I've gone to the trouble of putting all of this online because I LOVE to sew. I put a lot of work into my costuming and I think it shows. I get a lot of inspiration from other people, whom I reference below. Hopefully you also get inspired by their creations and my own. Please try and make the effort to credit who inspired you! I'd love to make custom stuff for people, so if you are interested in commissioning something, please give me a shout. I should also add that you should focus on creating your own unique costuming, not simply being derivative of other dancers. Take what you think looks good and make it your own.

White Costume

My first hand made costume (at least the first that saw a performance!). It took me over a year to pull together and went through a few different bra incarnations. The bra was covered by a cream silk which I had scraps of and a sparkly white lace which I got for free from the fabric store because they didn't have the 5 yards I wanted! I made matching thick neck straps out of artists canvas to support the weight of the bra. The coins are of course various afghan and pakistani. I lost count of how many, but certainly 200 or so (what can I say? I'm well endowed). The top of the cups has 3 layers of cream lace and a ribbon with a gold greecian pattern. I found the silver triangular pendant with teal stones on ebay (yes!!!!), for around $30 or so. A total score, it works perfectly.

The belt base was simply made from artists canvas with interfacing, covered with the same cream satin as the top, and a felt lining on the back. There is strip of white ribbon at the top which I use to tie the belt on. Underneath this are rows of coins, braided onto wool. There are 3 rows of beaded fringe that I scored from Fabricland. They didn't look good enough in just one row, so I added 3! I also had a ton of silver 4 inch fringe that I had hand beaded (insane, I know), for a now defunct cabaret costume I attempted. It was certainly put to better use here! The wool fringe is made by Hand Maiden and you can get it at Romni Wools on Queen St. in Toronto. It wasn't quite as thick as I wanted, but it still works. I also sewed a few peacock feathers into the wool strands. I also scored some brown assuit off of ebay for $60. It wasn't the greatest quality, but it still looks pretty cool. I've sewn it to the back of belt base. I tried making an elasticized casing, but it didn't turn out that well.

The headband is made up of a shisha embroidered ribbon with cream, brown, and green tones (also from Le Boutique d'Ebay). I sewed bronze turkoman buttons along each side and miao earrings (from Folkvision) to each end.

I wear a few different pants with this outfit. I had some sage sash melos that worked well, some cheap gold sparkly flares which fell apart, or these fantastic gold and black 4 yard velvet harem pants. I'm working on these white tiered eyelet pants with beading which will look GREAT, and I have a few flared pants on the sewing table.

Blue Costume

I LOVE this costume. I don't know if I could choose favourites, but this ones pretty bangin' if I do say so myself. The bra is pretty basic. It's covered with rich dark blue stretch velvet with a strip of coins and brass buttons at the top. I wanted to avoid the "bloated fish scale" look that my white bra tends to have! Less coins tends to look better on bigger cups I think. The straps on this one were pretty solid, so I just covered those too.

The belt is pretty friggin awesome. Of course, based on Mardi Love's belts. I started off with a rectangular canvas base, reinforced with interfacing, covered with black silk-like material. The center parts consist of multiple rows of various paraphenalia: coins that came attached to sari bits, silver dome studs attached to ribbon, as well as a thin mirrored belt that I got at some hippie event in Seattle. The mirrored medallions I actually hand beaded myself to make them match. The base is made of round pieces of plastic mesh I got from a craft store, covered with felt. The mirrors I got from ArtOn Beads on Queen W. in Toronto. The blue/green/brown wool is from Romni Wools.

The frilly chaps were made from the same dark blue velvet as the bra. They are stretchy and VERY soft and comfortable. They were inspired both by the Skin Graft pants that Atash Maya wears and Kathleen Crowley's Fluffly Ruffly Bloomers, but the pattern and design are my own. I came up with the design to use the fabric from the very first bellydance skir that I made! The velvet didn't work so well with that...If you are interested in a pair, give me a shout and I can custom make a set for you. I attach them to a garter belt, supported with additional hooks and eyes. I scored some lovely vertically striped stockings at some store on Queen. I generally prefer to be more rather than less covered with my costumes, so I usually wear at least 2 pairs of shorts (one in blue velvet!), in addition to stockings. Although they look hot, everything is locked and loaded and I feel VERY secure.

I have 2 headdresses that I wear with this costume. The first is 3 strips of ribbon covered with silver dome studs. The second is a wide elastic with blue feather patches and silver wire disks from ArtOn.

Pink/mauve Costume

This one's kind of a hodge-podge of a few different things. I found this huge mauvey sequined moomoo at Courage My Love in Kensington. There was so much sequiny fabric I was able to make a shrug, halter top, and panel skirt out of it! It's a little much to wear all at once, but each piece is pretty cool. The halter base is canvas, and I need to add some extra support in there come to think of it. Halter tops require a little extra love the bigger you get. The bottom is a canvas strip covered with purple and brown ribbon from Mokuba. It's secured with leather strips tieing 2 D rings together. Oh ya, and the tummy drape is a necklace from Le Chateau.

The belt base I bought of Ebay, not sure from who. The round metal pieces are earrings from Folkvision. They were WAY to big and heavy to actually be worn as earrings. The metal jangly bits were also from Ebay, maybe from ShimmyBliss. The pink yarn is again from Romni Wools.

The headpiece again is a wide elastic, with brown feather patch and bronze flowers from ArtOn beads.

Pants kinda vary - my espresso melos, gold and black harem pants usually. I also wear a torn up piece of white assuit (Ebay) and this white lace jacket (Courage My Love) tied around my waist.

Flapper Costume

I'm immensely proud of this one. I wanted to create something with both flapper and bellydance elements for the fusion stuff that I do. I think this costume adequately reflects my music choices and choreography. The belt is one of the few things I haven't made myself. I bought it off of Ferda Bayzit at Toronto's International Bellydance Conference of Canada. One of the reasons I started making everything myself is because I'm so cheap, but this was worth the price.

The bra is covered with black velour which I had lying around from some other failed project. The top of the bra is a turkoman headdress which I got on Ebay, probably from ShimmyBliss. I also put on these blue lapis earrings that I got free from some Ebay purchase. The coins again are from Ebay. The straps are lined with ribbon covered with silver dome studs. I made the ruffle out of extra black silk that I got in the scraps bin at FabricLand.

The skirt is made from a dress that I got off Ebay. It actually looked kinda good as a dress, but who would wear 9" fringe to go out? It looks much better as a skirt!

For a headdress I wear a lovely black applique I bought of Shelly from Bab's Designs and rhinestone bobby pins. Or sometimes I wear the brown feather headdress.

Red Costume

Phew! That's a lot of costumes. But I still have more... This one I made to use up some red and black sparkly pinstripe material. I used the same design as the blue ruffly chaps. These are held up by a black leather Lara Croft belt that I got from Wild Card (no longer in production though). I put snaps on ribbon to attach them together.

The bra that goes with this I got from La Senza around Valentine's Day. It's more of a cap-sleeved black chiffon top than a bra. I made a matching red striped vest with ribbon lacing in the back to match. I also have a black vest from H&M that goes great. I got a black fedora as a birthday present which matches, but I think I'm going to cover it with black silk. All in all this costume has required the least amount of sewing!

Odds and ends

• I currently have a teal belt that I made out of a vintage silk camisole. It was inspired by the belts that Ultra Gypsy wore on "Bellydance Underworld" DVD.
• I also made a halter bra out of black silk and Buprestid (metallic wood boring) beetle wings which I think would go nice with the teal belt or blue costume.
• Gorgeous wine and mauve silk frilly belt inspired by Sequoia Emannuelle's skirts. The base is black twill covered with black silk, edged with wine velvet ribbon. The bottom is edged with an Uzbek saye gosha (I think that's what they're called) and extra Uzbek tassels I bought off of Ferda Bayzit.