How to Make a Belly Dance Belt - A Re-fashioning Resource

I am a belly dancer even if I feel like I have two left feet sometimes. I have always swooned at the sound and sight of bejeweled and costumed exotic women shimmying and dancing to the drum beat of mid eastern music. I was hooked, so two summers ago i found myself going to belly dance classes every Saturday with one of my gal pals. Little did I know at the time that the "tools of the trade" so to speak, the hips scarves, skirts, belts, bras etc are usually sold ala carte either through stores or venders and of course on places like Ebay as well and would add up very quickly. Quality pieces or professional costumes cost a small fortune of which I can't afford. But being the clever artist with a creative mind and a "think outside the box" spirit I came up with a plan and a unique alternative to a least creating the belt portion of my costumes which I will be sharing in this Hub.

I happened to be at my local clothing consignment store one day and spied an embroidered vest like the last one pictured at the bottom of the photo gallery of this Hub. All my mind could think of was, Wow, what a beautiful belly dance belt that would make. I bought it for pennies on the dollar. ( I have a whole pile of beautiful vests waiting in the wings to become fancy belly dance belts :) )

*The CostumeGoddess kindly allowed me to add this pattern to my Hub page with reference to her web site. I didn't really use one when I made my first belt ( the purple one pictured) I simply knew that each vest front piece was long enough to become the whole front and back of my belt. That way the belt would end up with both a front and back equally as beautiful. I cut the vest at both shoulder seams leaving enough of the satin fabric portion to sew both narrow ends back together. Then I cut the side seams so that all you have left is a right and a left vest fronts. I then cut down each long side of the vest to give it the shape I wanted. (the back portion of the original vest was not used at all)

When you are happy with the "shape" of your new belt piece seam the shoulder seams back together making sure there is enough total length to go all the way around you with a bit of overlap. *If you are a full figured gal you may need to add fabric at the side seam.

The next step was to hold the belt up around my hips to do any tucks or pleats so that it would conform to "my" shape and lay flat against my skin with no gaping.

Then I sewed on new gold binding ( as the binding on this vest was shot). I hand sewed on the desired embellishments, which in this case was beading and the application of sequins. Finally a high quality row of 9inch glass bead curtain along the bottom. A final fitting to figure out where to put some strong hooks and eyes, paired it with a beautiful circle skirt and top and I am ready to dance!

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