How to grade a wing pattern on a bra
It’s a technical one this week, when you look for grading a bra, the information for the wing often doesn’t get mentioned much when grading and they don;t grade with sister sizing, unlike cup patterns where you can sister size grade. Which means that the volume of the cup is the same over many different sizes so if you wear a 32DD bra size you are technically wearing a 34D bra size in the cup. The same volume of breast can fit into a 28F, 30E, 32DD, 34D, 36C & 38B. Which in turn means when you make a cup pattern you can write all those sizes on your pattern, whereas with a wing pattern you have to make a new pattern for each size.
Bras grade from size-to-size with a 5cm grade (apart from in France where it is a 4cm) so if you split the bra into quarters (2x cups and 2x wings) that would 1.25cm on each part (wing and cup) and 2.5cm on each half. This is shown in the wing grade below.
Just to note, some companies take the 2.5cm grade and add only 1cm to the cup and 1.5cm to the wing, now to learn this way is not as simple as splitting the grade, but the reasons some companies do this is because of the style of the bra, often non-cradle bras have this grade, hand graders often use this technique to check their pattern easier, or it could be simply that it is the grading rules of that company.
What we are looking at, the cups are graded using sister sizing so,
a 34B has the same cup size as a 36A
we also know that all underbands will measure the same in total so, all 32s will measure the same, all 34s will measure the same (5cm bigger than 32s, all 36s will measure the same and so forth)
we also know that the grade we’ve chosen for the wing is 1.25cm
Wing depth
The wing depth is where it meets the cradle or cup and this increases by 0.5cm each size you get bigger, this is a standard grade.
So to go from 34B to 36B you would increase the depth by 0.5cm and increase the length by 1.25cm as the underband gets bigger.
To go from a 34B to 34C you would increase the depth by 0.5cm and decrease the wing length by 1.25cm as the underband stays the same.
Why decrease?
Well, all the 34 underbands stay the same length, you have increase the cups from a 34B to a 34C so you need to decrease the the wing length so the total length stays the same.
To go from a 34B to a 36B you would increase the depth the 0.5cm and increase the wing 1.25cm this is because you are increasing the total underband by 5cm so the cups have increased and also the wing.
*cup sizes do not equal the same size, B cups from 34 and 36 backs are not the same size.
In the diagram below I show where to put the grade from a 34B to 36B
Re-Cap
A 34B wing will have a smaller cup but a bigger wing than a 34C
A 34B has the same cup size but a smaller wing than a 36A (this is why you go up a “cup size” and down a wing if you’re bra is too big around your back)
A 36B has a bigger cup and bigger wing than a 34B
If you wish to learn more about grading I run a four session one-to-one grading course, or for those who wish to start their journey and get an over view, there is a book ‘How to grade a Bra and Brief’
There is also a video below if you wish to see the grade in action
