Is a 32FF the same as a 34F?
Awhile ago I wrote about if a 32DD was the same a 34D (which can be found here) and spoke about sister sizing. But when you grade above a E cup sister sizing doesn’t come into play as much. Even though the 32FF and the 34F would use the same wire depending on what base size you are grading from they could have different measurements. You tend to grade all the bands first so would grade say all the 30 band, then the 32 bands etc, so you are starting with a base size for each band, and as you’re not using the same grade rules as the smaller cups, the 32FF will be close to a 34F but not the same.
Why don’t you use the same grade rules as a smaller cup?
When you learn grading for the smaller cup (D or DD and below) you are taught to split the grade evenly between the pattern pieces, this doesn’t work on the bigger sizes. I have coloured coded a drawing of a pattern (not to scale) of where you should increase more and less by, the pink equals that you should increase more than the standard grade, yellow equals that you should decrease less than the standard grade.
So let’s start with the lower cups, instead of splitting the grade evenly (ie the total grade of 1.2cm in the depth, usually the grade would be split 0.6cm on the top cup and 0.6cm on the lower cup), the grade on the bigger size cups gets split so that more grade goes on the bottom cup depth (marked in pink). This is because as the breast gets bigger it gets heavy at the bottom and need more support (the seam) and more depth than the top of the cup.
*please note the grade book only discusses grading up to a C cup
Also to increase is the underarm, again this is because the bigger the breast the longer the underarm has to be, and if you stuck with a standard grade then the apex would be too far apart, this then correlates to the neckline, which decreases less than the standard grade to allow the apex to move in and to keep the breast pointing forward rather than sitting under the arms.
Regarding the measurement going over the breast, the seam grades less than the standard grade, this is because in relation to the depth of the breast, the breast doesn’t get as wide (as the depth) as it increases in size. Another thing you have to be aware of are your wires, check how wide they are grading by and if you’re unsure opt for the narrower version, to eliminate the problem of having underwires dig high in your armpit.
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