DIY Cage Bralette

Tags

bra, bralette, cage, DIY, dollskill, lingerie, nastygal, project, sewing, summer

Maybe it’s a little too late in the year to be thinking of summer dresses with exposed backs, or extreme 80′s tank tops with giant arm holes… but I’m very excited for warmer weather!  Because I made this little beauty:

…and now you can too!  Normally I don’t wear bralettes, but lately I’ve been bitten by the Nasty Gal/Brandy Melville style bug and I’m stepping out of my comfort zone with this.  Nasty Gal and Dolls Kill sell this very popular caged bralette/swimsuit top for around $75 or more, but I didn’t want to spend that much for just a bra.  This is my first time sewing a bikini/lingerie type piece and I’m glad I did…. it turned out amazingly well for my first try.

I spent $5.22 for 10 yards of elastic from Etsy, $0.99 for the black thread (I had just recently run out), and $2 for some stretchy little girl’s dance shorts at Goodwill… for a total of $8.21.

What you’ll need:

• Stretchy black fabric for the two chest pieces
• At least 5 yards of 5/8″ fold over elastic, or “FOE.”  I bought 10 yards and only used about half
• A sewing machine
• Black thread
• 2 bra rings, 2 bra adjustable sliders:  I cut up an old black bra and used it for its parts
• Scissors (or rotary blade, but that’s optional)
• A ruler or measuring tape to make sure things are even

Fold over elastic can be found on Etsy and Ebay.  They come in different widths but the most common is 5/8″.

There are 2 sides to fold over elastic (aka FOE).  I chose to use the matte side.

You’ll be making a LOT OF STRAPS. A LOT.

Play around with your zig zag settings and tension to get the best amount of stretch in your straps.

Find some fabric to use for the cup/chest area.

Cut it up!

Let’s finish the edges with fold over elastic.

Make sure you have extra length for the straps. Just in case.

I’m a size 32, so I cut enough for a 32″ band.  Sew to attach.

Close your bra band together to make a loop:

Now it’s time to work on the back straps.  Find some bra parts!

Make your adjustable straps:

Now add the decorative straps to the cup area:

The loops should fit around your bottom ribcage.

It will seem very repetitive now, but we’re almost done.

When you’ve added all the straps you want… you’re finished!

Have fun and good luck!

♥ E&I

Latest finds: J Brand, Hudson, Forever 21 and a Halloween Sewing project

Tags

crafting, deals, denim, etsy, Forever 21, halloween, hudson, j brand, jeans, max hat, neiman marcus, sewing, Shopping, where the wild things are

I love you, Neiman Marcus Last Call.  My love for you knows no bounds!!!

A few weeks ago I bought a pair of white Hudson skinnies for ~$35.  In the past I didn’t have much luck at this store but I’ve hit the jackpot lately~

From my instagram:

And last week I scored 2 J Brand jeans for $30.87 each! And they’re not weird, high waisted, or in strange colors either!  My local store receives merchandise from their sister store, Bergdorf Goodman, and for some reason, the BG merchandise is heavily discounted compared to the regular Neiman Marcus items.  The Hudsons and J Brands that I found were priced at a mere $49.99 each.  The whole clearance center was having a 30% off everything sale and I was lucky enough to get an additional 10% off because of their Columbus Day sale, thus bringing each pant to $30.87.

I usually perform research on most of my purchases just to see if I can find a cheaper price elsewhere or if reviewers had any problems with fit or quality.  Does this also validate my purchase? Perhaps.

I bought the J Brand Martini flare

…and the J Brand 901 Coated leggings in Smokestack.

I really thought they were regular jeans at first but they have faux front pockets.  The only bad thing about coated leggings or jeans is that they are dry clean only.  But I really like how subtle the coating is.

These are my first J Brands and I have to say that I am a big fan already!  Hudson jeans are normally my favorite but these are quite close.

The Martini inseam is very long and as such I’ll have to lose a lot of the flare shape.  When trying them on I look like I’m about to go scuba diving with flippers!  That’s okay because I prefer a more subtle flare anyhow.

I also picked up a cheap polka dot tee from Forever 21 for $2.99 in a size medium.  Sizing up means a bigger neck opening and a high probability of off-the-shoulder styling

The dots remind me of Japan and the Rei Kawakubo COMME des GARÇONS print!

I was going to put the post up earlier but I’ve been busy sewing this hat for a customer!  If you don’t recognize it, it is the Max hat from the book and movie “Where the Wild Things Are” but without the crown.

At lunch today I’m heading over to Justin’s so I can take a few more modeling pics of him for additional listings.  Then this hat will be shipped off!

I have a lot more material and I plan to go on a hat sewing rampage!  Lately I’ve been unmotivated to sew but this has really amped me up.

♥ E&I

DIY Project – Minnie Ears Headband

Tags

crafting, disneyland, DIY, mickey ears, minnie ears, minnie mouse, project, sewing

Justin and I are going to Disneyland in a couple weeks!  I sported mouse ears when I was a kid and I thought it’d be fun to do it again as an adult!  At first I scoured Ebay and Etsy for some ears… but I found that they don’t come cheap.  The cheapest ones were actually sold by DIY’ers so I thought I could give it a go myself and save some money in the process.

Everything I had was already here at home so this project cost nothing!

What you’ll need:

• Two old greeting cards, or two scraps of cardboard you can fold down
• Scotch tape
• Fabric pins
• A circle template (I used a large lotion container)
• A thin headband
• An old black T shirt you don’t mind cutting up
• A black lace remnant
• A white pencil (I actually used a cheap $0.99 white eyeliner)
• Sewing machine (or you can hand sew)
• Red or pink felt to make a bow (see my bow tutorial here)
• Hot glue

Here’s my folded card, headband and my template (old Bath and Body Works lotion tub)

Use whatever is around the house (perhaps a mug?) to trace your template onto the folded side of the card.  Leave about 1.5″ or so of fold.  Cut out.

The headband will slip through the card fold. If you want, reinforce the fold with scotch tape.

Lay your t-shirt flat, and place the cardstock on top as a guide.  Cut out your t-shirt fabric to size.  You’ll end up with two layers.

Cut out two squares of lace of the same size as your t-shirt fabric.

Sandwich the lace (with the right sides facing in) between the two layers of t-shirt fabric.

Pin the layers together and trace around the cardstock with your pencil.

Sew the layers of fabric together on the white markings with your sewing machine.  If you decide to hand sew this, the right sides of the fabric should face out. (Lace, T shirt, T shirt, Lace)

Trim the fabric

Turn the ear inside out.  Roll up your cardstock and stuff inside.

Flatten out the cardstock inside the ear.

I couldn’t get a good picture of this, but open up the fold of the card stock and carefully slip your headband through.  (This is where the reinforcing scotch tape comes in handy.  If the cardboard rips, you can scotch tape the card stock to the cardboard and then sew your fabric over the headband.)

Optional:  My sewing wasn’t perfect, and there were a few bumps/corners poking out.  I used some hand sewing to tuck these imperfections in.

After slipping the ears on and making sure of the placement I had to hand sew the base of the ears closed.  (You can glue on scraps of fabric on the ear base using hot glue if you don’t feel like sewing here)

Minnie wouldn’t be Minnie without her bow, so we’re going to add one here.

I made a felt red bow using my bow tutorial here, but with a rectangular backing.  The center strip of the bow holds the bow and the rectangle piece together.  I then cut the corners of the rectangle to give it a cute finish.  You can add whatever type of bow you want here.  Or get creative and add a little tiara, or a bridal veil if you wish depending on the occasion!

Using hot glue, I glued the 4 corners of the bow to the ears.

And that’s it!  Hopefully this wasn’t too complicated.  I did this project on the fly and I think it turned out well for an hour of work!  The lace really helps to conceal any sewing mistakes.

Thanks for reading

♥ E&I

 

 

DIY: Turning a vintage sequin top into a zippered clutch (Part 1)

Tags

bags, clutch, crafting, DIY, Fashion, pouch, sequin, sewing

This is my 4th clutch project in my zippered clutch series!  Check them out along with other DIY projects here.

I asked you for your opinions on this $5 sequin top at the end of 2011:

…and 60% of you said to turn it into a clutch instead of leaving it alone!  I also thought about turning into a skirt, but honestly A) I don’t think I’d wear it and B) I haven’t made a skirt before!

As I readied the sequin fabric for sewing I realized I could make an additional makeup pouch out of the two sleeves.

Here’s the finished makeup pouch!

I think I’ll sell this one for either at my Etsy shop or my blogshop.  I haven’t posted it up yet though, I’m about to head to another LASIK appointment right now.

The larger sequin clutch will be completed later on.  Thanks for reading!

♥ E&I

DIY Alteration Project – Tribal Blazer

Tags

alteration, blazer, crafting, DIY, Fashion, project, sewing, tribal

Quick disclaimer:  This isn’t a DIY alteration tutorial; its moreso sharing a DIY project that I’ve completed.

A little consignment shop opened up nearby and I saw this vintage blazer on sale for $11:

I did a quick Ebay search on my phone and it turned out someone had already chopped the original blazer in half… you can see under the wooden toggle that this jacket ends abruptly.  The size wasn’t marked and the material tag was long gone.

The material of this jacket intrigued me… I guessed that it was made out of cotton and it had interesting varying tribal designs on the stripes.  Normally I don’t wear much red but I do love me some tribal!

And to make this jacket even sweeter, it had a black yarn trim around the lapel.  It was almost as if a Chanel tweed jacket and a Rastafarian blanket had a love child!

I took a chance and brought it home with me.  The shoulders were huge on me:

I’ve read altering the shoulders at a tailor isn’t worth the jacket itself.  DIY it was, then.  I took this Forever 21 vest and traced the outline on the fabric with an alteration pencil to follow the shoulder and sleeve outline.  (Sorry I forgot to take an image of this.)  Then I cut the sleeves off and cut away the body of the jacket.

I’m no expert in alterations… I just hoped that the heavy fabric would conceal any mistakes that I’d make.  I’m much better with hand sewing.. so I fit the sleeves to the garment with pins and started hand sewing.

After cutting the body and attaching the sleeves:

I thought I was going to be done but the sleeves looked a bit baggy.  So I took my sewing machine, went over all of my hand stitched seams, and took in the sleeves.

Here’s the finished product:

I wasn’t too sure if the cropped look was too juvenile but there wasn’t anything I could do to add any extra length.  No matter though I think it looks ok since my torso isn’t that long.

I’ll more likely wear it open anyways.  I apologize for the blurriness in the photos.. this mirror is vintage and it has spots that I can’t get out!

Phew!  Success!  I let the blazer sit out for days before I mustered up the courage to start this project.

Thanks for reading

♥ E&I