Hello beautiful bra people! Welcome to Part 11 of our Black Beauty Bra View B Sew-Along with Joy (@byjoymao).

This is the second-to-last post in our series, and in this step, we’ll be finishing up the sewing portion of our bra:

• Sewing Straps to Back Band
• Attaching Hook & Eye
• Joining Front and Back Straps

In the very last post, I’ll be talking a bit about the fit and pattern adjustments that I made.

Sewing Straps to Back Band

Remember those adjustable straps that you made in Part 5? If you assembled these straps before you started sewing the bra, then they’re ready to attach! If you didn’t assemble them quite yet, don’t worry—check out Part 5 to see how I did it.

First off, pin each strap to the interior of the back band. Erin’s pattern suggests pinning the strap about 1.5” away from the back band edge, but feel free to adjust the placement according to your preferences. 

Make sure that the right side (shiny side) of the strap elastic is against the wrong side of the back band.

Sew the strap to the back band with two rows of straight stitches, one along the underarm elastic, and one along the underbust elastic.

With these two rows of stitching, your adjustable straps should be secure!

Attaching Hook & Eye

Next, let’s attach the hook and eye.

The hook and eye comes in two parts, the shorter “hook” piece, and the matching “eye” piece that serves as an adjustable closure for the bra.

Note: A well-fitting bra should hook on the widest (outermost) setting, which allows you to tighten the band as the elastic stretches over time, increasing the lifespan of your bra.

The “hook” piece usually goes on the wearer’s right. When viewed from the exterior of the bra, the hooks face in towards the body.

To attach the hook, simply insert the raw edge of the back band (wearer’s right side) in between the pocket/opening of the hook, and straight stitch over all the layers. I shifted my needle position in this step to help avoid stitching too close to the hooks themselves.

Repeat this process on the other side with the “eye” piece. When viewing the exterior of the bra, the “eyes” should be facing outwards.

Joining Front and Back Straps

This is the very last step in the bra-sewing process!

Simply thread the front strap elastic through the ring of the back strap, like so:

Fold the front strap elastic over the ring. Before you sew, make sure to check that the straps are not twisted, and that the plush sides of the elastic are together.

Sew the two layers of elastic together with a straight stitch.

Repeat on both sides, and you’re done!

Final Thoughts

Our bra is complete! But there will be one more bonus post, where I talk a little bit about my journey with fit, and dig into how I made some fit adjustments to my Black Beauty Bra pattern.