Welcome back everyone hopefully you’ve come here ready to start decorating your bra! – if you have a plain bra and haven’t upgraded your underwear bra to a super awesome bad ass bellydancer bra- take a minute and go back and read these two posts- you’ll get all caught up on the process!
Bellydance Bra Base! and Bellydance Bra Cover
Once you’ve leveled up your bra- it’s time to start decorating it- for this one I already have in mind a few ideas- and have started to collect the pieces I need to make it a reality- I don’t know EXACTLY what it will look like- but that’s okay- just having piles of stuff to help inspire me is useful. If you already know exactly what you then you may not need to collect so many piles and spend as much time in the “throw shit at it and see what sticks” phase of the project- but that’s okay too.
Last you left we were here- with a plain- reinforced and covered bra (seriously guys- how pretty is this fabric!)
I’d already pre-ordered some rhinestones and things to be ready to roll with my costume once I had gotten the lace on- which speaking of – I have this beautiful open circle lace I found that just looked- ABSOLUTELY magical on top of the blue.
On top of that I ordered (and was donated thanks Razilee!) a bunch more sew on and hot fix crystals- this costume is intended to be stream lined and very contemporary- also *QUICK*- I need to finish this in less than 2 weeks time- so nothing excessive like hand fringing. NOT TODAY SATAN. NOT TODAY!
Here’s the starting collection of my pile of things:
I have more coming- so I’ll share as they arrive: like these sew on stones!
BUT first things first- start throwing crap on here and see what sticks
Somewhere in all of this- I realized there were more shapes to be had by cutting things out- which of course made me roll my eyes and go “why is nothing ever easy” but here we are. I think we’ve mostly settled on “Full coverage”- and one “polka dot”- which leaves room for crystal design and shapes/colors/textures. Plus- I needed to make a choice and roll with it- again- time crunch! So go with it.
Once we had established a plan of attack- I set about cutting out a ton of little shapes and setting the edges with gem tack to keep them from fraying with use.
This of course took a large chunk of my morning since I wanted to get a bunch knocked out right away not knowing how many I would need- and my table became a glue factory for about an hour and a half. I used my spools of thread to keep the little petals from sticking to the table.
Once I had cut out several shapes and had gone through two or three rounds of cutting and gluing and had a pile- I started futzing with putting them on the bra (as you can see above) and tried to make a desicion on what stones to use. I had had to take a break mid day and by the time I came back around that evening to work on it I realized I was a bit stuck creatively since I didn’t have my skirt- So I stopped production and chipped away at the skirt to allow my brain to rest. I was struggling with the drape/cross/look/feel of the empty cup I wanted to cover AND which stones I wanted to use.
At this point it’s getting late and I’ve been at it all day- and I realized I was just unhappy and needed to do something else and get some sleep. I went to bed thinking I had absolutely ruined this concept and vision because the lace doesn’t drape and the polka dot flowers aren’t elegant like I wanted- they were too whimsical for my concept. And I said BED TIME. And set it down for a few hours. It’s just part of the process to go through this where you feel like OMG NOTHING IS RIGHT AND I’VE RUINED IT. Sometimes this is the place where you put it down for a few months and come back and reevaluate. I am on a time line- and that isn’t an option for me- sooooooooooo over night was good enough. But that’s normal- and while it’s upsetting to feel- don’t let it get the best of you! It happens and it doesn’t mean everything is ruined necessarily!
The next day I attacked the skirt (upcoming post!) and then had a nice mental break and a dinner date. it was GLORIOUS. With refreshed eyes and a full belly- I sat down to do some work. I settled on black diamond sew on and hot fix crystals- and then I’ll be doing straight up jet on the other side for more texture. once that decisions was settled- I set in to sewing and gluing things down- and then- you know- settling in for the long haul on this one. BECAUSE SIZE 6 SS ARE TINY AF.
And this is where I shall leave you all for today fearless costumers! Till next time!
BrickHouseDesigns 