How to hack the Willowdale Bra for a low back dress

Need your Willowdale Bra to work with a dress that has a lower back—like our new Wayland Dress? Keep reading for the full tutorial.

If you’ve got a fuller bust, you already know that strappy sundresses and supportive bras have never exactly been best pals.

The Wayland Dress can be worn with a strapless bra, or a regular bra with the wider straps. However, you need to wear a regular bra with a low back for it not to show. The good news is that you can hack our best-selling Willowdale Bra!

This hack is a simple pattern and construction modification that drops the Willowdale’s back band low enough to vanish completely under the Wayland’s low back — so you get a bra for a low back dress that actually looks invisible, not just “close enough.”

How the Willowdale hack works

This hack changes the angle of the back band on the Willowdale, making it sit straighter across the back. There is a different, wider closure (instead of the standard 3 hook version), and then you add elastic loops and rings at the back so you can have adjustable straps that connect underneath the Wayland’s own shirred back. The result is a bra back that sits low enough to vanish under the dress, with straps you can customize to your dress’s back opening once both garments are on your body.

What you’ll need

• Your Willowdale Bra pattern
• A 5 hook-and-eye closure (the standard Willowdale calls for 3 hooks — for this hack, you need the longer 5-hook version)
• Two small rings and two short pieces of strap elastic (about 3″/7.6 cm each)

Before you cut: measure the height of your hook-and-eye closure. Most run somewhere between 3 ¾”–4″ (9.5–10 cm) tall — you’ll need that measurement for the pattern modification below.

Step 1: Modify the Willowdale Bra pattern for a low back

Extend the center back sew line upward until it matches the height of your hook-and-eye closure.

Next, draw a new line from roughly the top of the side seam sew line to that new, raised center back point.

Finally, add seam allowance to your new lines: 1/4″ (6 mm) at center back, and ⅜” (1 cm) along the new upper edge.

That’s it — your pattern modification is done. The back band is now tall enough to carry the longer closure, and ready to sit low and disappear under your Wayland.

Step 2: Sew the modified Willowdale (with two small detours from the standard instructions)

Sew your Willowdale as normal, following the standard instructions right up through “Apply back curve elastic” on page 23. Then pause here for the hack.

Attach the back strap loops

1. Cut a piece of strap elastic 3″ (7.6 cm) long.

2. Thread the loose end through one of your rings, fold it back on itself (plush sides together, raw edges aligned).

1. Place the elastic on the wrong side of the back band, with the raw edges of the strap extending just past the lower edge of the upper elastic. Baste it in place — just baste for now, don’t finalize it yet.

1. Repeat on the other side with your second piece of elastic and ring.

Finish the closure

Continue with the standard Willowdale instructions again at “Sew Hooks and Eyes” on page 25 — except now, your hook-and-eye tape runs along the entire raised center back edge, rather than just the original lower portion.

Lock it in

Once your bra is fully finished, put it on with your Wayland and settle on the final position for those back rings and straps. When you’re happy, resew the back straps for good, using a dense zig-zag along both the top and bottom edges of the underarm elastic.

And voila! A Willowdale that sits low enough to completely hide under a Wayland’s back, with straps you’ve fitted to your own body and your own dress. No visible bra band, no compromise on support — just a strappy summer dress that finally works with the bra you actually want to wear underneath it.