Basic Sewing Tips for the Beginning Student

Last night I met with my lovely troupe via Zoom and we chatted about bellydance stuff, and the questions that came up the most were about costuming.  I feel that learning basic sewing is important to being a bellydancer, because even if you don't sew your own costumes, you do need to know how to repair them and sometimes you do need a custom fit costume.

What do you need if you are a beginning sewing student?

--A basic sewing machine (you don't need anything fancy) - plus bobbins and the accessories that come with your machine

--A basic sewing "kit" of hand needles, snaps, elastic, various thread (different colors, some for machine sewing and some for hand sewing), sewing-only scissors (do NOT use a sewing scissors on paper, it will dull the blades), a thimble, measuring tape, pins, and a pin cushion

--I save those "breath mint boxes" and I use them for needles/pins, snaps and random sequins/beads

The easiest fabric to do a starter costume with is stretch velvet.  I like the Glitterbug stretch velvets from JoAnn's fabrics because they are pretty, easy to sew, low-cost, and come in a variety of colors.  I have made many skirts in this fabric.

 I have used the mermaid skirt pattern a lot from Mao's Sparkly Belly page, but I have also used her DIY 10 minute no-sew ruffle skirt pattern, which is an easier first-time sewing pattern.  It basically is to hold up about 1 meter (1 yard) of fabric and find a way to wrap it around your bottom so it looks good and then you either pin it or you can sew it down on a zigzag stitch about 4-5 inches.

I'm excited to try Mao's new 1 hour challenge to make a costume in an hour, she just put up part one of her tutorial here.  Usually it takes me longer than that to cover a bra, but That's because I cover the straps and cups or replace the straps.  

As far as decorating the costume, I use glue to attach my rhinestones, but I do not like glue guns.  I prefer Fabric-tec, Gemtac, or E6000.  If you use E6000, you MUST do it outside and wear a mask/gloves.  E6000 is nasty.  The other glues are not quite as bad, but you should still be in a well-ventilated place before gluing on stones, as the fumes from these glues can be toxic.  Follow all directions on the labels and BE SAFE!

I was in a professional troupe where we were tasked with covering our own bras and belts and then decorating them.  We used a base swimsuit top in the same color, covered it with very small scraps of fabric (we had only enough to cover the cups) in non-stretch fabric, then outlined the cups with trim (we used the same fabric and trim on the belts), then we glued bling and sewed tassels and fringe on them.  They came out beautiful, and were a really gorgeous color on stage.

Junior Bellydance Costuming

     I have two kids, and because they wanted to be a part of my shows, I made them costumes.  The first costume I bought for my daughter was from a bellydance swap meet when she was really little.  She wore it a lot, to many of my shows.  When I used to perform for one of the classes I took, my kids and the instructor's daughter would dance together in the "pre-show," which was really cute.  The next thing I did was sew a vest for my son so he wouldn't feel left out.  Eventually, my daughter grew out of the pink pants outfit so I had to make her a new costume. In the interim, she wore a princess outfit.

     I finished a pair of purple harem pants and matching vest for her, adding some hot pink fringe and making a "belt," which was attached to the pants. I added some flowers to embellish it.  I also made a pair of plain blue harem pants for my son.  They ended up wearing them to my first class shows which I produced from teaching my own classes.  I used scraps of fabric leftover from stuff I had in my fabric stash.

     These outfits were good for a year or so, and then I had to make new ones as they outgrew these.
I was gifted some beautiful "sari" fabric (I was told it was a sari but it looked like fabric to me) from my mother in law.  I used two different patterns to create a top and skirt for my daughter.  I used two different patterns since I wanted the top from Simplicity 3626 but she wanted a skirt, so I had to use Simplicity 0633 for the bottom. My daughter danced on the stage at the local festivals where I was dancing in her cute costumes!

Themed Belly Dance Costumes

    It's no surprise to anyone who follows me that I end up dancing at a lot of shows with "themes." What do I mean by a "theme?" It could be anything from the type of music we are tasked to dance to, or something to inspire costuming. The usual "rules" suggest you use the theme to pick your music or your costume, or both. Some dancers tend to ignore the themes, but I have noticed that ever since our troupe has embraced the themes, others have been following suit to embrace them as well, even when they are wacky. Some examples of themed shows I have danced at include "Boy Band," "Crazy Hats," "Raq to the Future," "Pirates," "Around the World," "Fantasy," "Divas," "Renaissance/Medieval," as well as a couple I started working on but was unable to attend, including "Rhythm & Blues" and "Diamonds & Pearls."

    Some of these themes are easy and fun to interpret, and others are much more challenging. Certain themes lend themselves to bellydance, such as Pirates and Renaissance Faire. Costuming is easy for these themes, there are many interpretations of dance costumes on Pinterest for these, and music can generally be something in the realm of bellydance. Other themes are much harder for both costumes and music. When we were tasked with "Boy Band" I had no idea what we were going to do. Luckily, inspiration hit and we did a very cool fusion number dancing with chairs and veils. We wore really cute "mens/business" suits (sort of like Madonna in Express Yourself or Britney Spears from Me Against the Music).

    I do like to keep things in the realm of raks sharki.  I want to keep the integrity of the dance alive. I try to bend the themes to do that, rather than bending the dance to fit the theme. If we dance to a pop song (fitting the theme), I incorporate traditional moves in addition to some that might be less traditional, and I definitely make our second number a more straight-forward belly dance routine. When we danced at the 70's hafla, we did one song from the 1970's rock world, incorporating wings and some non-traditional fusion moves. Our second routine was pure 1970's bellydance, a version of "Ah Ya Zein" from 1974, straight up bellydance, no fusion involved in that one.

    Every year, the only consistent theme is the one for early November's show, which is "Halloween." Halloween encompasses a very wide spectrum of themes in itself. One year we did skeletons (I have a blog about that, here), another year we were witches, then monsters, and one year we were simply "villains."

    The year we were villains, I chose to make a female version of Loki, since the Avengers were very popular at the time, with the films coming out.  There was one other Avenger in our group, but the others were more random - we had a Medusa, Cruella DeVille, Poison Ivy, a Devil and a Dragon. I wanted my costume to be a belly dance costume but to give the feeling of Loki, so I designed a green and gold costume and wore his trademark horns.  I made a green velvet skirt, a belt with detachable gold "armor" panel, and I found this great green mesh fabric I could overlay on top of the bra and belt to simulate the armor.  I made gauntlets to match.  I found a green and black cape from Target to complete the look.  I was originally going to add fur but I was afraid it would weigh the cape down and make it come off my neck.  I found a light up scepter for my magic as well.

    We danced with LED poi, which was really fun, and a new challenge for us to learn this particular prop.  Our second routine used LED wings.  Both songs were belly dance music.

    The next year, we decided to be "classic Hollywood monsters" and I wanted to be an alien. A pretty, laser-sword-wielding-alien at that. I had previously bought a dance dress that was beautiful but every time I moved, it rode up on me, so I cut the dress apart, separating it into a top and skirt. My base model was an anime character I always admired, so I tried to envision what her outfit might look like if it were in a belly dance costume.  This character has shoulder armor and a bodysuit which I kept the essence of by creating drapes on the shoulders from Mao's Sparkly Belly "Jasmine sleeve" tutorial.  I restitched the skirt together, and fixed the waistband.  I used the "old" top's blue pieces to cover the top of a bra. I also used some black material I had in my fabric stash, as well as using some appliqués for sparkle. I used the black power net from the original dress to make gauntlets and the shoulder drapes/Jasmine sleeves, which mirrored the feeling of her shoulder armor (in her non-dance incarnation).  Using the black fabric and more sequined notions from my stash, I was able to create a belt.  I made a belly cover using scraps of the pretty blue material I had leftover to suggest the bodysuit, along with some straps on the belly. I bought some pointy elf ears to complete the look, and wore boots.  I also asked my hair dresser to make my hair red.

    My troupe-mates included the Bride of Frankenstein, a She-wolf, a Vampire, and Beezlebub. 

Other than a very brief "skit," which was a simple veil introduction, with a rising moon effect, and some character development for each of us "monsters," we danced pretty traditionally raks sharki, performing two routines to belly dance music and one brief fusion song to a bellydance remix of "She Wolf" in honor of our wolf-woman and Halloween.

For more info, visit my website.

Living in a Virtual World - Online Teaching

We are living in a time unlike any other in our lifetime. 2020 has been a rough year for business and health.  Everyone has been on lockdown, due to the pandemic going on and all in-person classes, events and entertainment are cancelled. Some people have not been allowed to go to work. We aren't allowed to see friends, or family without social distancing of at least 6 feet apart. We wear face masks to protect us and to protect those who are "at risk" of getting this disease. People are trapped in their homes and the only way to feel normal, is to be online.

It's been a very strange few months, I have not worked on any new sewing projects since last year, although the pandemic seems like a good time to be working at home on costumes. Life has transformed into home schooling and quarantine. Instead of full costumes, I have only repaired some things and I still have several unfinished projects sitting in my pile of "to do" items. Materials have to be bought online or picked up after ordering online, there's very little browsing in stores and looking at fabrics and trims. My in-person classes have been cancelled due to the closure of the recreation center I used to teach in, under "stay at home" orders. The dance studio I used to teach at closed, in what was thought to be a temporary relocation, but the closure is now going on 6 months.

I kept thinking, do I try to teach online?  Do I wait for this pandemic to subside?

I finally moved on to teaching classes in the virtual world, after much troubleshooting, navigating the tech world of Zoom, Facebook Live, and Band live. So many things can go wrong. People can have bad connections. The picture can freeze. You need permission to play the music because it's different than playing it in a classroom. The music can cut in and out. It's a strange world, teaching online, but it's better than not dancing and better than nothing. It's very strange because I come from a video background, where I have set up cameras, mixers, cables, lights, for on location shoots, both single and multi-cam, but now I'm using my computer camera to go live and a second camera for my replays of my classes.  It's taken many different tries to get the audio right, the camera showing what I want it to, and transforming my small office into a dance studio/television studio. It's not perfect but it works.

With hesitation, I started up a Patreon page. What is Patreon?  It's a website that supports artists work. The artists can make up "tiers" of "benefits" for their Patrons, who pay a fee for whatever tier they are interested in, and then they can access, in my case, videos.  I have a $5 option for live zoom classes and mini videos and a $10 option for choreography with notes and practice videos.  I have also posted some DIY videos and tutorials for the $10 option.

The only goal of Patreon is to try to keep my classes going and maybe makeup a fraction of the money I used to make, because I spend many hours of work on choreography, setup, and video editing that comes with teaching my classes. Now each week after I teach, I have to edit the video and upload it, which takes time too. With my kids at home from school, I can't be shooting and producing videos daily. I do my weekly class, but when I was teaching in person, it was 2-3 times a week. When there were upcoming performances, we added on at least one rehearsal a week on top of that for my troupe/s to practice.  When my kids were in school, I could sew or choreograph new routines.  I have less freedom to do that now.

Things are starting to open up again, although the pandemic is not over. It makes for a strange transitional time. We are learning choreography in my classes, but can't do complicated group formations or moves that rely on partners. There is a Christmas-themed hafla coming up in July (I know, that sounds weird) which we have no idea if it will happen or not, due to social distancing rules. Playing Christmas music in June is also weird. Masks are required pretty much everywhere so that means for dancing too. This of course creates a challenge for costuming. Wearing traditional veils can be problematic to some, who get offended by such a thing. However, I want my dancers and myself to be safe, and that's really the main thing that matters.

I'm not sure when my recreation center will open up and they will ask me to teach in person again (?). Perhaps they will ask me to teach online?  I know my former dance studio is waiting until it's more feasible to re-open. Imagine having to wipe everything down all day long, limit the amount of students who come in, limiting the money to pay for a studio, keep the distancing happening in the studio/classroom.

For now I'm happy that my students have stuck with me and we are trying to bring ourselves together, to dance, to feel normal, to see other people, and to feel like a troupe again. We all miss going out and performing. All the fun things that go with it.  For more info visit my Patreon and my website.

Transforming an Indian Sari into a Belly Dance Costume

I took a Bollywood fusion workshop with a couple of friends where we learned a dance to the then- super hot song "Jai Ho" by the Pussycat Dolls and A.R. Rahman, and we were going to perform it wearing Bollywood-style costumes, which we all thought were so beautiful.  I found a store that sold beautiful saris from India, and bought one in hot pink and orange.  After the performance, I decided I could make a better costume though, because it was hard to dance in, and it didn't stay put in a flattering way.  It simply wasn't made to move.  As much as I liked it, I really struggled to make the original sari work for dance.
It came in a few pieces - a hot pink decorated tank style top, an orange large chiffon circle skirt and a large orange chiffon veil with lots of embellishments.  I never wore it as it originally was, because it was not practical to perform in at all, so I wore parts of it.  Photo - Left performing Jai Ho at Gitana by James Komen - The top with dance pants by Melodia Designs and a hip wrap - Middle - the sari skirt with a different top & wrap performing, and Right posing after I already made the belt repurposing and up-cycling the "veil" piece in the far right photo.

The hot pink top was a bit big on me, as you can see in the left photo.  The circle skirt was really big, and extremely heavy.  It had a tendency to fall down as I was dancing.
So to fix this, I took the large, beautifully embellished veil and used the fabric from it to cover a bra (photo below), make a matching belt and finally some matching armbands.  I did some of my own beading to add to the look and put that at the center of the bra top, and on three sections of the belt.  I had found some matching orange stretch fabric from the clearance rack and that was used to make my very first mermaid-style skirt, using Mao's Sparkly Belly tutorial.

The belt was lined with matching orange cotton underneath the chiffon, and backed with interfacing. Luckily, I just happened to have the center orange appliqué from one of my belly dance shopping trips in the past, which worked perfectly as a lovely accent.

This fabric was also perfect for the armbands, so that they would stay up on my upper arms and not fall down.  I had so much leftover orange fabric, I also used it on several other Sparkly Belly sewing tutorials (including the shoulder shrug, tribal overskirt, and cowl neck top), which you can read about in this entry on my blog.
The Costume with the Sparkly Belly Mermaid Skirt photo by Kristy Johnston

The costume with the circle skirt photo by Alex H