diy,  empowerment

DIY A Nursing/Pumping Bra That Actually Fits AND Makes You Feel Beautiful

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Step 3: Cut the Straps

This is the hardest part. Mentally, at least. You’re going to take a perfectly good, potentially brand new bra, and you’re going to cut the straps apart. You can do it! It’s totally worth it!

You’ll want to cut a little more than a half-inch above the top of the cup.

Cut about a half-inch above the top of the cup, as indicated by the yellow ribbon.
Cut both straps. Don’t be afraid!

Step 4: Sew the Hook Clips onto the Straps

Insert a strap into the top hole of a hook clip, then fold about 1/4 inch of the strap upward and pin to the reverse side of the strap. Make sure that the protruding hook part of the clip is facing the outside part of the strap and the folded part is on the inside. Sew together with as many stitches as necessary to secure the clip to the strap. Do this for both straps.

Step 5: Sew the Eye Part above the Cups

Now it’s time to add the other part of the nursing bra clip, the “eye part”. Insert the half-inch of strap that’s still connected to the cup into the bottom hole of the eye part, then fold about a quarter-inch of the strap downward. Pin. Sew together to secure the eye part in place.

You should now be able to clip the hook and eye parts together. You have a functioning bra again! Just don’t try to un-clip it when you’re wearing it… We haven’t secured the elastic yet!

The straps are connected again!

Step 6: Secure the Elastic to the Cups

You need to secure the elastic to the inside of the cup so that the strap doesn’t go flying behind you when you unclip the cups.

Bonus! Because we’ve cut the straps, you can choose to criss-cross them at this point for extra support. Just attach the elastic to the opposite cup!

The placement of the elastic on the bottom edge of the cup is up to you. I like mine halfway along the outer curve of the underwire, but you might have other preferences.

You want the elastic to stretch just enough to conform to the shape of your breast, but not to stretch too much farther, so it stays in place when you unclip. You may need to trim the elastic to achieve this. I trimmed my elastic to be about 8 inches long.

You now have a fully-functional nursing bra! Awesome, right?

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I'm the doting momma to my beautiful son, the partner-in-crime to my ornery husband, and the best friend to the lovely CatieM. I write about the things that make me feel like a bad-ass: motherhood, crafting, power tools, lipstick, etc. In my free time, I'm an assistant professor of Computer Science at a large, midwestern state university.

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