{"id":63972,"date":"2015-10-30T08:09:48","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T13:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=63972"},"modified":"2015-10-30T08:09:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T13:09:48","slug":"hamilton-bra-making-school-a-global-attraction-for-amateurs-and-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/30\/hamilton-bra-making-school-a-global-attraction-for-amateurs-and-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton bra making school a global attraction for amateurs and professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HAMILTON \u2013 Sophie Ndala watched her mother wrestle with ill-fitting lingerie her whole life and painstakingly alter oversize bras that nonetheless dug into her shoulders and provided little support.<\/p>\n

With bra shopping a bust in their home country of South Africa, Ndala travelled thousands of kilometres to southern Ontario to learn how to help her mother \u2013 and maybe start a business herself.<\/p>\n

She enrolled at Bra-Makers Supply in Hamilton, a sewing store and custom lingerie school that has grown into an international attraction for both amateurs and professionals.<\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, the store\u2019s owner and self-described \u201cfairy bra mother\u201d Beverly Johnson has shown women \u2013 and the occasional man \u2013 how to handcraft bras that fit bodies of various shapes and sizes using her own patterns.<\/p>\n

Johnson, 62, launched the school \u2013 one of the only programs of its kind \u2013 after years of leading workshops across Canada and around the world.<\/p>\n

Between her in-person lessons and new online courses, Johnson estimates she\u2019s taught more than 30,000 people to make beautiful and supportive bras. Some have gone on to start their own businesses or teach lingerie-making themselves in stores such as The Make Den in west-end Toronto.<\/p>\n

A recent weeklong master class on plus-size bras saw Ndala create a pale blue prototype to take home to her mother \u2013 who has large breasts but a petite frame \u2013 and replicate. If the undergarment fits, Ndala said she plans to start sewing some for others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really a need out there for people to make bras for people who can\u2019t have them anywhere,\u201d Ndala said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get these at the stores because they never make them like this, they only make for certain sizes for average women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of her classmates already have their own lingerie lines and turned to Johnson to hone their skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to hit the mastectomy market,\u201d said Holly Myers, a custom bra-maker based in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my aunts had breast cancer several years back and I\u2019m also a pilates instructor, that\u2019s kind of my first career, and I have quite a few clients who have mastectomies as well… and they always complain about not being able to find cute bras and cute swimwear.\u201d<\/p>\n

After buying Johnson\u2019s first book on bra-making, Myers sought out further instruction, but \u201cnobody really teaches custom anywhere,\u201d she said. Here, she learned how to make her own breast forms for mastectomy bras.<\/p>\n

A longtime seamstress, Johnson came to lingerie in the 1990s after making dance and figure-skating costumes and running her own interior design business in New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

She wanted something she could do out of her own home after moving to Ontario and felt bra-making was something \u201cwomen can use,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But the patterns available at the time weren\u2019t up to snuff, so Johnson set out to design her own, first taking apart dozens of existing models for research.<\/p>\n

As Johnson\u2019s teaching took off, a new challenge emerged: finding the proper materials to support her craft.<\/p>\n

That remains a \u201cmajor headache\u201d to this day, she said. \u201cIn Canada especially, we\u2019ve lost a lot of our fabric mills, we\u2019ve lost a lot of our places to buy elastics and laces and that sort of thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bra-Makers was born to fill that need and now commissions all of its elastics and most of its fabrics, she said.<\/p>\n

The school, which operates in the back of the shop, offers a range of classes from a $225 two-day introductory course to a $600 five-day \u201cboob camp\u201d and lessons in swimwear and corsetry.<\/p>\n

In the beginner class, students adapt patterns to their own body. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect their body to fit into my bra pattern,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

The master classes were brought in to replace what once was a nine-week bra-making certification course after new provincial regulations forced Johnson to axe the program or register as a private career college.<\/p>\n

With a bit of practice, even novice bra-makers can churn out a new undergarment in a few hours, she said.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Johnson has helped women overcome several bra-related difficulties. In one case, students designed a specialty bra that closed with magnets at the front for a blind woman unable to reach behind her back.<\/p>\n

The results can be life-changing, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done bras in our classes for women with mastectomies who had really given up on wearing nice clothes \u2013 they just wanted to wear sweatshirts to hide the fact that they\u2019d had one breast chopped off,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we\u2019ve given them back, just through the act of having them make a bra, we\u2019ve given them back their femininity, we\u2019ve given them back their life, their love for fashion. We just make people happy… nobody\u2019s going to put you down and nobody’s going to make you feel bad because we all have issues with the bra.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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