Thread: Turkish workhorse makeover: who's done it?

Hey Bhuzzzzzers! Some time ago I 'adopted' a red and silver Turkish workhorse. Since then I lost some ah, boobage and decided the belt was too 'deep' for my short little self and I'm now in the process of dismantling it.

It's quite a chore, and a labor of love, since the costume has great dance JuJu and even though I'm under five feet tall, I'm rockin' that 12 inch fringe, darn it!

Who has 'made over' their Turkish workhorse? I've sewn in some bra cups to shore up and make smaller what is already there as well as denuded about a third of the sequins on the belt base to make a shallower version of the original V belt (gasp! Yep, Im keeping it!) shape.

Links and photos are much appreciated! Thank you ladies!

It wasn't a turkish workhorse but here is a make-over I did on a free costume:

Ozma's Costumes's Photos - Almost Aiport-Special: June 22-September 14 | Facebook

Ozma, thanks a million! I've been taking some photos, though not horribly detailed, of the transformation. I'll post them when the project is finished.

I'm in the middle of just such a makeover right now.

So far I've:
removed all of the fringe and put all the shorter fringe back on in different places
changed the nonsensical cup angle by removing, reshaping, and moving the center piece of the bra
reinforced or replaced a considerable amount of the sequins and every potential stress point
gotten about 1/4 of the way through adding a second lining layer to the whole thing
remade (and soon to be redecorating) the straps completely
*and other* small fixes

If people are interested I'll post pics.

Interested!

Ok, a bunch of the progress pics are here on my flickr with notes on each pic.

Not shown: I have also reinforced (with purple grosgrain) anywhere that a hook or eye is likely to be attached (as is visible in that one pic), re-manufactured the straps (though I have not yet put the sequins back on them or reattached them to the bra), and am a good portion of the way through relining the belt with dark blue tee shirt material.

I think the only thing left that I haven't yet touched on is patching the spots where the straps ripped out in the back. I managed to salvage a bit of the lining from the strap redux so hopefully that should blend well. I had to use so many of the sequins to fill in holes that the shoulder straps are by necessity somewhat narrower now so that means extra lining and hopefully extra sequins for any future surgery.

SterlingSpider, you're doing great! You're also beautiful and I love the 'hawk. I rock my jet black pixie cut these days as hair pieces are itchy, heavy, and stick to my lip gloss. I've gauged my ears to 00 and it's been fun matching plugs and flesh tunnels to my costumes, heh, heh.

Are you putting a new lining in your costume? If not, I suggest doing so. It's pretty easy to do and you can use funky fabrics as Ozma does. I'm planning on using this yummy sugar skull print fabric to line mine when it's finished.

Since I started my project it's gotten much more ambitious: I'm completely removing all of the sequins and will be creating my new design. My inspiration is a bedleh I repaired for my friend Maia that has chunky beadwork and of course Ozma's Turkish bedleh is always in the back of my mind.

PM me for my exterior email if you like.

Hi Sweety!

I've repair and re-vamp a turkish bedlah recently for a friend. I wanted to get rid of the pointy things on top of the cups. ..c::

I added beads on the hem and little flower sequins. For the belt, no major transformation, just replacing the missing or damaged sequins and new lining.

I'll take pictures of the complete set, but only Wenesday night, be patient!




Qamar

Ooooh, I like the sequin flowers! *makes note to buy silver flat sequins*

This might be more cost effective than the chunky bead idea...thank you for sharing!!!

Finally done!



More pics are up here:
Flickr: theitsybitsy's stuff tagged with bellydance

I worked almost constantly on this thing for the better part of a week and a half... now I can get it the heck out of my life!

While it's now about as structurally sound (and visually optimized to someone small enough to fit into it) as it's going to get without being effectively re-made, it's really just not doing it for me.

This is fine, I kind of expected that from the get go. I'm contacting someone who expressed interest in it when I first bought it and they're not into it... to the swap board!

You are currently witnessing the start of what is likely to be a deep abiding costume addiction problem. Actually that's not even remotely true as the red and black thing in the back is a tribal belt I made years ago. But the sequins and fringe? That's all new.