Embellished Bras is a step-by-step guide for transforming a store-bought lingerie bra into a beautiful and sturdy costume piece. Although written with belly dancers in mind, this book is filled with great bra embellishment tips and techniques that will appeal to dancers of many different genres, costume designers and wearable artists. This book steps through the entire process of crafting a beautiful embellished bra. From purchasing the lingerie bra to draping a pattern and covering the bra, each step is presented in clear easy-to-follow photos with supporting text. This is our most focussed and detailed book.

This book began as a handout that supported my popular "Stuff and Fluff - Bra Making Techniques Revealed." Over the past seven years, this workshop has helped hundreds of dancers and costume designers build better costume bras. With each workshop, the handout grew in size, becoming more detailed and specific. In time, people who hadn't taken the workshop were requesting copies of the handout. Since there seemed to be a demand, we took the sixteen page handout and expanded it. We decided to try something new and used this opportunity to use photographs to capture each step in the process. The result is our latest book, Embellished Bras.

Unlike our past books Embellished Bras uses photographs of each step of the process. With simple hand sewing techniques the process of putting a beautiful bra together can be a creative and fulfilling costume project for even novice seamstresses and costume designers. The photos not only illustrate each step of the major pattern draping and sewing techniques, but also provide images of finished bras to inspire your creativity. The embellishment section is filled with loads of ideas for applying a wide range of beads, braids, jewelry, rhinestones and beads for helping you craft your own unique design.

This book thoroughly presents this technique. However, sometimes skipping a step or streamlining the process is a necessity. You, the designer, get to make some of the important decisions about the construction. For example, not every designer will want or need to reinforce their bra with interfacing or cover the back band. Throughout the book, there are notations in the text that alert you to places where you can effectively cut corners and save time without sacrificing the structural integrity or look of the final garment.

Here is a virtual tour of our latest book, Embellished Bras. We're sure you will find it a valuable resource for your reference library. Click on the images for larger photos.

	Design - The first step in creating any costume is developing a concept for the entire costume. An embellished bra is just one piece of a full costume, and so developing a complete design is the first step in putting a bra together. Deciding what style of bra will go with your overall ensemble will help you plan your project.
	Purchase and Preparation - Although this step is less creative than the rest, shopping for and purchasing a workable lingerie bra is one of the most critical steps. This section goes over the design features to look for when shopping for a lingerie bra.
	Draping the Pattern - This section is the core of the book is this section where you use simple draping techniques to create a pattern to cover the entire bra. Making a pattern means that you can get the darts to match on both cups or conserve expensive fabric by using a pattern for perfect placement and to prevent cutting away excess cloth
	Sewing the Cover - In this section, the process of putting the cover onto the lingerie bra is covered step-by-step. The process of sewing is demystified with the order of construction mapped out and presented through clear photos. The simple hand-sewing stitches are not only presented through the photos, but are also presented as easy-to-follow illustrations.
	Embellishments - Last but not least, the embellishment phase is the place where you really let your creativity shine through. In this section of the book, we present an array of the most popular design elements for decorating the bra. No matter if you are putting together an encrusted beaded and sequined confection, or a metallic ensemble with chains, coins and jewelry, because you are the designer it reflects your taste and personality.

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