bra surgery
I switched some months ago to FigLeaves' "Just Peachy" sets, which apparently don't suit everyone but work nicely for me. (I have a short torso, and the straps only fit if they're adjusted to their longest setting - that is, anyone with a longer torso than mine will be out of luck - so I'm frankly surprised they manage to sell any of the damn things at all?, but hey.) Or more accurately: they work almost very nicely for me. They've got a wire under the cup, of course, and another one on the side, a couple of inches back from the edge of the cup.
That side wire stabs the shit out of me.
I'd guess it was because the wire is a little longer than my boob is tall, but it's a worse problem on the right than on the left, and my right boob is a little bigger, so I don't know. It's worse in some of my bras than in others, down to how I've moved in them at various times and what shapes the (plastic, of course) wire has got itself into, but bending it back to be straight again only solves the issue for a few minutes. Finally last night I couldn't take it anymore and it occurred to me to do a test run, with one of the bras, at just bloody well removing that wire. The underwire is the one doing the work anyway. The side wire doesn't have a thing to do with where my breasts end up when the bra is on; it's meant to be side support for the outside edges of my ribs, I guess, but that's not a spot I care about sleekness and shape, and even if I did, a) fail because the stabbing means whatever the underarm equivalent of a muffin-top is and b) it is really, really not worth suffering for such a thing.
So I took a paring knife (because I don't have a seam ripper) and a pair of scissors and, on the oldest of the bras I have (and they're inexpensive anyway, so if it didn't work that's two ways it wouldn't be a huge loss) slit open the inside of the fabric sleeve that has the torturous wire in, and had to really dig to get at the stitches that were anchoring the fucker to the band - side note, Figleaves' Just Peachy bras are quite sturdily sewn together - and changed into that bra and you guys. You guys. I have not been this comfortable with a bra on in ages.
I know what I'm doing with some of the rest of my spring break.
That side wire stabs the shit out of me.
I'd guess it was because the wire is a little longer than my boob is tall, but it's a worse problem on the right than on the left, and my right boob is a little bigger, so I don't know. It's worse in some of my bras than in others, down to how I've moved in them at various times and what shapes the (plastic, of course) wire has got itself into, but bending it back to be straight again only solves the issue for a few minutes. Finally last night I couldn't take it anymore and it occurred to me to do a test run, with one of the bras, at just bloody well removing that wire. The underwire is the one doing the work anyway. The side wire doesn't have a thing to do with where my breasts end up when the bra is on; it's meant to be side support for the outside edges of my ribs, I guess, but that's not a spot I care about sleekness and shape, and even if I did, a) fail because the stabbing means whatever the underarm equivalent of a muffin-top is and b) it is really, really not worth suffering for such a thing.
So I took a paring knife (because I don't have a seam ripper) and a pair of scissors and, on the oldest of the bras I have (and they're inexpensive anyway, so if it didn't work that's two ways it wouldn't be a huge loss) slit open the inside of the fabric sleeve that has the torturous wire in, and had to really dig to get at the stitches that were anchoring the fucker to the band - side note, Figleaves' Just Peachy bras are quite sturdily sewn together - and changed into that bra and you guys. You guys. I have not been this comfortable with a bra on in ages.
I know what I'm doing with some of the rest of my spring break.