Kyria's journal

I am continuing to go through my 'small sewing chores' pile. I bought a white costume in 2008 on bhuz which had two straps going across the belly. To keep everything in place, the previous owner added a gold beaded applique in the center. The applique was in bad shape when I bought the costume because it had no backing.

Removing the applique from the costume was easy as it was practically falling apart. I added white felt to the back and stitched the beads and sequins to the felt, then reattached to the costume. One more chore is done!



I am contemplating my next sewing chore and I feel like doing a full costume. Fromt he top of my head, my options are:

1. I have some lovely blue lycra that Bea send to me two years ago and a contrast lycra that looks fresh and vibrant together. It would be a modern Egyptian style assymetrical design

2.I have a black velvet and purple/lilac mesh pants costume that has been lying in my closet since 2004. It is close to completion but I wouldn't have an occassion to wear it. It doesn't have enough bling for performances and is too showy for regular classes. However, the design is nice and sleek, assymetrical lines and drapes, strass buckles and nice beading.

3. I bought a worn down gold Eman costume with gold metal mesh. I need to make a new skirt/bra base and transfer the metal mesh parts. I am not very excited about this one, as it is a refurbish instead of an original creation. But I can't sell it as is, have worn it twice with a veil to cover up the part where the holographic print is worn away. Sell as is, or refurbish.

4.I bought a whole bunch of small round mirrors with the idea of making a mirror costume, probably on a teal holographic lycra background. You can guess how long the mirrors have been in my possession. This would be a great costume, a bit heavy and prone to damage, but the gluing of the mirrors shouldn't be as time consuming as doing a full blown out beading.

What project would you love to see me do next?

Roos Belinfante posted the pictures and video's of the studentrecital from two weeks ago. It was a SUnday afternoon well-spent, with gorgeous performances and a good atmosphere. If you want to experience some of that good atmosphere yourself, check out Roos's website for her mini summer workshops. If you want to make some good memroies, go to 'Bellydance on the Beach', an event on august 24th in Utrecht with an outdoor  workshop and performances.

For the  student recital I did a spanish-arabic skirt dance to Ya Ghanilek from the cd ' A rough guide to Spanish-Arabic Music'. IT's a really nice song with some intersting variations in the music. I made a choreo for my students during the last semester of classes that I decided to use as a skeleton choreography for my own performance. Mostly improv, with some nice poses thrown in all over the place. Maybe I should make a full blown choreography out of this one and add it to my permanent repertoire.

The costume is my gold/multicolor bella, with an extra double layer pink chiffon skirt on top. I pulled the specially requested streamers with multicolor leafs over the outer skirt for an extra color accent. The layers work well well on stage, the bella skirt is also two layers so there is this big fluffy bunch of chiffon moving around with every spin.


Drama, I HAZ IT!!:

 Amulya asked about a post to gather all the costume entries for the Pink Turkish costume. It is also an excellent opportunity to show you pictures of the finished costume. I have worn this costume six times since I finished it and it is holding up great. I'm a little bit concerned about the holographic foil print turning silver over time, but so far, so good. I haven't written about making the accessoiries: there is a matching upper arm band and a triangular hand decoration. They were fairly easy: I used a paisley medallion, added to a strip of fabric and edged in beads/sequins. The necklace is my multi-color butterfly necklace that also matches my Pharaonix butterfly. Come to think of it, it matches most of my costumes as it is multi-color. I highly recommend investing in a multi-color jewelry, as it creates an extra bit of visual interest. Rhinestone jewelry just didn't cut it for this costume.

This is a picture of our duet. Hadyr is wearing the Bella I sold her earlier this year, which was the reason why I needed a costume to match it's magnificent blingy-ness. Picture by Merijn van der Vliet:


And here's a close-up from a later show in Bussum. Picture by Michael van Schijndel:


And here is a rather dark video of our duet, taken at a hafla in Wageningen. 

The history:

1 - feb 20th: The materials
2 - feb 21th: belt pattern and base
3 - feb 22th: covering the belt base
4 - feb 24th: rhinestones everywhere
5 - feb 25th: paisley medallions
6 - feb 26th: Vanilla glitter
7 - mar 7th: a whole lot of bling
8 - mar 22th: Fringe!
9 - mar 24th: help me pick a skirt
10 - mar 29th: the bra base
11 - mar 31th: covering the bra
12 - april 7th: beading and fringe on the bra

It's been a while since I've updated on the green velvet costume, but I assure you that there have been tons of things going on. I finished the bra about one or two eweks ago and posted a close-up on bhuz, but I didn't post it here because I wanted to give you a full update.
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More on the back of the skirt tomorrow.

 Several anxious dancers asked me on april the third if I had finished the costume on time. I did finish it on time, I put the lining in on Friday. What I might not have mentioned yet is that I was the event organizer for the show, together with the lovely Arya. In addition to organizing the event I was also performing three song in the show: a solo, a duet and a group performance. 

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 When people commented on the pictures of the belt, one of the most often asked questions was: 'will you do cut-out on the bra too?'. In this post I'll show you how I converted a basic bra into a bra base and made a couple of cut-outs in the bra cup. My lack of posting the past couple of days is because I've been practicing my ass off for the show next Sunday. I can't wear a pretty costume when my dancing is not up to par.

( be prepared for LOTS of pictures )

That's it for today, tomorrow I'll post pictures of the process of covering the base with fashion fabric. In case your wondering: this costume needs to be finished for the weekend and my lj posts are behind ont he facts. So rest asure, this costume will be ready on time in all it's shiny glory :)

Other events had me occupied last week so I didn't write much about the costuming project. My hands have not been idle though:  I've spent 13 hours on beading the belt.

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I'm currently busy with beading the fringe, another tedious and long winded process. I can bead about 5 cm of fringe per hour and the whole belt is app. 110 cm long. It might be a while before I post the update of the finished fringe. Lucky for me I have tons of movies and series to watch while beading :)

 I need your help!![Poll #1709977]

 Covering the belt base seemed like an impossible task. With all the cut-outs, curls and corners, I was not looking forward to the process. Today I'll show you how I covered the swirly part of the design.
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Covering the complete belt took me 3 hours, but it is very satisfying to see how the project is advancing. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the whole belt covered in fashion fabric, and the first rhinestones will make an appearance :)

 I recently have time to work on personal projects, and one of those projects is costuming. One of the other projects is trying to reduce the amount of clutter in the house, so instead of starting on a new costume project, I decided to dig deep into the fabric vault and finally get some unfinished stuff done.

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