DIY: Brandy Melville Chiyo Top

If you're familiar with Brandy Melville's highly coveted "Chiyo Top," you'd be glad to find out that it's actually quite easy to recreate. The original caged bralette costs about $19, but if you're patient enough to look around your room, you won't have to spend a cent. Read more for a step-by-step tutorial.

What you'll need:

A black seamless bra/bandeau/sports bra/anything with a thick band

Measuring tape

1/4" and 3/4" black elastics/bra straps/garters (I used garters from my old thigh-high stockings)

Sewing needle and a black thread spool

Let's get started!

2. Take the 1/4" elastic and wrap it around your back, measure how long you should cut it, and make about 5 or 6 straps, depending on how thick the band of your top is. I made five 11-inch straps.

3. Sew them onto both bands. Make sure they're properly aligned across.

4. Now that you have sewn all straps across the bands, take the 3/4" elastic (I used a stretchy fabric belt instead) and measure from the very last strap you made, to the top of the bra (basically where your bra straps normally meet). Mine were about 16.5 inches.

Here, I pinned them onto the 5 straps just to keep them aligned and in place and then sewed them on.

And that's it! I can't say that it's super easy, but it's definitely doable. It's just very time-consuming, especially if you don't have a sewing machine and have zero sewing experience like me. Honestly, I never really know what I'm doing when I do these fashion DIYs, but I always observed my mom's needlework when I was a kid, so I guess I learned a little bit from that. I'm still certain that I'm doing it completely wrong, so don't judge me!

Anyway, if you enjoy cheap things, get creative and save some money! If you really can't find anything in your home, the most you could spend is $5 (for the elastics and sewing materials). Honestly though, you're bound to find something at your house that could work just as perfectly, so look around and be resourceful.

I actually don't know how to style this for the colder seasons since it's more of a summer trend, so I guess I'll hold on to it 'til then. 

Here are other creative ideas you could try:

Have fun with it and thanks for stopping by!

xoxo,