Thread: What are you working on? May 2010

It's May!!!!!! (I love this month.)

I've been really busy working. (Yeah, just working!) However I'm determined to get back to my costume projects. Yesterday I finished a long overdue new cover-up, lined and with pockets. I'll post pics later today.

Previous Working On threads:

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/belly-danc...ing-april.html

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/belly-danc...ch-2010-a.html

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/belly-danc...ry-2010-a.html

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/belly-danc...ry-2010-a.html

(Whole 2010 collection is here.)

Hi all! It's been a long time since I've posted on Bhuz. I took a break from bellydance for a little while and I'm getting back into it. It seems fitting my first post should be about the costume I'm working on. :be:

I have a ren faire coming up and I brought back a costume I had half finished last year. The bra is "done" although I'm going to add more to it if I have time. I am making a matching belt and threw together a mockup of what it may look like.

The trim I got from Cloak and Dagger which is a vendor at the ren faire I'm dancing at. Every year me and the gals would pick up lots of trims to make for our costumes. I looove love love this rose and gold trim. I love gold! It makes for a nice tribaret kinda of look. I decorated with various gold coins and chain and a nifty diamond shaped medallion I got from another vendor at the faire. I also threw in gold dyed coin pearls (love pearls!) and purple glass teardrop beads to bring it closer to tribaret. If I have time I will add lots of these to really glitz it up a bit.

The pictures are a bit more purple than it looks in person, but you get the idea.









I also bought this skirt to go with it:
We3 Belly Dance Tribal Gypsy Embroidered COSTUME NEW - eBay (item 200459111319 end time May-01-10 09:01:14 PDT)

Love this!

Dima, it looks fantastic! I adore the colours!

Pretty! Love the color too!

Stupid me just posted my stuff in the old thread.... now I got to move it... so here it is:


This is a cross posts with the dresses tread... But I wanted to show what my dress is going to be like. This is the front top bit (I pinned it together and the weird keys etc, near the beads are going to go of course):



The back is nearly finished, but I'm sooooo lazy.....

I made a skirt and armband set today. I love this fabric! I have had it for a while. I made myself a skirt about a year ago and whenever I wear it, I get so many compliments so I decided to use the fabric I had left to make another skirt. I also made some armbands with a "fabric fringe". I'll try to get pics of them tomorrow!

I'm also working on a new design and will post more pictures when I have something more substantial to show but here's a little peek at the design ;)

Originally Posted by invokethegoddess

I'm also working on a new design and will post more pictures when I have something more substantial to show but here's a little peek at the design ;)

Oooh purple and green.... pretty!

Beautiful gray skirt, I like how the edges frill a bit, and that green blue embroidery is lovely too!

Originally Posted by invokethegoddess

I'm also working on a new design and will post more pictures when I have something more substantial to show but here's a little peek at the design ;)

I am doing some beading on a bellydancedress. It is all white and silver and I am adding some black and green beads and black fabric to make it less white and more interesting.

I am wondering though, how do you bead a straight line with seedbeads like Invokethegoddess has done here with the black and the green. I've been trying but it looks all crooked for me if I sew on each bead individually. It is slightly better when I string the beads, lay it on the fabric and tack the string down here and there.
Anyone have any pointers?

Originally Posted by gisela

I am doing some beading on a bellydancedress. It is all white and silver and I am adding some black and green beads and black fabric to make it less white and more interesting.

I am wondering though, how do you bead a straight line with seedbeads like Invokethegoddess has done here with the black and the green. I've been trying but it looks all crooked for me if I sew on each bead individually. It is slightly better when I string the beads, lay it on the fabric and tack the string down here and there.
Anyone have any pointers?

Let's see if I can explain how I do it. Take for example 6 beads and string them, then sew them down. Then bring your needle back up in the middle of those 6 beads and string back through the last 3, leaving the thread coming out of the last one. String 6 more beads and repeat. Of course you can do it with less or more as needed. If you want it really strong and more control over the shape do two at a time. You can also knot it throughout the design so that if it does break somewhere, you only lose a few beads.

Oh Wow I totally get it! Brilliant! I tried many different ways and it all looked so bad. This makes a lot of sense. Thanks a lot Dima!

Originally Posted by amulya

Pretty! Love the color too!

Stupid me just posted my stuff in the old thread.... now I got to move it... so here it is:


This is a cross posts with the dresses tread... But I wanted to show what my dress is going to be like. This is the front top bit (I pinned it together and the weird keys etc, near the beads are going to go of course):


The back is nearly finished, but I'm sooooo lazy.....

Absolutely gorgeous Amulya.

Originally Posted by amulya

Pretty! Love the color too!

Stupid me just posted my stuff in the old thread.... now I got to move it... so here it is:


This is a cross posts with the dresses tread... But I wanted to show what my dress is going to be like. This is the front top bit (I pinned it together and the weird keys etc, near the beads are going to go of course):



The back is nearly finished, but I'm sooooo lazy.....

Oh! .w.: That neckline is to die for!

Lovely work. Please, don't forget to post pic on a hot body!

Qamar

I am finally working on my green bedlah project again after having to stop working on it as real life got way too busy. I finished the belt last night. YEAH!! Now I plan to finish the bra tonight, need to line it, connect the straps, add padding and the hooks. Then I will get fabric to start on the skirt. I will try to put pics up soon. Oh I did work on a orange costume last week that I got off the swap meet as well. I put new elastic on the waist and shorten it.

I'm working on a maroon bedlah with Aegan wave design and gold coins! It was inspired by a tribaret bella ,r:;

I will be adding LOTS more coins to this little baby! Also, rhinestone gems will be at the center of each wave. And the fabric is much darker IRL the flash made it brighter. I just tried on the bra yesterday and it shrunk a lot but hopefully by my audition I will have lost enough weight that it will fit safely. Otherwise I need to go pick up some body tape and pasties lol.

This is my mermaid tail I'm working on for my Tampa living as well. Might be doing some swims at the aquariums down there, hopefully. I was going to just make a few scales here and there but it looked stupid, so i just did the whole thing! and now I'm glad I did! You can't tell from the photo, but the whole thing was sprayed with fabric glitter so it's reaaallly sparkly ..l;,

also will be adding more of that green-to-yellow fabric down the back and on the hips.

Posted this one to the wrong month! Here's my latest, X-posted from the April thread:

Thanks to a friendly heads-up from Bhuzzer Cinnameg, I found this great basic Joharah on eBay for $100. I loved the neckline and the colors, but seeing that this was a simple Egyptian bedlah, I knew that it would take some mega blingification to fit my sparkletacular tastes. The only embellishment on this costume was the red and gold paisley kinda motifs - it didn't have any crystals.

Originally, it had some sparse, kinda cheap looking fringe across the bra. So first I removed the "borderline nippletassels" to make it more flattering and create a blank canvas for the crystals.

Then, I bought about $200 worth of crystals from the local bling store (pears, rectangles, margaritas, little flatbacks, etc.) and began to work them into the existing sequin design. No pattern, just "ordered chaos."

Here's the before:



Here's a progress shot of the bra:



I still have some bra blinging left to do, plus the belt, plus I plan to replace the flimsy fringe with shiny gold fringe from Scheherezade Imports.

I'm not really doing anything costume wise right now just repetitive stuff.
A couple dozen chiffon veils (for some fellow teachers to sell to their students), and I'm teaching a sock monkey workshop this week so we need 30 "kits" to be partially assembled.

I am fixing up this dress. That was what I needed the beading advice for.
There will be added some black fabric here and there and black and green beading. I don't look good in this all white costume so I am trying to make it suit me better. You can see a little of the black beads I already put on. It started out not so great but I got better after a few tries :)

Qamar, I took some inspiration from you when I needed a quick head dress to make a believable Carnival costume ..g.: I had so much fun that I got sucked into the crafting and was late for work that morning! This is just cardboard, hot glue, feathers and some other random stuff from my craft stash.


I had to dress up as a Brazilian samba dancer for a party at the gym I just started teaching at and I have a 5k run/walk coming up with a Vegas theme where this will come in handy :) Not anywhere near as elegant as yours Qamar since I didn't use fabric or crystals and proper finishing techniques but it was tons of fun ..g.:

Originally Posted by RioDancerCO

Qamar, I took some inspiration from you when I needed a quick head dress to make a believable Carnival costume ..g.: I had so much fun that I got sucked into the crafting and was late for work that morning! This is just cardboard, hot glue, feathers and some other random stuff from my craft stash.


I had to dress up as a Brazilian samba dancer for a party at the gym I just started teaching at and I have a 5k run/walk coming up with a Vegas theme where this will come in handy :) Not anywhere near as elegant as yours Qamar since I didn't use fabric or crystals and proper finishing techniques but it was tons of fun ..g.:

HOLA CHICA! Woot! It's cool and I'm also very touched that my work was your inspiration !

Also it's so much fun to do different projects espacialy when you get to use the leftover nicks and nacks that are sleeping in your craft boxes!

Qamar

I finish a bedlah project I bought a looooong time ago (and forget about it in a box inside the closet! ) I remember the Bhuzzer who sold it to me was Canadian (Vancouver??) but don't remember the pseudo.

It was praticly done but it needed a new lining. I also re-enline the bra cups to fit me and add sequined ribons on the side and bra straps.




And I put more bling on it with a loop beaded design all around the belt and bra cups.



I'm wearing it with a skirt I bought from Surida (which came with a cute top!)



Next project, blue and silver turkish costume I purchased from Stefib (also a loooong time ago!) The space between the cups needs to be larger, and I'm planning to take off the strange designs on top of the cups... They look like snail's antennas! .w.: I'll probably do the same with the ones on the belt.




Back to work! ,r:;

Qamar

Thanks for the compliments on my dress attempt, that was just a pinned down version though! The backside is nearly finished though, will take pictures soon.

So good to see all the costumes everybody is working on: very inspiring to stop being lazy and get back to my costume!

This isn't a "project" but I thought everyone on this thread would appreciate it! I found this cute little sewing kit at my fabric store today! I HAD to have it!

Originally Posted by invokethegoddess

This isn't a "project" but I thought everyone on this thread would appreciate it! I found this cute little sewing kit at my fabric store today! I HAD to have it!

..l;,..l;,..l;,

Qamar

Originally Posted by amulya

Pretty! Love the color too!

Stupid me just posted my stuff in the old thread.... now I got to move it... so here it is:


This is a cross posts with the dresses tread... But I wanted to show what my dress is going to be like. This is the front top bit (I pinned it together and the weird keys etc, near the beads are going to go of course):



The back is nearly finished, but I'm sooooo lazy.....

that is so very attractive! good work ladies. I'm feeling better and will post more about my tiny bedlah project soon.

I'm new to this thread! I thought I'd better start getting involved as I'm beginning to make costumes (instead of doing my revision) and could with much advice.
I'm working on lime green and black version of Eman Zaki's Bewitched and a green version of Legend of Cairo. I wasn't sure if I was any good at making cossies so I thought I'd copy one to make sure rather than design my own!! The black and green is coming along well - will post pictures soon! x

I am sewing my fingers off! I have 5 costumes to finish by next week! eeeeek!..c::
Here is the top of a naked dress. It's just the bra part.


and then I finished a white chunky beaded bra. Working on the mermaid skirt next.

love that naked dress…bling!!

Can't wait to see the rest of the naked dress.