u/starjo190

First bra I've ever made, Black Beauty size 30FF (measurements; underbust 30 1/2 inches, bust 38 inches)

While this is more comfortable than most commercial bras i've tried, Im finding a lot of fit issues, especially in the band.

The power bar is digging into the cup, which should be a relatively easy slash-and-spread fix. My bigger concern is the gaping at the underarm area of the cups (seen best in the last pictures, a nice awkward overhead shot of my bust aka, my POV when looking down). Not sure the best way to attack this while still having the correct shape/fit of the cups

The band seems like an all around mess. It feels comfortably snug for the most part, but keeps sliding down throughout the day when wearing. I do feel it digging in significantly and leaving red marks in my skin right around the side seam, so i know that if I were to go any smaller in size it would be uncomfortable. The side seam is also pulling forward as shown in the pictures. So the band (to me) feels simultaneously too big, as it keeps sliding down, and too tight, as it digs in and leaves marks at the side.

The band elastic along the bottom edge at the cradle constantly curls up towards my body. I have been wearing this bra for a couple days now as a test drive and the elastic has now conveniently been permanently shaped into this weird curl position (as seen in the second to last picture)

The place the band feels the most comfortable is along the back, however here I get a bunch of weird sagging of the fabric, which I'm not a fan of. In these pictures I had just put the bra on, and pulled up the band to be perpendicular to the floor, and had done my best to try and smooth out the "sagging" fabric along the band, clearly with no luck. It looks like my skin/back fat (yum) is pushing the band fabric down in some areas.

I should note, that for every commercial bra i've ever had, I've always had to tighten the straps all the way right out of the gate in order to wear it. If I don't, they are super loose and floppy. For this bra I deliberately made the straps shorter from the start, so I wouldn't have to do that.
I'm not sure if this strap issue means that the distance between my apex point and my shoulders is just much shorter than average, but I was wondering if it may be contributing to my other fit issues with the band.
(The straps are the main win of this bra, as their length and position has successfully kept them from sliding off).

In short, I need looots of advice on how to deal with the band fitting all around, as well as advice on how to adjust the cup gaping issue at the underarm.

I've obtained a beautiful vintage silk bias cut slip dress for free. The dress is (at earliest) the 1960s, but it's difficult to get the exact date. It fits beautifully, but is the EXACT same color as my skin, which is not my fav.

This is my current plan:

1. Unpick the straps, remove the old elastic loops in the back, and remove the metal hardware as they won't take the color anyways, will need to be replaced, and would probably impede dye permeability on the straps. I plan on just replacing the elastic and hardware myself with something that matches the final color better
2. Tub dye Jacquard's Acid Dye in Sapphire to get this to a more wearable color for me.

I wanted to see if there were any additional precautions I should take with the fabric. The silk seems very stable, no real signs of wear aside from some thread coming undone at the back neckline, and a couple small, unnoticeable stains which I don't really care about. I have a lot of experience dying other vintage fabrics, but I have not dyed vintage silk yet. My only fears are damaging the fabric, or making the color worse (ie blotchy and uneven). I wanted to check here to see if anyone had any specific advice/tips for 1. safely dying vintage silk, and 2. any tips on getting an even color when tub dying.