Red devil costume

Hi everyone.

Sorry that I've been so quiet for so long. . . I'm back and I'm ready to show you all sorts of great stuff to DIY.

Today we're starting with my new favourite costume in my cupboard. Recently I was asked to dance at the last place I ever thought I would dance. . . my old high school. Please understand this, if we had those "Voted most likely to. . ." I would have received the vote for joining a convent before thirty. Belly dance, however, saved my life literally! Anyway, this costume represented the change that I had undergone between 2003 and now. . . and I call it the Red Devil costume!

First, we start with the basics. I took a white padded bra, silver sequins, small red foil beads, some holographic bling, silver and red fabric paint, twisted long beads, scissors and thread . . .

I started by painting half of the one cup with a silver fabric paint - I cheat, I'll confess. I couldn't bear to bead the whole cup! By painting it silver, I created a base for beading that will hang down when done. The top half I leave white as I intend to cover this part of the cup with sequins. . . lots of sequins.

The sequins were sewn on to look like the scales of a fish - they overlap and cover almost half of the one below. This is a clever way to hide the thread while you're sewing. At the top of the cup I placed a line of holographic daisy sequince. They catch the light beautifully. However, I decided to take them off of the cup on the right. . . you'll see why.

Once the silver sequins work was done on the left, I covered the right side with crushed taffeta. It's a little tricky because the fabric has zero stretch in it - if you can avoid no-stretch fabric, do it. I just didn't have anything else at the moment. I put the bra on a dressmaker's mannequin to make it easier to pin it while the cup is moulded into shape. Don't do it while wearing it. . . you are going to hurt yourself! ;-)

Now comes the fun part. Go wild with bling. . . a belly dancer can never have too much bling on her costume.

Afterwards I painted the back strap a matching red to blend in. I also covered the straps to match.

I left the other "hard work" part for last. Taking a piece of double thread, I looped it through a red bead and then strung up twisted silver beads. I sewed it into the middle of the sequince on the bottom row of the silver cup. It takes a lot of time, so be patient. Also, remember to seal off the ends with a matching nail polish - the last thing you want is a cascade of falling beads while you're shimmying away!

 Now all you need to do is create a focal point on the other side as well. This ensures that the look is nice and balanced.

And you're done! For the performance I used a simple matching red coin belt (my routine was very hip intensive) over a silver crushed taffeta skirt with net insets.

This is me in my Red Devil costume dancing at our recent Hafla.