Almost a year's work

It was last December I started planning a special 40th birthday gift for my Soul Twin who lives in the U.K.

We were going to be on the road for about 6 weeks, and as a passenger I would be able to take something small to work on.

Having decided applique would be too much to organise before we left, and stitchery wouldn't be special enough, I took a few 1970s vintage patterns and some crochet cotton along for the ride.

The first piece I started ended up being too difficult to follow as a pattern, and I would have to do hours and hours of crochet before finding that I might have made an error.

Next!!!

I really needed to have the gift posted yesterday, but as you can see I am still working on it.

In the last few days I made 50 of these little flowers in white, to contrast with the main part, and started to attach them to the d'oiley.

I found these lovely, lovely needles at my local quilt shop.

The packaging is lovely - it looks like fimo flowers, and it's useful. The needles cannot be accessed from the jar by my 15 month old toddler who is FINDing everything!

These particular ones are for hand quilting with perle thread, so the eye of the needle was perfect for hand stitching the little flowers onto the d'oiley and weaving in the thread ends (ohhh! the ends! Will they end?)

Best get back to the actual stitching, the d'oiley needs to head off on Monday.

Kerri's red and gold bra

What a spectacular night we had at the dance concert!

I am so grateful for my Circle of Women. It was such a blessing to be pampered (Kerri did my hair), and pamper others (I did some make up). A truly joyous night of women working together and facing their nervous fears... remembering dance steps... costume pieces and accessories...

And I won a big prize in the raffle! A pack of hair products!


Here is the only bra I had not taken a photo of before  - Kerri models it here.


This bra was not padded, which meant I had to allow for stretch when beading, and had to stitch the sequins and beads on vertically. It is much easier to stitch onto a slightly padded bra.

At first the base of the bra was also sequined, but the beads were digging into her skin. I removed the sequins and replaced them with some rows of beaded fringing. Ta-da! Happy Kerri!




It is the close friendships shared with my Circle of Women that are a true blessing, as a result of belly dancing, and I find myself truly grateful for their role in my life. Thank you.

Black and Red Tassels belly dance bra

And I just managed to squeeze in another piece for a dance costume for the concert!

Finished at the last minute, I had been looking for the right tassels, and I am glad I waited.

They turned out a treat. Two rows of tassels, with black sequins stitched over where they were attached.  These give a lovely swishing feeling, and allow some of the lovely bra to show through the fringe.

Yellow Tabla belly dance bra

I have just realised it's starting to get close to our dance concert night this month, and I am looking at the costume lists, mentally assessing what to wear for each dance.

Thank goodness I only need to have costumes for 5 dances. Some of the women are in about 15 dances. That is a LOT of costume changing!

Still, I needed to make a yellow bra for the Table dance. The costume must be yellow and black, so I wanted to keep the bra looking fresh, as I have a black lace bolero and layers of black and yellow skirts to wear together.

The result is a very subdued bra in soft yellow, with a beaded fringe (I think it's supposed to be for upholstery, but nobody would know). The sequins are stitched on symmetrically.

Reminder to self next time adding fringeing: stretch out the base of the bra while stitching it on.

 Ouch. it's a little bit tight.

Purple hip scarf bra

There is another fast way to create a belly dance bra, without all the beading and sequins. Simply stitch an inexpensive hip scarf to a bra. This $8 scarf is hand stitched around the top then is allowed to hang over the bra, and finally ties closed over the clasps at the back.



I really like wearing this bra, and it falls beautifully - my bust even jingles while I move... but the bra underneath is so lovely, and it's hidden. Sometime, I will buy another bra, remove the hip scarf off here and stitch it onto a plain inexpensive one.



This bra is so lovely underneath, it deserves to have some sequins on it, just to show it's loveliness. (Have you shown your bra lately? Hee hee.) I am feeling inspired to stitch on some purple, green and yellow pansies.

Teal and Tangerine Belly Dance Bra

Ooh! I think someone has the bug!



I bought this bra, which PERFECTLY matched the unusual fluro pink/orange fabric swatch - now made into harem pants -  I had been carrying around in my bag.

The bra was so pretty it didn't need much blinging. So I added two different sized sequins - large pink with teal over the top, and some pink with gold, attached in a random arrangement.



While I have worn it a couple of times, I am still looking for a fringe or tassels to hang around underneath in just the right shade.

Blue sparkly belly dance bra for Kerri

I've had so much fun decorating Belly Dance bras, that I have quickly used up all my supplies (time to scout for bargain bras and matching sequins and motifs).

So I offered to decorate some for my girlfriend Kerri. She sews amazingly, and has been sewing her own ballroom dancing clothes for over 20 years, but the handwork is not her favourite. Woo hoo! I get to do some more handwork without buying supplies!

This is her first pair, covered in a remnant of blue sparkly fabric, then freestyle sequined by me.