Bits and Baubs of Sewing Projects from Sparkly Belly

As a dancer, or anyone in the performing realm knows, you have to be able to do a bit of sewing.  Costumes break all the time, and require upkeep and mending.  It was always a goal of mine to learn to sew, and being interested in costuming and theatre, but not always having the time to do so, I have been inspired in the times I have a spare moment or two to start on little projects.

Where to begin, if you are new at sewing or you are on a budget and want to create some pieces for your troupes?  I always point people to Mao Murakami's Sparkly Belly Blog.  I'm going to showcase some of the projects I've made using her blog here in this entry.

When I began teaching, my first thought was to use the 10 minute DIY Tribal Overskirts and DIY 10 Minute Cowl Neck Top as troupe costuming, but at the time, I only ended up making these projects for myself.  Perhaps in the future I'll persuade some of my students to also make some.


Since I was new to this sort of thing, working without patterns, I went to my local fabric store and found some stretch material that was on sale.  I made several of the tutorials using this same material.

After creating the Tribal Overskirt, the Easy Sleeveless Choli, a mermaid skirt and a shrug out of the orange material, I felt more confident in my sewing.

I also made another Tribal overskirt out of a fun stretch camouflage.  These are great for practice too.




Using my custom-made to fit me mermaid skirt pattern I created from Mao's two part Mermaid skirt tutorial, I made a blue skirt and a gold velvet skirt.  Since learning, I have also figured out how to make my own godets to insert in the trumpet skirt for contrast or fullness, which I have incorporated into two complete costumes, I'll post more about that later in another blog entry.



One of my favorite projects was making the DIY LED veil wings from Mao's blog.  I made them on a rainy day when my kids were in school.  At the time, buying LED wings was cost-prohibitive so I thought it would be fun to make them myself.  It was the holiday season, so luckily the materials were readily available.

The hardest part of making the LED wings was the initial cut of the veil wings, because the fabric was not as wide as my pattern called for, and I had to adjust it to fit the amount of fabric I bought.  It was also a challenge laying out the Christmas lights but I managed to make it work pretty well.  These wings are shorter than traditional belly dance wings, but that means they are good for smaller spaces.  I have long arms though and I have to be aware of the tight/shortness in the range of motion at times while dancing.


I used wooden dowels from the hardware store as my wing sticks, and I made a video tutorial for my students to follow on youtube.



I've made three versions of Mao's DIY shrug for dancers, one in orange, one in gold velvet to match my gold velvet skirt, and one in power mesh with diamonds on it.



The finished shrug below.



Lastly, I was very excited when Mao and Mahin of BDQ collaborated in their "Your Sparkly Wardrobe" series on a DIY Prop bag tutorial, one of my most-requested DIY's.  Unfortunately, I made mine a little too small, and it only fits my wings and some of my canes.  I used pleather and it came out really nice.  It does not fit my swords, as they vary in length, curvature and heaviness.  I would like to try again some day when I have time.



I can't emphasize enough what a treasure Mao Murakami's Sparkly Belly blog is for dancers.  Dancers should have a basic understanding of costuming and sewing and this definitely helped me!