Shamadan costume

29 November, 2011 at 8:27 pm (belly dance) (belly dance, costume, gypsy, shamadan, tribal, turkish, velvet)

It was our pal Dina’s wedding a few weeks ago, and we were pretty busy last term learning a fabulous Shamadan choreography to perform at the reception. The costume she requested was a bit vintage-y, a bit tribal-y, so here’s what I’ve put together.

Tunic

This is the not-negotiable part of the costume. We tried to find gold lurex mesh to make the tunic from, but it seems to be unobtainable at the moment, so we settled for a black/gold mesh instead. I cut this out by laying a tunic I already owned onto the double layer of fabric and chop chop chop! Then overlock down the sides and shoulders, add a dropped sleeve, and voila! Oh, and finishing raw edges (although being mesh, it didn’t run, so I probably would have got away with it.) We addied a beaded edge to the dropped sleeve to add a bit of swing.

We’ve decided that it was a bit too shiny, after performing, so we’re going to adapt this when we wear the costume next year.

Poufyloons

These are love-’em or hate-’em pants – 2m of fabric in each leg for lots of swoosh. Depending on the day I love ‘em because of the drape, or hate ‘em because there’s soooo much fabric to pleat into the yoke or the ankle cuff, and it’s never terribly flattering to have four metres of fabric bunched up at your hips. I chose olive charmeuse for these, as it would drape well, plus the colour coordinated well with the black/gold mesh tunic.

Turkish Vest

I started off with a sequinned Bali scarf as the fabric for my vest, but lost my sewing mojo mid-project and cut it out badly, ending up with pieces only fit for the bin. Back to the stash, and I unearthed a piece of vintage upholstery velvet that my grandmother used to cover a chaise longe back in the day! My mojo was still not with me completely, as when using a different pattern than my original plan, I forgot to add to the shoulder length to suit my long waist! However, it worked out okay with some extra darts to add shape, and the underbust band ended being an at-bust band instead. The dip in the back worked well, too!

Then I had to embellish it a little, as it looked quite plain next to the belt!

Belt

Our brief was to have metal tribal-style belts over the tunic and poofyloons. Here’s a pic of the belts I bought on ebay (two, to have enough to decorate front and back!)

Nice! The mirrors and beads look great! However, the problem with these beaded Indian belts is that they tend to tangle and bits fall off them pretty easily. I’ve mounted it on a velvet base to match the vest, to hopefully avoid some of the tangles… Cross fingers!