it’s just an issue of my shape not being perfectly compatible with this bra (my friend has described it as a bit of an “outlier” for Fantasie, as it seems to call for a fairly particular shape).
The band felt surprisingly snug on the last hook, definitely true to size and not as loose as other Eveden bras.
While I like the smoothing bra, what excites me more are the number of possibilities there could be for me with Fantasie if I get into band altering. My primary interest at the moment is the Fantasie Rebecca, a t-shirt bra made of Spacer fabric.
Fantasie Rebecca t-shirt bra in BEIGE. Guys, stop calling it nude, seriously.
I’ve wanted a pretty, seamless t-shirt bra for such a long time. In a 28 band I pretty much have access to the Freya Deco and a few moulded bras from Cleo (that I unfortunately dislike the appearance of). I’m trying to avoid bras with  lot of “oomph,” which the deco has in spades. While my EM bras are passable as T-shirt bras, the plunge shape leaves me wanting more support at the center of my chest for every day wear. I’d love an option with a higher gore, like the Rebecca! Part of Rebecca’s appeal is definitely the spacer fabric, which forms to your shape better and is lighter than the typical moulded bra. I’m also a total sucker for that diamond pattern on the front of the band, and the way it’s echoed on the straps. From a design perspective I am VERY pleased.
Since the success I’ve had with my altered Fortnight bra, I’ve had alterations on the brain. I’m really keen to get my hands on a Fantasie Rebecca, take it to a seamstress and see how it goes! If it’s successful, well… it could be bad for my bank account. I’ll have to exert some self control not to buy every single style from Fantasie’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection.
Windie
It surprises me a bit how many bra bloggers hesitate about altering a bra band… from my experience I’d say it’s not hard to do at all 🙂 Though being pretty miserable when it comes to sewing, I used to shorten bra bands myself (manually or with sewing machine) routinely for nearly 10 years simply because bras available in brick and mortar stores didn’t come in my size. Before entering the D+ world via webshops, I bought mostly 34C-D bras and then altered them into like 30-32 E-F bras, which is closer to sizes I wear today (though with Panaches and Curvy Kates, the letter has grown larger since :D). So it was like DIY sister sizing, when no other option existed.
I still do the same for outstretched bands if the bra is otherwise still wearable, or if I find a bargain with properly fitting cup but too-big band. Well I have to admit that if u put value on neat and unnoticeable needlework, of course it doesn’t look brand new if sewn by a non-expert but at least my alterations haven’t ripped asingle time. And if u take the bra to a seamstress I bet anyone won’t know the difference 🙂
The Rebecca’s cups are lovely, but I actually did experience a lot of rubbing/chafing from that very beautiful diamond pattern. The diamond fabric kept rolling under the band and scratching me, which was awful. I was disappointed, since the Rebecca is the first bra that came in my size with those kind of cups. Back when I was a few cup sizes smaller, I wore the Simone Perele Andorra, which has the same kind of cups, and it was my favorite bra ever.
The Rebecca will definitely give you a more ‘natural’ shape than the Deco. I love the fabric. However, I’ve experienced interesting wrinkling issues with Fantasie bras (especially at the apices) and couldn’t quite fill out the Rebecca at the tip of the cup.
I will need to scour places for how to alter a band, although I don’t have a sewing machine- how necessary is it?
I don’t do a lot of sewing, but whenever I do it’s by hand. Based on tutorials I’ve read, altering a band by hand shouldn’t be too difficult at all 🙂 I plan on taking Rebecca to a seamstress though. I’d like to alter my own bands eventually, but would like some practice first. I’ll probably hack up my old 32D bras to get some experience!
Is this the full cup smoothing or the Esme?
Full cup smoothing, unlined version 🙂