Hi All!

 

Today I have a super- simple tutorial for you that can be used on my Black Beauty Bra Pattern, but would be easy to apply to other bra patterns too. The Black Beauty Bra pattern has a back band with a straight strap attachment (shown on the left), where the straps come directly down over the shoulders and attach perpendicular to the strap, securing to the bottom and top picot elastic of the band. This is a very simple and minimal attachment, but a scoop-back attachment is a lovely alternative (shown on the right).

One thing that is great about a scoop-back is blending mix and match colours of supplies. When you have strap elastic and a hook and eye that are a different colour from your back band fabric, a good way to make them look more cohesive is to have the scoop-back where the strap scoops in to the hook and eye, connecting them and making the hook and eye blend in with the back band fabric. It’s also a way to make the band a little wider if you prefer a wider band.

For this pattern modification you only need the back band pattern piece of your bra pattern. In the instructions that I show below I use 1.5″ (38mm) as my length for adjustment, but that is just a guideline, this is fully adjustable to your preferences. If you would like your straps wider or more narrow you can adjust that, or if you want the band to extend higher, you can adjust that too. It’s a very flexible adjustment with no hard rules.

If you’re using view A of the pattern with a fold over elastic finish on the top band, you won’t have elastic allowance, so you won’t need to do the last step.

Once you have your modified piece, you cut it out of your fabric as usual. For this tutorial I only cut the back band to show this modification, but you would sew the back band to the cradle as usual, and complete your bra up to the stage of applying your back strap and hook and eye.

 

Once the back is ready you sew on the strap. This is for the adjustable part of your strap, so be sure to have your adjustable strap prepared with slider and ring attached.

Applying the strap may take some practice because you’ll be sewing around a curve. I find I like to curve my elastic while I sew, but also pull the fabric underneath to match the edge of the strap, manipulating both to meet in the middle and form around the curve. Once it’s sewn the strap elastic will want to lay flat and your band will not want to lay flat, but on the body it will stretch conform to a nice scoop shape. You can sew this part with a straight stitch or with a small zig-zag stitch.

Voila! Simple as that!

 

When I was planning out this bra, I really wanted to have the elastics in chocolate, because the vines in this lace are a really dark brown, and I thought the dark elastics would really make this lace pop, but I wanted the back to look cohesive and not a disjointed ivory-chocolate mix. I feel like this version really ties to two colours together in a way that looks intentional. This lace is in our Valentine’s 26 collection, Secret Garden.

 

Let me know if you found this tutorial helpful or if you have any questions or suggestions please share below 🙂

 

xo

erin