DIY Marabou Feather Trim Bralet

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!