"East westing" is not just confined to the larger breasted lady but can occur across the full size range. It all depends on the shape of the chest wall / rib cage and the age of the lady (things can get "down and out" with time).

As all ladies (should) know, clothes that look great on the outside start with good foundations underneath. (Sorry, I'm starting to sound like a "how to" book from the 1950s for young ladies).

If we think about a typical darted bodice for a dress, the shape of the bodice is controlled by the darts / seam shape.

This control leaves fullness (room) for the bust in a particular place: in most fashion looks it's straight in front, because when the bodice was drafted,  the starting points for the bust darts were set from standardised "bust point to bust point" measurements.

Now if there is any "east westing" going on under the bodice,  then the bust and the "bust point to bust point" measurement will be in the wrong place for the bodice so you will get distortion / misshaping of the outer garment bodice and squishing of the bust by the bodice.

So that dress you made may have fitted correctly by just wearing the right underwear (sorry, 1950s "how to" book for young ladies again).

Possible solutions include re-cutting the dress bodice pattern to take into account the "east westing" of the breasts (although you may lose the desired fashionable shape of the outer garment) or make and wear a bra that pushes the breasts into the forward pointing position.

Let's go for the second option and see whether we can get some control over the breasts.

If you do the simple test of cupping each breast in your hands,  then push in and up, you will get the effect that we need from the bra cups. A push in and up adds up to a single diagonal push to either side of the bust.

This push or lift can be achieved (within reason) by a "sling" approach, or by removing fullness from the underarm sides of the cups, thereby leaving nowhere for the breasts to go but in and up.

The Sling Approach

Keeping things retro for a moment, looking at this picture of a "Carol Brent" bra from 1964 we can see a "sling" panel running around the bottom of each cup, up the side and ending in a strap attachment point. (I love the hairdo ).

If we analyse how this bra could be drafted, we can see that it is made up from a three panel strapless cup (that we have already drafted) combined with a sling panel that we could draft from the basic darted cup block.

If we use a sling panel straight from the darted bra block with the three part strapless cup, we can see that the sling has less fullness than the cup.

This would be OK if the sling panel was sewn inside the cup. This would give less room for the breast inside the cup, so giving some "push up".

For an outside "decorative" sling panel as in the "Carol Brent" bra,  we must draft the sling panel from the cup panels and then remove the sling panel parts from the cup panels.

You could also use the three-panel full cup combined with a sling panel.

As with the three panel strapless cup, the full cup sling has slightly less fullness than the cup,  giving some push up benefit when sewn inside the cup.

Here are some alternative push up panels.

You can combine the sling panel idea with different cup necklines, or if you are adventurous you could just use the sling panels sewn to the bra cradle and wings with very low cut or no cups at all for a risky "bedroom wear" bra!

When designing your own underwear you can have some fun.

All the sling panels should be made from a non-stretch fabric. You can also try using bra cup foam or similar to pad out the sling panels. Think classic Playtex "Cross your heart" bras with their inner foam push up pads sewn in and across the bottom parts of the cups.

For a push up bra we need to:

• draft a new cup shape from the master darted cup block, make a "Gated" back
• have a go at sewing "On cup" underwires (that's not using a cradle to sew the cups into)
• put in some "cookie" pads to add a bit more "hello boys".

You can also make this type of low cut bra with a cradle and standard leotard back.

For this bra you will need to obtain two "plunge" underwires that are the right size for your breast root trace.

If you can, try to get hold of MS09 shape underwires (MS20 – Daywear wires, MS08 – strapless wires).

When drafting underwired bras we always start with the underwire to find its balance point (the point that will be directly below the point of bust) and its length. Then we can draft the cradle and cup seam length.

But finding the balance point of a plunge underwire is quite difficult so we will use a different method to draft the cup from the wire.

First,  trace / draw the curve of your underwire onto a sheet of paper, then add to each end of the wire curve: - 5mm for "wire play" and 3mm for "bar tack sinkage".

On the arm side of the wire,  add a further 12mm to take into account the plush hem elastic.

Use a Flexi curve or French curve to continue the wire curve smoothly through the measurements.

Now, using a copy of "your size" master darted cup block (see earlier bra articles for instructions on drafting the darted cup block: parts one, two, and three) and a flexible ruler, measure the perimeter of the cup from the underarm line 7 to the dart leg line 5.

Transfer this measurement to the underwire drawing and put a mark on the curve.

Next, measure the rest of the underwire curve from the mark to the centre front end and transfer this measurement to the cup perimeter from the dart leg line 4, and place a mark on the cup block at the end of this the measurement. (See diagram.)

Draw a line from the underwire measurement mark on the cup to the point of bust and label "A".

Now find the midway point along the arm curve of the cup and draw a line from this point to the underwire measurement mark, label "B".

If, after you have made a paper mock-up of the cup,  you feel that there is insufficient coverage on the arm side of the cup, you can divide the arm curve into thirds and start line "B" at two thirds (or higher) up the arm curve.

Find the midway point of the cup dart lines 4 / 5 and draw a line through the midway point, point of bust and up to line B. Label this line "C".

We are now ready to move the fullness control around the cup.

We are trying to move some of the room for the breast in the cup from the lower part of the cup to the upper part, thereby leaving nowhere for the breast to go but up.

Copy the cup draft to a new sheet of paper and cut out the cup.

Cut along line "B" as this will become the new neckline hem line of the cup.

Next cut down line "C" and close up original dart lines 4 / 5 until line 6 and line "A" are in a straight line. This will transfer some of the fullness control from the lower part of the cup to the upper part.

Apply sticky tape to the cup parts to hold them in position.

Next cut the cup in half along line 7 and line "A".

And close up original dart lines 4 / 5 until the lines are on top of each other. Apply sticky tape to the cup parts to hold them in position.

This will move the rest of the fullness control to an over bust seam position.

Copy the cup parts onto a fresh sheet of paper and, using a Flexi curve or French curve, draw smooth curves for the neck hemline (line B) and over bust seam lines, lines 7 / A.

Copy the lower cup panel and draw a curved or straight line across the "corner" of the panel as in the diagram. This will become the "pocket opening" of the cookie pocket, to be sewn inside the cup.

On the cookie pocket panel draw an "open eye" shape, copy this to another sheet of paper. This is the pattern for the cookie pads that will be cut from foam and put into the cookie pockets to give a bit more "hello boys" if needed.

Now we need to add seam allowance to the cup blocks, 5mm seam allowance all-round for the cup upper panel and the cookie pocket.

The lower cup panel needs 5mm for the over bust seam BUT 15mm allowance where the underwire casing is to be sewn.

The cookie pads need no seam allowance as we will zig zag stitch or overlock / serge the edges.