Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial
How To Convert Any Bra To A Nursing Bra
Nursing bras are often expensive and unflattering so I thought I would show you just how quick and easy it is to convert any bra in to a nursing bra. A word of warning though. Underwire and nursing is controversial, especially in the early stages of establishing feeding because if the bra doesn't fit correctly then the underwire can press in to the breast tissue which can increase the risk of blocked ducts and therefore mastitis.
What you will need:
approx. half a meter of elastic ribbon
How to make it:
Every bra is slightly different, so on most bras you can simply unpick the front bra strap attachment.
Next, cut off any strap trimmings that were attaching the strap
If that isn't possible, you can always snip the strap about 1 inch above where it attaches.
The next step is the attach the completely flat part of the clip by refolding down the part you unpicked (or curling the 1 inch strap that is left around the fastening)
Then fold the free end of the strap around the other half of the clip with the hooked part facing forwards and upwards towards the strap.
Attach enough elastic ribbon to comfortably sit between the nursing bra clip and the base of the bra. This is so that once you unclip the nursing clip that the other part of your strap wont ping off somewhere irretrievable in public! Simply curl one end around the hooked clip part, and the other to the base of the bra and sew in place. Hint here - Look at where the elastic lines up. You will probably need to take it diagonally inwards so it doesn't show when the cup is done up.
And your done! How easy was that!
And compared to the other side, there is hardly any difference in how the bra looks
Just repeat on the other side and your maternity bra collection is suddenly looking far more fabulous!
We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!
Wow this is so simple – I have just recently bought some nursing bras for my cousin who is pregnant – if only I had read this before, I could have saved her bank balance :). I think I will include a little note that she can easily adapt her normal bras using this method if she needs more bras or finds the nursing bras don’t fit well etc.
Thank you! Good luck to your cousin!
Wow, this is amazing, I would have never thought of doing this and I struggled to buy nursing bras that were easy to use and were actually somewhat pretty so I didn’t look like I wore granny bras
Thank you
This is amazing! What a fab idea. You’re right, nursing bras are soooooo expensive and definitely unflattering, although I did find Lacey ones when I was pregnant with lamb, they were a tad inappropriate! X
What a brilliant idea! You are so crafty and brilliant with a sewing machine. I have a sewing machine but I would not have even thought to do this! Wish I had thought of it years ago when my children were babies x
Thank you!
Such a great idea for saving money too as nursing bras are so expensive, What a great tutorial; that will help lots of mums.
Thank you
You are so crafty, this idea has blown me away! I wish I had known about this or thought of this years ago before I fed my 3 kiddies & went through so many nursing bras x
Thank you. That’s very kind. Nursing bras are so expensive if you want them to be anything more than a baggy looking old sports bra aren’t they?!
Oh I really wish I had of known how to do this when I was feeding J.mmy favourite bra ended up in the bid because it wasn’t practical.
Oh no!! What a waste of a good bra!
This is brilliant. Few months back I spent an absolute fortune on nursing bra’s. Why couldn’t I have seen this then!!!
They are so expensive to find nice ones aren’t they! At least you know now you’ll never have to do that again!
That’s so clever. I seemed to spend a fortune on nursing bras (and couldn’t bear to get the really grim cheap ones), then didn’t actually need them for that long – especially when size fluctuates so much at that stage.
I’ve just come to the conclusion that I have a bra range rather than a bra size!
Such a great idea and it wouldn’t take that much time. Fab to enable you to keep hold of the comfy ones x
Absolutely! Even hand sewing it would only take 10 minutes