I have heard many people say that a belly dance costume is not a costume unless it is a bra and a belt. I must totally disagree with that statement.
Personally I cannot wear a bra, in fact I look terrible in bra. That is why for small breasted ladies such as myself I advise tops which do not put emphasis on you as with the top in the picture on the left.
Being able not to wear a bra does not mean that you cannot wear a beaded top and belt set. There are many wonderful patterns out there which you could use for your top and simply match your belt to it.
There our various styles of tops which you can wear such as halter necks tying around your neck, choli’s (fantastic tops which can hold up large cup sizes and there is not need for a bra) or any other top you can think of.
If you’re making a top out of a plain solid material, think of ways to decorate it.
You can use motifs which come in different sizes and patterns and come in sequin in various colour. Hot fix crystals can make stunning outfits. All you need is your glue gun, your crystals and your imagination to create truly great designs.
Making a belly dance bra
When making your own bra top it is important to ensure you have a firm fitting bra which holds you comfortably and that is one cup size larger than you normally wear.
Please don’t use a white bra to make your costume bra out of. Once you have made your bra it is very unlikely that you can wash it and marks will show very quickly on a white bra. Use a black bra for your costume bra constructions.
Remove everything that stretches from the bra including the straps and sides. Leave the cups attached in the middle because it's easier to work with the bra if the cups are attached and leave about 1 inch on each side of the cups to have something to sew to.
"Stiffen" the bra by applying 2 coats of fabric stiffener available at any fabric or craft store. Let the 1st coat dry overnight before applying the second coat. This will give added shape and strength before you start adding decorations.
After the bra is completely dry, hand sew decorative fabric over each bra cup and center section. Measure the length needed to extend from the cup to the center of your back. Measure the width around to center back (where your regular bra normally is)
Create side pieces and straps from heavy interfacing or horsehair interfacing adding about 1-2 inches just in case you gain weight. Then add decorative fabric to the side and back pieces. It's helpful to use the pieces that you cut off as a pattern and add length to make up for the stretch that you lose when you use non-stretch fabric.
Decorate your bra by sewing beads, sequins, appliques etc to the cups, straps and back on bra. Add heavy duty skirt/trouser hook & eyes to the back straps to "close the bra". Add felt to the inside cups and side straps of the bra to absorb sweat and make the bra soft and cushy.
Fringing
You can also start bringing fringing into your costumes. This is more for the professional ladies and can take quite some time to sit and bead each individual string, creating 1 metre of fringe to which you attach a decorated shaped belt made to fit your body and further fringing to attach to your top or bra.
This is indeed quite time consuming, but in my opinion is well worth the time and effort in the end.
Please make sure that you buy a good quality / grade bead and it works out much more cost effective to buy the beads in bulk from a wholesale bead shop rather than a retail shop.
Belts
If you choose to wear a coin belt it is important to sew elastic along the top of the belt at the back. This is so that it sits firmly against your body and does not drop down from the movement. It looks much neater and much more professional.
You can then get a matching belt which you can construct into a top for yourself by wrapping it around your torso and tying it behind your neck or by sewing the 2nd coin belt onto a bra creating a coin bra. The other option would be to individually sew coins onto a bra.
Fringed belts are very effective and professional but are time consuming. However using your imagination you can create true masterpieces
Making a belly dance belt
It is important to remember that we all have curves and that when we construct our belt it must be made to the curves of our body. Take newspaper and sellotape a few pages together for length (enough length to go around your hips where the belt will be situated) and create a second newspaper exactly the same way.
Let the width of the newspaper be approximately 25 – 30cm wide. The width is for you to be able to cut out your desired pattern / shape that you belt will look like once completed. The 2nd newspaper should not be cut to any width and remain in its original shape.
Getting someone to help you, place the newspaper around your hips and pin it closed. Enough overlap must be left for you to place your hooks or your Velcro onto which will hold your belt together once you place it on.
Start pinning darts into the newspaper according to your body shape. You will notice once you are done that the newspaper sits firmly against your body without any gaps. The purpose of this is to make a "pattern" of your exact body so that your belt will fit perfectly.
Carefully remove the shaped newspaper and lay it out onto the second newspaper you constructed. You will notice that the pinned newspaper is curved slightly or quite substantially, depending on the shape of your body.
Following the shape of the pinned newspaper copy the curved shape onto the second newspaper and cut out the pattern. Place the cut out pattern onto pattern paper and retrace and cut.
You now have your very own belt pattern constructed to the shape of your body. If you are planning to make more than one belt with various shapes, take you pattern and cut a few more out of pattern paper before starting.
The next step is to cut the desired shape out of your belt pattern. Ideas are:
- V shape (This gives a slimming effect)
- Heart
- Rounded
- Scallops
- Reverse Scallops
- Zigzag
- Diamond
- Wavy
- Big and small waves
- curly
Any other pattern idea you can think of.
Material
When buying material for your belt it is important to buy a firm material which will not stretch. You also want to look for material which already has a decoration on it which will save you from having to decorate your belt.
If you buy a plain solid material you can decorate it with many things and I personally like using shaped motifs which you can find in sequin and in many colours. Hot fix crystals are another option to use which are a stunning decoration and sisha mirrors are another decorating idea.
Buy a firm interfacing / batting which will be inserted on the inside of the belt before you place the lining on the back to hide all the workings inside the belt. The interfacing is also used to hold your belt firm. Make sure that your fringing (whether bought or made) is long enough for your belt before you start sewing anything. You do not want to place your fringing on your belt and find it is to short.
Once you are ready the only thing next to do is to sew everything together.
So creating your belt might be time consuming but I reiterate is in fact worth the effort at the end of it all because if you use your imagination you can create something that no one else will have.