Wine-Red Belly-Dancing Costume

This costume is loosely based off of Simplicity 5359, with the vest from view C and the skirt waistband from view A. The texture of the main fashion fabric is a black velvet cutwork fabric over wine-red satin. I washed the satin for softness before making the garment. The vest is lined in black cotton broadcloth; the skirt band is lined in the same red satin. The entire outfit took only a couple days to make, not counting trim and beading.

A shot of the vest. It fits quite snugly, closing in front with rings and laces. It doesn't quite close in front, intentionally, but the laces cover the gap up almost inconveniently. The trim was irritating. The red braid is just something I had in the hoard, but the purple leaves are clearly not meant for actual use; they break everywhere. I'm going to remove them sooner or later and put something more sturdy on. The beads are plain rocailles strung in loops with bells at the bottom of each loop. The bells were acquired from Pillaged Village and weren't at all expensive. I needed about a hundred for this vest; I used 3 per loop for a good jingly effect. I plan later to add a couched gold thread design across the vest's edges, but time and lack of thread hindered me for now. (Incidentally, you can click here for a really big blowup of this image.

I used Simplicity's skirt waistband because I liked how it'd worked on my earlier belly-dancing costume. It contours very effectively. However, I never did like Simplicity's skirt; let's face it, that ruffle at the bottom looks like it'd destroy the sway of the skirt. And I was still losing weight and wanted to show off a little. Okay, a lot.

I matched the vest's satin and velvet overlay construction in the waistband. It was quite simple and produced a rich effect. I lined it with the same satin for smoothness. Since I'd used lacing rings to close the vest, I decided to do the same thing with the skirt to keep the costume consistent. Besides, it'd save me having to take the waistband in later if/when I lost more weight (I've been this weight now for about 6 months, so it's likely I won't lose much more, but a girl can always hope).

Later I may bell the waistband. The velvet overlay seems like it might not work well with a belled belt, and I don't really want to distract from it anyway. A couched cord design across its edges might also look really cool incorporated with the bells. I'm really just not happy unless I'm jingling like a Christmas hat.

And of course you can click here for a big blowup of the front, and here for one of the back.

These are the skirt panels. All of this came from sale racks and was just whatever thin, semisheer stuff I could find. In all, I ended up with about a dozen black panels made of dancer's mesh (I love this stuff and may never go back to chiffon--it absolutely doesn't fray, and it lays flat without curling at the edges. DEFINITE FIND), plus four or five panels of this very thin purple print. The lavender panels are sari cotton.

I didn't want to seam the panels together; I wanted them to be free-flowing entirely. I had to blanket-stitch the edges of the sari cotton and print panels, but the mesh didn't require it. Blanket stitching is quick to do and using slightly contrasting thread colors gave the skirt a richer, more detailed appearance (metallic thread would have been pretty cool on this, but I just thought of that). Originally, I'd planned to make a double layer of panels, but decided against that as it'd weigh the skirt down, as it had on the previous costume I'd made. However, most of these panels are sheer, which meant I had to provide some sort of coverage. So I overlapped them about 3" on each side. The panels themselves are about 10-12" across at the top, widening slightly toward the bottom before cutting off in a V.

Here are some closeups of the trim on the vest. As always, clicky for a blowup.

Between the overlapping and the gathering at the waistband, coverage is more or less adequate. I did deliberately gather the sheer panels way more than the nonsheer, as well. So I've got myself a fairly risque costume that probably won't get me arrested. And it looks fabulous when I move, so what else can a girl ask?

This page last updated: July 10, 2009

All text copyright Vangelista di Antonio Dellaluna, except where otherwise noted. All portraits are understood to be copyright- free and are presented as research aids only.