1940' Bra Sew-Along - Finishing with a closure.

Hello my dears. I hope you're having a lovely weekend so far.
I just want to start this post out today with a warm hug for my friends and followers in France. Your country was my first love and my oldest friend, and after the events of yesterday, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

It's a chilly day here in Monterey and the sun is at a low angle in the sky. My house smells like a house should on a cold day - hints of apple cider and a pot roast in the oven are wafting up the stairs to my studio. And it's the perfect time to type up a blog post and finish our sew-along.

In our last post we discussed edge finishing and sewing our straps in. Now all that's left to do is add our back closure and we should be done! I know we're all used to hook and eye closures in bras these days and that's what I prefer for this bra. But if you're going for a full 1940's bra style, know that you can also use buttons and loops if you like, or a French bra back, which is essentially two lengths of elastic and a hook.

For this project I have used plush-backed hook and eye tape with a double set of eyes for adjusting fit. This is pretty much plug and play, but there are a few notes on placement.

The first thing to do no matter what type of closure you use, is to stay-stitch the center back of each piece D to keep it from stretching while you work. This can be done with any straight stitch 1/8" from the edge.

Ooh la la Pin Up Sew-Along... Embelishments: Hooks and eyes can be pretty too.

When I last posted about the corset we had just finished sewing our hook and eye tape to the corset back. Now, here's how to make it pretty.

I chose to bind the outside edges of my closure with cream satin bias tape. This was too small a place to get a sewing machine needle into, especially with the hooks and eyes in the way, but that's ok. I really prefer to sew bias binding on by hand. I feel like I have better control over where my stitches go and how they look on both sides.

When we first moved to Norway, I made a newbie mistake and plugged my sewing machine into the wrong end of my electric transformer, blowing the electric part out. Gertie of Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing and her great readers helped me out in this post by suggesting all sorts of hand sewing projects I could do to stay busy until my machine was fixed.
I ended up sewing several projects completely by hand including an amazing silk blouse and now I consider hand stitching to be an incredibly soothing and rewarding pastime.

If you choose to bind our edge as I have done, make sure that you keep your stitches under the eyes, and that the stitches directly under the eye are split in two, just in case the hook catches, it will be anchored well there.

I bound both edges like this and then it was time to add boning again. I agree with Sarah completely when she said that if you add boning anywhere to the corset, you really need to add it to the back.

It depends on what type of hook and eye tape you have but sometimes there's a channel already hidden behind the hooks and eyes that's perfect for boning to slip into. If there isn't such a spot in your case, then don't worry! There should still be a gap between the back of the hook and eye tape against the corset fabric.

Here's my bound and boned hook edge from the outside.

For a little added embellishment I added a length of purchased ruffle trim to the back of my hook side. I just carefully slip-stitched it in place. The top and bottom ends will be nicely bound when we finish the rest of the corset binding.

Next up comes binding the top and bottom. If you've done any quilting, I'm sure your bias binding techniques will come in handy in this part!
With any luck, my garter clips will get here soon and I can finish this little beauty.

How is everyone doing so far? Are you behind or ahead of Sarah and I?
Keep in mind that there's no deadline, no homework due, and you don't have to keep the same pace as anyone else. This is to make sewing lingerie easy and fun for you, on YOUR terms!

Ohh La La Pin Up Sew Along... Your Hook and Eye Closure

The pattern we're using...

All right Ladies, it's that time. Hook and eye time. First, allow me to disclaim a bit. This is not my very best work. I did this on day 4 of NO sleep (hurray for medicine side effects) so my pictures and sewing both are a wee bit blurry, I apologize.

This is a bit of a long post so feel free to stop half way though and have a glass of wine. I did.

The right hand side of the tape will be our 'raw' edge.

 Start by cutting the length of hook and eye tape you need for your back closure. I recommend doing this with the hooks and eyes locked together to avoid any mismatched edges.
Decide which side you want the hooks and eyes on. I went with the standard bra formula of Hooks on the Right, Eyes on the Left.

Let's start with they eyes, shall we?