10 easy steps to change your regular bra into a mastectomy bra

10 Easy Steps To Make Your
Regular Bra Into A Mastectomy Bra

    Breast cancer, affecting 8 out 10 ladies, all too frequently results in a mastectomy,
losing one or both breasts. If the choice, post-mastectomy, is to use breast forms or a
breast prosthesis for balance and shape, the questions that come to mind are - “ok,
how do I use this breast form with my wardrobe”, “can I make do with my present
clothes somehow”, “what added cost will I have to change my clothes around so I can
use a breast form or breast prosthesis”.

   Wearing a bra to enhance our bust appearance is something most ladies,
especially baby boomers, feel is a necessity. The bra is the one piece of clothing
most associated with the breast, and breast forms. So the bra is a natural place to
start to answer the questions.

   But how do you bring the two together - the breast form and the bra - without
having to pay a large fortune?

   The answer comes in 10 easy steps ….putting a breast form pocket into your
existing familiar bra, or purchasing an exciting new colored bra to put a pocket into.
These steps will work with a padded bra, an underwire bra, or any type of a bra.

Grab a piece of box cardboard

that you can poke some holes into. Put a

plain piece of paper over top of it.

Place your bra on top of the paper

, as if you are dressing the paper with

your bra. Place some scrunched paper, cotton batting, or small washcloth into

the bra cup to give the bra a “boobie”. You only need to give your “cardboard

lady” one “boobie”, on the side of the bra where you need the breast form

pocket

With stick pins

, pin the stuffed bra cup (the bra cup that you need a breast

form pocket on) to the “cardboard lady”. Once you’ve stuck the bra cup to the

“lady” all around the bra cup, remove the stick pins and bra. You should have a

“holey” pattern of the bra cup on your piece of paper.

Join the holes

as a dot-to-dot line to outline the bra cup. Add another

outline 1/4 inches outside of the dot-to-dot outline.

….you’ve got your bra cup pocket for a breast form in your hand!! All

you need to do now to transform your familiar regular bra into a mastectomy bra

is to sew this

pattern piece (not the paper, but a piece of fabric cut into this

shape) to the back side of the bra.

. First of all

find some stretchy fabric

. You can use:

- old or new panties you don’t mind cutting up

- an old or new stretchy slip

- an old or new T-shirt

- stretch lace as long as it isn’t itchy

- raid a sewer friend’s cupboard (she’ll probably have something

suitable)

- go to a fabric store and buy a small amount of stretch fabric like

antron tricot, T Shirt fabric, or polyester sports mesh.

Decide

on which side of the bra you want to have the pocket opening for the

breast form - at the arm hole area or at the side. At the arm hole you usually

can have a

bigger opening making it easier to put the breast form into the

pocket, but it can cause the problem of the breast form peeking out of the

pocket.

(A quick solution to that problem is to attach small pieces of hook and

loop tape in the opening).

The side opening keeps this from happening, but the

smaller opening makes it a little bit more of a challenge to get the breast form

into the pocket.

Place your paper pattern

onto the fabric in such a way that the stretchiest

part of the fabric is where you want your breast form pocket opening. Cut out

the pocket back.

Fold under 1/4 inch

of the breast form pocket opening and zigzag it with a

sewing machine, having one zig of the zigzag not touching the fabric. This

gives a nice

scalloped edge. If you don’t have a sewing machine, use a needle

and thread.

Place the complete breast form pocket piece

over the bra cup “hole”,

positioning it into place and pinning into place so that the breast form pocket

opening is where you want it to be on the bra, and that the rest of the pocket

and bra edges match up.

Take note….fold all the other edges of the breast form pocket under 1/4

inch as you pin the piece to the outside edges of the bra cup over the empty

part of the cup.

Take heart if not all sides line up at the first try. Unpin and reshuffle the

edges.

Using a needle and thread

, sew the breast form pocket to the back of

the bra cup.

PRESTO - You have your very own mastectomy bra with a breast form pocket.
And the cost - some thread, some paper, a small piece of fabric and at the
most 2 hours of your time (half that time with your second bra).

Incorporating your existing bra into your new mastectomy wardrobe can be done with
a few dollars,. You still have your familiar bras but with the breast form or breast
prosthesis pocket that you need.

Comments and questions about the article email lillian@mastectomydesigns.com