Endless Wave Pants

Now if you are not a bellydancer you probably don't know why in the world I made these pants or what they are. Basically these pants look like a skirt until you start moving. And they show off all of your moves and when you spin they are absolutely gorgeous on stage.



I have seen them made in everything, chiffon, Georgette, silk, satin, everything.

Prior to moving and giving up dance, I had bought the pattern and was going to sew myself a pair. I had this lovely embroidered pink chiffon and thought this was the way to go. Unfortunately I ran out of fabric when I was cutting the sails. This pattern uses a lot of fabric! I had to improvise and use pink georgette that I purchases that matched the colors of the chiffon. I spaced out and mixed between the 2 fabrics so it seemed intentional.

Sewing these guys was pretty fast IF you have a serger! I cut serged away and was done really fast. Add elastic to the waist and the ankles and I was done!

Here's my pants!

Just look at the volume!

Big!!

These only make me want to dance in them. :( Life is too busy for me to really dance anymore. But how lovely is that drape?

And when they spin...

You might ask are they see through? The answer is yes, somewhat. That is just due to my choice of fabric. But I could counter that with wearing pink athletic pants that I have. I also wore my polish scarf on my hips for the inseam area for the photos. I wish I would have made these pants sooner and been able to use them. BTW they are heavy, you need a good elastic in the waist and you need to cut in shorter than you think b/c they will pull themselves down. If you are tall you need to increase the length of the pants, as well as the sail.

Cheers,
Lauren

Day 90: Periwinkle Ice Bellydance Costume

So it all started with this big skirt I purchased from goodwill and unpicked to discover it was very very large! So large that not only did we fit 3 people we fit 4 people!

We wound up turning it into this costume for our troupe (5 costumes now).

I still had a lot of satin leftover. So I wanted to make another costume with the leftovers. Even though there was some glue marks still. It did not matter b/c the beads were going to cover them up.
And then finally it comes to this costume. I oringinally purchased clear ab beads over the years and inherited some from other people and I wanted to do an all white costume that was a mix of clear ab beads. One day I was cleaning out my closet and a piece of the periwinkle satin from the tribal fusion costume was near the clear ab beads and I realized no.... I need to make a costume cominging these 2 colors. It would be amazing.

So I started with gluing the big pieces and sewing on the big beads. And I played around with the center piece too. I had something in my stash of course.

Then just sew sew sew. Now before I filled everything completely in, I needed to decide how to edge the costume. I could not find pre-strung sequins that would match. I actually purchased individual sequins in different blues to see what would work the best. Here is me playing around with them.

I chose medium cornflower blue. So I sewed on the sequins on the edges of the costumes. Yes each one indiviually.

Eek! the strap was too short. I had to extend it further with felt... boo

So I finished the top also with sequins. And the straps too.... Now time for easy filling in! I glued the different clear AB finish rhinestones (and they were big too!) to fill in the costume. Less for me to sew. Yeah! FYI it is way easier to add to rhinestones to the glue spots then it is to glue the rhinestone then add. Trust me!!!

Done! Wahoo! Well almost..

Add the fringe to the bottom of the belt.

Now I need to add fringe to the bra. I used beads I got at Michael's. I cheated b/c they had jump rings. I decided to sew it on as is...

Ahhh! Done!!! I actually didn't have a performance to wear it to b/c I had gotten sick. So I wore it to practice one night. So I am completely not made up. And well the stress is getting to me with the move and I have put on some weight. But here is how I would like to wear the costume.

OMG I can't believe that I made it through 90 days. OMG I can't believe that I am moving. Wow. We leave with the truck on Thursday! For all of the posts click here!

It was a lot of fun. It was really great to finish projects before the move. I can't believe I did 90 posts! Wow! Give me some time to unpack and get internet before more posts will begin to trickle back to the blog. Life is crazy! But life is good!

I hope you have enjoyed my 90 days of blogging. :)

xoxoxo,
Lauren

Day 32: Hair flower #2

Happy Labor day weekend! Today is a craft day. It is for a hair flower for my dance students. This one I really didn't have a "plan" but things worked out!  I found metal flowers on clearance at Michael's.  And there were 5! Wahoo! Just enough for each dancer.

I wanted to make bigger ones and use up some of my scrap fabric too. First I decided I was going to add a ruffle to cushion the metal and fluff it up! So I made a tube... sewed a gathering stitch....

Next I pulled off the backs of the flowers. They were meant to be jewelry or pins

Next I circled the metal casing with the ruffle.

Here it is done. I used good old hot glue!

We had a hole in the back of the flower. So I stuffed it with the scraps of the felt I had.

Then I added a circle of black felt to cover everything up and make a base for the pin and clip.

Done! BTW the ice pack was for my poor fingers that I had burned making all these flowers. 

Some of my students wore them on their hips with their costumes as you can see here.

Not bad huh? And again very inexpensive to make since I got them on clearance! :)

For more of my 60 blogs to DC click here.


xoxoxo,
Lauren

Day 28: Blue and Black crystal Necklace

You have seen all the components of my Starry Nights Costume (skirt, bra/belt) except for the last part- the jewelry!

I had leftover beads and found this fun black smoke crystal I used as my accentuating piece for my necklace. But it photographs a different color! Here is me using my bead board. I used jewelry wire covered with nylon, like I always do.

Then added clasps and closed everything off with crimp beads.

You can see me wearing it with my costume here.

It is a really nice statement piece to add to the costume. Even from far away you can see it. If only I didn't blend into my stage and curtains!
Here is a better picture of it just in my house.

Hope you enjoyed my costume series. Of course I am off making another costume.... I can't help myself. For the rest of my 60 days to DC blogging click here.

Cheers,
Lauren