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.
