DIY: Caged Bra

Hi guys!

Sorry it's been a while! Revision and exams literally took over my life, but now I'm back and today's post is quite exciting!

I've been admiring the caged bra for quite some time, but I've only ever seen ones I like with price tags waaaay out of my range accompanied by a hefty customs charge. 

So I decided to do what I always do, make my own version of it for a small fraction of the price.

All you need is:

- black braided elastic size 9mm (which I bought here)

- black braided elastic size 6mm (which I bought here)

- needle

- black thread

- scissors

- pins

- strapless bra

Obviously you have free reign with the design of your caged top, so get creative with colours, sizes of straps and patterns

Maybe draw up some simple sketches so you can try out different designs and decide which one you like best before you commit to cutting your elastic. This is the sketch that I am working from:

(it really doesn't need to be any more extravagant than this, it's just to make sure you know what you're doing!)

1. Firsty, take your bra and try it on so that you can see where you want your straps to go. Strapless bras often come with these 'tags' where you could attach the straps that come with it, so you might want to use them as your guide. 

You could use the straps that came with your bra or you could use a normal bra (i.e. not strapless) but if you do this, the caged section might not flow as well if the straps are different materials and have a different appearance.

2. Take the wider of your two elastics, in my case it was the 9mm, and attach it to the back of the bra using a pin. Bring the strap over the front of your body and determine how tight you want it to be, then fix it to the front using a pin.

ALWAYS make sure you leave about an inch extra, you can always cut it off at the end, it just makes everything so much easier and it can be tidied up later! 

3. Use your needle and thread to sew these areas in place, do the same to the front and back on both sides so that both straps are secured.

At this point, you should put the bra back on to decide where you want to position the straps to create the caged effect. I'm not going to post pictures of this step for two fairly obvious reasons...

4. Following the design you sketched earlier, use needles to fix the 6mm elastic in the positions that you want it to be. Make sure the elastic isn't too tight or too loose as it will be disfigured when you wear it. 

Once you have done this, sew each of the joints in turn, make sure to leave an inch or so extra elastic at each end.

Once you've done that, you'll have something that looks a bit messy, like this:

5. All you need to do is take your scissors and trim the excess elastic to make the joints neat. Once you've tidied it up, that's it! Congratulations on your new on-trend, cheap as chips, caged bra!

This picture doesn't do it justice! As you can imagine, it looks different on the hanger than it does on the body, as the straps hug and compliment your shape. Mine cost me a grand total of £4.78 because the only thing I needed to buy was elastic, as I used an old bra & needles and thread etc that I already had.

Are you going to give it a try? Get creative with patterns, materials, and cute little add-ons like these satin roses. Take it even further and try the caged look on a crop top or strapless dress! 

Leave a comment if you have a question or a design idea // tweet me a photo of your finished caged bra!