How to : Make a carnival bra

For my festival project I chose to make a Carnival bra taking influence from Rio Carnival. Carnival girls typically wear handmade bras sometimes cut into differnt shapes with glitter, sparkles, diamantes, bells and feathers to decorate.

You will need:

• Old bra (I bought mine for £2 from Primark)

• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks (I bought mine from Amazon)

• Diamantes/sequins/jewels (Any craft store or market)

• Bells (Any craft store or market)

• Thread the same colour as the bra (Any craft store or market)

• Scissors

• Feathers (I bought mine from ebay)

• 1 metre of Diamante dangly thread (Commonly in Samuel Taylors or any similar craft store)

• 1 metre of Plastic beaded thread in Gold (Any craft store of market)

• 1 metre of Plastic beaded thread in Silver (Any craft store or market)

• Diamante centerpiece decoration (I used a sparkly drop earring)

Firstly I heated my glue gun up and waited for it to get hot. I started by gluing various sized diamantes onto the bra and sprinkled smaller sized ones also. This gave the bra an all over sparkle and carnival look. I then took my diamante and beaded thread and glued small pieces of this onto the inside of the bra so they hung down. This created a sparkly fringed effect perfect for carnival.

I next used the left over diamante thread and glued it around the cups of the bra. This really brought the look together. Then, I threaded a few bells onto light thread which I then cut and glued onto the center of the bra onto the inside so it would also dangle down. After this I glued some left over bells aound the bra which made the bra jingle.

Next, I added feathers onto the bra by gluing them on the inside so they would show over the top of the bra. I then used a few more diamantes to glue onto the sides of the bra for added sparkle!

To finish off the bra I added a drop earring in the centre of my bra as a pendant, you could use a sparkly brooch or anything big and eyecatching. I think my bra came out really well and I hope yours does too! Feel free to contact me here with your responses to my carnival bra! Have fun!