London

Beverly Johnson, your one and only Fairy Bra Mother, is back with LONDON, the first in a series of exciting Master Classes designed to lift you up beyond the basics into a whole new world of bra sewing mastery!   With her signature humour and fun teaching style, Beverly will guide you with her decades of knowledge and experience as you advance your own bra construction skills in this project based modular learning experience. 

With Beverly’s help you will soon be creating bras with brilliantly designed support elements usually found in only the finest specialty boutiques.  Your journey will begin with the Views of London, an all new beautiful bra design with multiple views created by Beverly exclusively for her Mastery students.  Each view of London is designed to take you a step forward in your bra-making journey. Using this exclusive new pattern you will learn to create bras that are not only beautiful but that include advanced support elements, such as:

-Internal and External Power Bars
-Internal and External Slings
-Collars
-Internal Pockets
-along with Advanced Construction Techniques, and more!

The London mastery course includes hours of instructional video covering all six included London design views with their support element options and specialty possibilities including a Gothic Arch, nursing bra and mastectomy bra all taught by the Fairy Bra Mother herself, as well as printable instructions for you to refer to as you learn.  This master class in bra engineering will soon have you tackling bra support issues from the band up! 

As you can see, the London bra focuses on support, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be stylish! We’ve made our London bras out of all-over lace, sheer cup lining, wickable fabrics with a sheer cup lining overlay, and even with a foam-lined Liberty Tana lawn. We’ve even used quilting cottons! Of course you can use duoplex or other low-stretch fabrics, but you definitely have multiple fabric choices.

As part of every class, you will get access to Beverly’s private Facebook group, whose members include students of her classes, her Certified Instructors, and fitting experts from around the world. It’s a great community support group, to share your triumphs and get advice for any challenges you may face.

That’s not all! You also receive, as part of the class, your own personal pattern in a size range that includes your own BCD size with 5 band sizes, but also 1  BCD size larger and 1 smaller, so you have 15 ready-to-wear bra sizes included with the lessons. Yes, London patterns are now in .pdf format, so you can print them at home – no special printer needed (you can print on either letter size or A4 paper) Most pattern pieces use one sheet of paper with only the largest sizes using more than one. You won’t have to spend hours taping patterns together. Just print and start cutting. Don’t have a printer? Don’t worry – we also include a large format pattern for each size so you can take it to a copy shop, and a projector file to to avoid using paper altogether.

The London class includes 35 pages of printable instructions for all six bras and their support options, a Gothic Arch, nursing bra and mastectomy bra, plus the videos, all taught by the Fairy Bra Mother herself. over 4 hours of video instruction are not geared only to construction of the support elements; they are a master class in bra engineering where you will learn to tackle support issues from the band up!

Here is a video showing the Chelsea view of London

How do I determine my BCD size?

BCD sizing is a sizing method developed by Beverly Johnson in the 1990s. It is much more reliable and easier to use than the traditional ABC sizing you find in ready-to-wear. The BCD, is simply the Bottom Cup Depth measurement of the breast. That is the distance, in inches, from the apex in a supported position to the base of the breast along the infra-mammary crease (known as the wire line)

In the BCD system, all cup sizes increase or decrease by ¼”; each size will accept 3 different wire sizes and each BCD size includes 5 band sizes. If you need one size larger (or smaller), just go up (or down) one BCD size. No more confusing “sister sizing” to figure out!

There are several ways to measure your BCD:

1. use a flexible tape measure and measure the distance, while standing from the apex to the wire line. If your breast tissue is soft, you can lean over so your back is parallel to the floor and measure again. The average of the two measurements is your BCD.
2. if you have a ready-to-wear bra that fits and it has a seam across the apex, you can measure from the wire up to the seamline.
3. if you have sewn a bra that fits, you can measure from the notch at the base of the breast (if there is one) up to the cross cup seam, on the lower cup pattern piece.
4. Refer to the helpful chart below. Find your ready-to-wear size in the first column, and its BCD equivalent is in the second column. The third column is useful for confirming the wire sizes that fit this particular BCD. Each BCD size includes 5 band sizes, even ones that are usually “in between” and therefore have to rely on sister sizing.