Yurie's Bellydance Costumes

What's inside the belt?

2010-05-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

To make belt for Oriental costume, I use two layers of cotton fabric to make the base inside. Then I cover the base with another top layer fabric(usually Satin or disco micro dot fabric), sew it on the base with the seam tucked at the back.
Then I attach the backing, usually cotton jersey.

Hagala perfornance photos

2010-05-11T16:59:00.000-07:00

I performed Kazafy's Hagala choreography for Kashmir's show on 8th May.
This Hagala costume is acutally beledi dress. I am wearing over skirt on top.

Blue costume

2010-04-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

This is another costume I have been working on and it seems I'd never be able to finish...I need to add more sequins then add fringing to the belt.

For this costume, I used an old retro dress which I bought from Charity shop and chopped it up to make the costume base.

Bronze & brown costume

2010-04-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

I bought some pretty motifs in Singapore on the way back from Japan.
This is one of costumes I am making at the moment.

The motifs I am using have fringing already, so no fringe making required for this costume. I am hoping to finish this costume for our school's show on 29th May.

How to make costume bra (3)

2010-03-25T15:22:00.001-07:00

Now I can show some photos of covering a side panel of bra.

Covering side panels with fabric is the job I hate most, I rather prefer to cover the panels with sequins even if I have to sew them one by one by hand...

To cover a panel with fabric, you have to pin and sew the cup side first.
Then pull the hook end and stretch the panel of the bra(but do not pull the fabric),and sew with binding stitch. After sewing, the fabric on the panel will look gathered up when you let the panel go.
It will be easyer if you have a body of your size to put the bra on then sew the fabric on the panel.

If your bra cup size is between A-C, you can cut the webbing out and decorate the side straps with sequins.

How to make costume bra (2)

2010-03-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

Here is the order I cover my bra.
(1)Cover the center bottom fo your bra.(Sorry, no picture)
(2)Cover the webbing(side panels) **make sure to pull the panel as you sew so the panel will stretch
(3)Cover the bottom half of the cups.
(4)Cover the top half of the cups.(but do not sew the joint part with straps yet)
(5)Cover the front part of straps.
(6)Sew the joint part with straps.(of top half of the cups)

How to make costume bra (1)

2010-03-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

I was asked by some of my students about the instruction of making bellydance costume bra. You can use "an ordinary (underware)bra with solid cups(full cops prefered),a good support,and two or more hooks at the back" as a base.
If the bra is a plain satin one, sometimes you can find a matched colour satin to make a matched belt, then decorate the bra directly without covering with another fabric. If you don't want to cover the bra with another fabric, just use a plain black bra, because you can always find a black satin without too much problem.

The fabric to cover the bra - you can use; satin, velvet, lycra, disco micro dot, foil, etc.

The photos are examples of simple black bra which is not covered by another fabric, and made a belt with a balck satin then added handmade motifs as decoration.

Culture Galore 2010 Performance photos

2010-03-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

Some photos from Culture Galore on Saturday 13th March at Ray Blank Park. Culture Galore is a popular annual multi-cultural festival and different cultural groups desplay their own cultures. Lovely food and music, dances - a great fun day!

Modern Egyptian costume perfromance photos

2010-03-08T16:46:00.001-08:00

Modern Egyptian Costume

2010-03-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

I made this modern Egyptian style costume for the End of Year Hafla of my own school "El Yasmine Bellydance School".

I used 6 panel- Marmaid skirt pettern for the skirt and decorated directly on the skirt.(No separate belt piece)

This style of costume can be made cheap and really fast.
The material is reasonable($20/m) and it worked very well with Modern Egyptian choreography.
It took about a week to make it, and the total cost of making this costume was around $60!!

More Ten Plus One Hafla photos(White costume)

2009-11-04T01:06:00.001-08:00

This beautiful white costume was made by my teacher Gendi.
She is the teacher who tought me everything....how to dance, how to teach, how to make costume, and how to be creative!
I bought this costume from her when she left Christchurch.

For this Hafla, I danced "Albi Mal" in this white costume....which is a memorable piece I performed with Gendi for MEDANZ show in Wellington. At the time, I was so scared and shaking when I danced.

"Ten Plus One Hafla" was about celebrating our (me and other two fellow dancers')belly dancing milestone....our 11 years of belly dancing.
Three of us started bellydancing on the same day, in the same class, with the same teacher(Gendi)11 years ago. So we all missed our teacher Gendi so much during this Hafla.

Ten Plus One Hafla photos

2009-10-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from "Ten Plus One Hafla" we had on 17th October.
I finally finished my Orange and Gold costume! I combined the Orange costume with Brown skirt. Orange and Brown are my favourite combination as I like retro stuff.

New costume and wing performance photos

2009-07-08T01:22:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, I perfromed Isis wing for "Club Orientale" - the school's show.

The costume I was wearing had made out of second hand silk evening dress which I bought from a charity shop for $17.

I chopped it into half and used the top half to cover a bra.

This time, my yougest daughter came to the show and took these photos again....isnt's she a good photographer?

Hagala Costume

2009-06-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

For my folkloric class, I am teaching a Hagala choreography which I learnd in Kazafy' workshop during FARHA TOUR in Sydney.

I made a costume sample for my students so that they can make their costmes for performance.

For Hagala, we use beledi dress which made with streth velvet, and wear an over skirt on top.

For head, we wear a circular veil as a head scarf and a head band.

I originally made this pompom head band, but for the stage performnace we decided to go for something shiny - and this is the head band I made with some flat sequins(disks).

Nails with flowers

2009-05-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

At Christmas time, my students gave me a voucher for nail salon. I love getting nails done.

But as a bellydancer, its hard to find the right time to get them done because I have to change the colour of my nails if I have to change my costumes for performances.

My friend(a profissional bellydancer) suggested me that a light colour for base and white flowers work for many costumes.

So here are my nails with flowers. I got foot spa, massage and pedicure done on the same day. It was such a treat!

Nubian girls

2009-05-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of my girls in Nubian costumes. The photo was taken when they performed the dance for Cultural Festival in 2007.

Nubian Dresses (Purple / pink)

2009-05-13T03:48:00.000-07:00

I have two Nubian dresses. I made one of them originall for myself then made another one for my daughter.

I have three daughters and two of them learning bellydance.

They learned Nubian in my Middle Eastern folkloric dance class(which I taught) and performed the dance for several community events.

Some poeple think Nubian costume is not very attractive and I think it's really pretty.

Photo in Khaleegy dress

2009-05-09T23:07:00.001-07:00

A photo of me drumming in my Kahleegy dress. I use this dress often to cover up my costume.

Khaleegy dress

2009-05-09T22:56:00.001-07:00

I made these Khaleegy dresses from second hand sari which I buught from Savemart.

They were around $10 each, and one sari had enough length to make one Khaleegy dress.

For the pepparmint green one, I had to patchwork the borders of sari to make the front panel.

Oriental costume (Pink & silver)

2009-05-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is the newest costume for myself - except the orange one which I am still making.

I love the colour of this costume.... I wore this one for the last hafla with white chiffon and satin circular skirts (two layers).

Orange costume - finished the bra!

2009-05-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

I finished the bra of my new Orange costume!

The design of the belt was changed since last photo I posted.

I will post the photos of the belt sometime soon.

Now I haev to add some fringing to the belt!

Performance photos from Kashmir's show

2009-05-03T02:34:00.000-07:00

I perfromed as a guest dancer for Christchurch bellydance teacher Kashmir's show " Dancing Dreams" last night. Here are the photos from the show which I am dancing with my brown, turquoise and silver costume.

Oriental costume(Brown,turqoise and silver)

2009-04-30T20:35:00.000-07:00

This is costume is reasonablly new. I only wore it once so far.

I like the combination of the colours but as it's not a bright coloured costume, I only would like to wear it when I can get a nice stage lighting.

I am going to wear this costume for a show tomorrow.

Oriental costume (Purple & green)

2009-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

I made this costume probablly..... 4 or 5 years ago.

This is the first costume I combined two contrast colours and I am very happy with the result. I wear two layers of full-circular skirt(purple and green) with this costume.

Cosume in progress - Orange

2009-04-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

The costume I am workshog on now is my new orange costume.

This is the second orange costume for me and when I started I though I would sell my old one.

But now I am not sure if I would....

This time, I covered a bra and made a bely base with a satin fabric.

These days, we don't see many costumes covered totally with sequins.

Actually these days, we see more and more costumes without separate belt piece.

I added gold sequin motifs on belt and bra, and now I am adding more decoration.

Performance photos - Candy pink cosutme

2009-04-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

Here are the photos in candy pink costume.

These photos were taken at Greek community's annual social event which I dance with a Christchurch Greek band "The Hellenic Sounds".

It was a fun cultural event, many local Greek people and their firends attended.

Lots of fun with dancing - not just belly dancing but also seeing amasing mens dance and joining in Greek circle dance.

I do dance with the Greek band sometimes, mainly for community events. It's so much fun to dance with live music and I love the sound of bouzouki!

Performance photos - turquoise costume

2009-04-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

I decided to add a few performance photos which I am wearing the costumes I intorduced.

In that way, you can see how the costume looks on me and how it works when I am dancing, and also, you can probably imagin what kind of dancer I am.

I do have lots of performance photos.... because my 12 years old daughter (who also learned bellydance) likes taking her mum's dance photos and earn some pocket money!

I guess she is a good photographer if we consider her age... she is good at capturing the moment when a dancer is doing some veil work!

Oriental costume (Orange)

2009-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

This orange costume is created around the same time as the candy pink costume, or may be a bit later.

The design is quite simple. It was one of the costumes made with low budget, but the colour suits me very well and it is still one of my favourite costume.

I have done a lot of mending as some small flat sequins cracked or lost its colour....

Actually, I am making another orange costume at the moment.

I thought I would sell this old orange costume once the new one was made, but now I am not sure if I can do it....I love this costume so much and it has got a lot of memories.

Oriental costume (Turquoise)

2009-04-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

I made two turquoise costumes, this is my second turquoise costume I made.

The very first one was exactly the same colour, but more primitive design. I sold the first one after I made this second one.

I made a big effort to make this fine fringing by hand....it took so many days!

I created this costume for a duet with my teacher which we perfromed for MEDANZ show in 2004.

Oriental costume (Candy pink-squire motifs)

2009-04-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

This is my oldest Orienal costume I kept and I still love it and wear it sometimes.

Since I started bellydance in 1998, I made so many costumes....the first two costumes I made were sold as second hand after I wore them several times.

When I made my first costume in 1998, I was still a beginner bellydancer and didn't have a digital camera. So I can't find any photos of my very first costume.

This is the third costume I made.

At the start, I didn't like the look and changed the design after I had completed.

I loved the unsusal coluor of this costume, it is a bit like a pink sky before the sunset, or it also reminds me those cheap lollies given on air planes.

Hi! Welcome to my blog

2009-04-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hi! My name is Yurie, I am a professional bellydancer, bellydance tutor and costume maker based in Christchurch , New Zealand.

I started studying Middle Eastern/bellydance in 1998, and started working as a teacher in 2002.

I work for a local bellydance school http://www.belly.co.nz/, teach three Oriental classes(beginners to advanced) one mixed-level Middle Eastern Folkloric class weekly.

I also work as a professinal bellydancer, doing some Hens Nights and birthday party gigs and some occasional bellydance tutoring work.

I love making bellydance costumes, I create most of my Oriental and folklore costumes by myself. A few times a year, I teach costume (making) workshops at the school.

To read my biography, please visit my websitehttp://www.mebellydance.co.nz/

In this blog, I would like to show some of my handmade costumes, and share some ideas and tips about making bellydance costumes.

I already have my bellydance costume blog http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/bellycostumenz in Japanese which I have been writing last two years. I may say it has been successful as I get good resposes from Japan.

It may take a few weeks to introduce all of my hand made costumes I made so far.

So please keep checking this blog over next few weeks.

I will do may best to keep posting until it's done.