How to Salvage Your Favorite Bra

So you have this friend, right? She's supportive, not too clingy, and never lets you down. You're always comfortable having her around you. She's your bra!

And now, after years of faithful companionship, she's finally come undone. She's a wreck. She's falling apart.

Or in less dramatic terms, your bra has a hole in it and is
rapidly losing holding power. This bra has already been repaired
twice, unsuccessfully, which is why you might be able to see
green and pink threads.

What do you do? Decide to just move on, drop her off at the station and let her drop out of your life? No way! You two have had too many good times to let it end over something this small. Great bras are hard to come by, and you can't just let yours slip away from you. You're going to find a way. Together, you will get through this! To be precise, you are going to patch things up.

 I will now cease to anthropomorphize my bra and demonstrate the process by which you can save yours from a fate in the trash heap.

1. Cut a patch

Think carefully about this step, because the right fabric is essential to the proper working of a bra. If I'd had it, I would have chosen a jersey knit (T-shirt fabric) but in its absence, I went with a thin stretch denim. I cut it into the approximate shape of the part I wanted to reinforce. Note the hole itself was very small, but I made a patch large enough to cover most of the band, because the fabric was weakened almost its entire length.

2. Pin the patch in place

Position the patch on the inside of the damaged area of your bra.

While you're sewing, the patch will likely be slip-sliding in all directions and generally making a pain of itself. To pre-empt this, you should ensure that the edges and a good section of the middle are secured to their intended resting places.

3. Sew.

The goal of this step is to attach the patch firmly to the damaged bra such that no more ripping occurs—not of the bra's fabric, not of your thread. To this end, you should choose a stitch meant to withstand a lot of stretching. My machine comes with a three-stitch zigzag, (the middle one in the picture), which is the one I used.
Now just start at one end of the patch and keep sewing in rows until the whole thing has been covered. You are essentially "quilting" the patch onto the bra.

The finished product will look something like this! I didn't bother overlocking the raw edges, so I might see some fraying in the future, but I really just wanted to see whether this was possible....And it is! I wore my reincarnated bra for three days without any further problem!

Except for this one:

The reverse side didn't look nearly as neat as the top side did. I chalk this up to my sewing machine being a worthless hunk of no-good crappy unreliable stupid junk, which continually tangles the thread. So a word to the wise is, if you, too, frequently end up with rat's nests on the bottom of your sewn pieces, you might consider sewing with the "good" side of your bra facing up.

With that small precaution taken, I'm sure you'll see many more good times with your bosom buddy!