Bralets are becoming more and more popular everyday- I have also noticed marabou trim becoming quite popular so I decided to combine the two. In this tutorial, I will be showing you how I made this marabou feather bralet. 

Things you will need:

 -Fabric of your choice- I used some scrap cotton lining fabric
-Scissors
-Elastic
-Tape measure
-Marabou trim or individual feathers
-Sewing machine or needle and thread
-Optional- pins, a hook and eyes & chalk/pencil



Step 1:

You are going to need two triangle shaped pieces with one curved edge to form the cups of your bralet- one piece is going to be thinner than the other. To find the right size to fit you, play around with the shapes using paper until you find the desired size before cutting your fabric. The two pieces in the picture fit me when the curved edges are joint together with a 1cm seam allowance.

When you have found the right size for you, you can cut out the triangles using your fabric this time. Remember to leave 1cm around the whole shape when cutting them out. I cut out four of each shape- four pieces are for lining as I wanted my bralet to be a bit stronger. 











Step 2:

Sew the triangles together along the curved edge with a 1cm seam allowance. To make this easier, you can pin the pieces in place. Remember to pin two of the pieces the opposite way! In the picture, you can just about see that the top two cups have the smaller piece on top and the bottom two have the bigger piece on top. 

Once you have sewn the triangles together, you should have four pieces like this. Two should have the smaller triangle on the right and the other two should have the smaller piece on the left.







Step 3:

Now you are going to sew the lining pieces on. With the right sides of the fabric together, line up two of the cups so that the big side and small side are in the same place. You will know if the right sides of the fabric are on the inside as the seams should be showing on the outside like in the picture. Sew around the cup leaving a 1cm seam allowance but stop sewing where I have placed the two pins at the top. This gap will be used to turn the cup inside out and it will also be used for the bralet straps. Repeat on the other cup.





Step 4:

Once you have sewed on the lining you and turned the pieces inside out (the right way) you should have two cups which will be quite puffy. To reduce this, you will topstitch around the whole cup leaving the gap at the top open.

Once you have done this, the cups should be a bit flatter but still have the 'bust' shape where you sewed the very first seam. 









Step 5: 

Next, measure around your waist (under your bust). Adding two inches onto this measurement, cut out this length with your elastic. The extra two inches are to hem the elastic as it will fray (mine did anyway). Pin the elastic onto the bottom edge of the cups and sew the cups on and then hem the two ends of the elastic.


Step 6: 

Next, you are going to use the elastic to cut out some straps. I wanted mine to be 15" long so I cut out two 16" straps. The extra inch is for when you place the straps into the gaps that were left in the cups at the start. Insert the straps into the gaps and pin in place. You can now sew these in which will also close the gaps. 

Pin the other ends of the straps around 2.5" away from the edges of the waistband and sew in place. 








Step 7:

You now have a bralet. Pin your marabou trim around the cups and sew in place by hand. You can glue this on using fabric glue if you wish, however, this could be a little bit messy because of all the feathers! 













Step 8:

Sew on the hook and eye(s) to finish the bralet. If you don't have these, you can sew the ends of the elastic together- this works fine, it just makes the bralet a little bit more difficult to put on. 

That's it, you're finished!

In this DIY, I will be showing you how I made these lace hair scrunchies using Cath Kidston fabric. You can use any type of fabric you like, it doesn't have to be Cath Kidston. Enjoy :)

Things you will need:

-Fabric- I had small pieces of fabric which were roughly 19.5" x 10" -A needle and thread or a sewing machine -Elastic -Lace -Pins  -Scissors -A tape measure or ruler

Step 1:

Using your tape measure/ruler and scissors, measure how long you want your elastic to be and cut to that length. I used 9" pieces of elastic but you can vary the length depending on how much you want your elastic to stretch and how big you want your scrunchie to be. 



Step 2:

Measure how big you want your fabric to be and cut- the longer the fabric, the scrunchier the scrunchie will be; the wider the fabric, the wider the scrunchie will be.  I wanted my fabric 5" wide and the length of my fabric was just under 19.5", so I kept that length.







Step 3:

Once you have cut the fabric to your desired length, you need to cut that piece in half again lengthwise. 

You should now have two identical pieces of fabric. You now need to hem the 4 edges with arrows. Do this by folding over a small amount and pinning in place ready to sew (shown below).

You only need to fold over a small amount as you don't want to lose much of the length.















Step 4: 

Once you have hemmed the edges, lay your lace next to your fabric and cut it to the same length. Cut two pieces if you want lace on the inside and outside edge of the scrunchie or cut one piece of lace if you just want the lace on the outside edge. 

Lay the lace facing inwards on the piece of fabric as shown in the picture- make sure the right side of the fabric is facing upwards. 

Place the other piece of fabric on top with the right side facing downwards. 











Step 5:

Pin the layers in place- make sure you don't place the pins in line with the edge or you won't be able to sew over them, place the pins facing inwards. Once all the pins are in place, sew across the two long edges- make sure you don't sew directly on the edge, sew the edges around 1 cm in to make sure you catch all of the lace. Don't sew the two short edges!










Step 6:

Once you have stitched the two long edges, turn the fabric inside out. Your lace should now be attached to the fabric. 
You now need to thread your elastic through the piece of fabric.

You can do this by attaching a safety pin to the elastic and pushing it through the fabric- this is much easier than trying to push it through with just your hands. 

When you reach the end, remove the safety pin and tie the two ends of the elastic together. You can leave this as it is or secure it a bit more using a needle and thread or some fabric glue. 













Step 7: 

Place one end of the fabric inside the other as shown in the picture and secure using a needle and thread. 

That's it, you're finished!

Tip:

Change the length & width of the fabric and the colour of the lace to create a variety of different scrunchies!

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to make a fringed kimono using a scarf. I used two small scarves, but I will also be explaining how to the kimono using just one large scarf. Enjoy :) 


Things you will need:

-one large scarf or two small scarves (I used two small scarves which measured 160 x 50cm) -scissors -fringe (I had 2m) -a needle and thread or a sewing machine (this can also be done using fabric glue if you don't like sewing) 



Step 1:

Lay your two scarves next to each other aligning the pattern if you wish. As you can see, I made mine symmetrical. If you have one large scarf, skip to step 3.













Step 2:

Find the centre point of the two scarves joint together and place something there to mark where it is- I used scissors to do this. You are now going to sew from the centre point, downwards- don't sew the whole length of the scarves.

When you sew the scarves together, don't sew right on the edge. Push the edges together so that you form a seam (like the first picture) and sew 1cm away from the edge (where the needle is placed in the second picture). 









Step 3: 

You should now have something like this- the bottom half stitched together and the top half open. Now, fold the top half downwards so that the top two edges are in line with the bottom edge (shown in the picture below). 

If you are using a large scarf, you will fold the scarf in half the same way as this, however, you will not have the opening. To make the opening, cut from the bottom of the scarf upwards until you reach the fold- do this on the top layer ONLY or you will completely cut your scarf in half. Once you have done this you will have to hem both edges or the scarf will fray- do this by folding the edges in twice and stitching it in place. You can now continue the rest of the tutorial like normal. 
Step 4:

On the left side of the scarf, mark where the halfway point is- I used scissors for this again. 

Sew from the centre point downwards like you did in step 2. The top half is going to be the sleeve of the kimono. Repeat on the other side.

You now have a kimono. If you like it as it is, you don't have to carry on. If you want to add fringe to the sleeves, continue to the next step.  Also, if you don't like the length of your kimono, make it shorter simply by folding it back to how it was when you made the sleeves, cutting the bottom edge to your desired length and hemming the raw edge by folding in twice and stitching in place. 








Step 5: 

Lay your fringe onto one of the sleeves of your kimono and sew it on until you reach the end of where you stitched the sleeve- don't cut the fringe off, just stop sewing. Be careful not to sew all the way through both sides of the sleeve, just sew the top layer. 

When you get to the end of the sleeve, carry on sewing the fringe around it until you reach the start of the fringe again. 

When you reach where you started stitching on the fringe, overlap it by about an inch and stitch in place. You can now cut the fringe. Repeat on the other side of the kimono. When you cut the fringe, it might start to unravel- I stopped this by tying a knot at the end. 


















That's it, you're finished!

Tip: Use any leftover fringe to make a necklace!

Thank you for viewing this blog post- please leave a comment if there is anything specific you would like me to make a tutorial for.