The best thing about tribal fusion costumes is that anything goes. Whatever your style, preference, and budget allows, you’re sure to get a unique costume. However, the creativity and imagination that goes into a tribal fusion costume can be a little daunting, especially once you see what other dancers come up with. With a little time and patience though, you can put together a fun, creative costume that’ll wow the crowd.

For a tribal fusion costume, it’s best to start with the basics. A pair of yoga pants and a black bra are a good foundation. If you want to cover up a little more, you can add a black top or choli under the bra. From there, the sky’s the limit!
For dressing up the hips, go traditional with a scarf or shawl, tied around your waist. Or, go unusual with a wrap skirts or even a modern skirts over a pair of yoga pants. There are a lot of vendors now, too, that sell ready-made hip scarves and belts for tribal fusion dancers—a popular one is Geisha Moth.

To decorate a bra, use buttons, trim, beads, or broken pieces of jewelry. You can also pin an extra scarf over the bra cups to change the color. Vintage fabric and jewelry are great additions to a bra and can be purchased from many different sellers on Etsy. Just check the vintage listings and let your imagination go wild.

Arm warmers, fingerless gloves, and wrist cuffs are a great tribal fusion costume accessory, and can be kinder to your budget. You can also fashion your own wrist cuffs with ribbon or fabric. If you’re handy with a needle and thread or a crochet hook or knitting needles, try making your own.

For hair, make your own hair falls from ribbon and yarn: cut lengths of each, as many as you’d like, and tie them around a regular hair elastic. ‘Flapper’ headbands are popular now, too, and it’s easy to find a collection of them at accessory stores. You can also make your own with plastic headbands and some feathers or fabric remnants. Vintage cocktail hats make great headwear, but can be a little pricier. Check ebay for some good sales, or your local vintage store.

For jewelry, check modern accessory stores. Remember that anything you buy can be reused and upcycled to make something new and unique. For stretched ears without the stretching, there are earrings made to emulate the look. Bindis are a nice addition, and aren’t just for the traditional belly dancers. Another Etsy seller, KuhlJewels, has all kinds of bindis, from the traditional to skulls and crossbones.

When you’re shopping around for tribal fusion costume pieces, don’t think about putting together a specific costume. Instead, buy pieces that interest you, and when you start planning your next costume, take out everything and start mixing and matching. Most importantly, don’t stick to any rules. Just because something started out as a necklace doesn’t mean it can’t end up as a belt!

If you’re just starting out as an American Tribal Style dancer, you’ll soon realize that the performance costumes are going to take more time to put together than the show. For 5-10 minutes of stage time, you’ll need: harem pants, 20+ yard skirts, a belt, hip scarves, a choli, a coin bras, hair decorations, bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Accumulating all these pieces can take a lot of time and money, especially if this your first costume, so here’s a few tips on how to assemble your costumes without breaking the bank.

First, sewing your own skirt will be very expensive and time-consuming, so it’s best to purchase one. If you want a versatile skirt, get a plain black one. You can dress it up with scarves and belts, and it’ll go with any color. Flying Skirts has good basic black tribal skirts for a reasonable price.

Your choli can be sewn or purchased, and if you run out of time, you can go through the clearance rack in the active wear department, find a black, tight-fitting top, and cut or fold the bottom to give it a midriff. If you want to try sewing one, there’s plenty of patterns online to buy or copy, and you can also purchase a velvet one from L. Rose Designs. Again, basic black is the most versatile color.

Harem pants are easier to make yourself, and can be sewn by the most experienced sewers (or by generous friends). There are a lot of patterns available online, but you can make your own pattern by tracing a pair of folded yoga pants. If you want to purchase them, search both vintage and modern stores—I found a great pair at a vintage store selling off all of its 80s stock.

For the bra, you can buy any black bra that fits, then dress it up with coins, shells, or trim. The upholstery section of the fabric store is a good place to look for trim, and search for grab bags of kuchi pieces and coins at tribal jewelry retailers such as Tribal Bazaar. If you want to change your bra up without buying or making a new one, just find some larger trim and tack it over the existing trim. I’ve taken a piece of lace and tacked it over a tassel trim and tucked the rest under my bra for a quick change.

For belts and scarves, look at secondhand stores. You can find a lot of inexpensive colors and styles to dress up your black skirt, bra, and choli. If you want hair decorations, hot glue a few silk flowers to a duck clip, or wrap a scarf or costume fabric scraps around your head for a turban. Since kuchi jewelry is expensive, check out modern accessory stores for cheap tribal-looking jewelry. I’ve found great items for less than six dollars.

Of course, you can always ask your more experienced dance sisters if they have something you can borrow and they’ll be more than willing to loan you a thing or two. Just remember to pay it forward when you’ve got a closet full of costumes and the new dancer timidly asks you “What do I wear?”

Lacy, glittery gauntlets accent graceful hand movements in belly dance and add flair to your costume. If you’re comfortable knitting with sock needles, you can whip up a pair of elegant gauntlets with an openwork lace pattern. This pattern uses a metallic yarn called New Smoking. If you’re unable to find this yarn, choose any worsted-weight yarn with a glittery finish.

Materials:
1 set size 3 double-point needles
2 25 gr. balls “New Smoking” yarn – or equivalent worsted-weight metallic yarn
Stitch marker
Crochet hook
1/4 inch elastic
Sewing machine or needle and thread

Directions:
Cast on 54 stitches. Divide the stitches evenly between three needles. Place a marker and join stitches, being careful not to twist.
Knit 1, purl 1 ribbing for 1 inch, then begin knitting lace pattern.
Lace Pattern:
Round 1: P 1, K7, P1 around.
Round 2: P1, K1, K2tog, yarn-over (YO), K1, YO, slip the next two stitches, then knit them together (SSK), K1, P1. Repeat to end of round.
Round 3. P1, K7, P1
Round 4: P1, K2tog, YO, K3, YO, SSK, P1
Repeat these rows until the gauntlet measures the desired length. One ball of yarn is enough to make a pair of short gauntlets that reach a few inches past the wrist. For longer gauntlets, purchase two balls of yarn.
Bind off all stitches loosely.

Measure around the part of your arm where the gauntlet will end. Cut two pieces of elastic this length plus 1/2 inch. Using your sewing machine or needle and thread, sew the elastic to the inside of the bound-off edge of your gauntlet. This elastic will help to keep the gauntlets in place as you dance. Hint: Use a wide zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine to sew the elastic in place. Pull the elastic taut as you sew.

You’ll also need a loop in which to insert your middle finger. This keeps the gauntlets in place and also looks elegant as they cover most of your hand. Try on the gauntlet and decide where the loop should fall. Slip the crochet hook beneath one stitch at this location and tug gently to make a loop.

Make a second gauntlet to match the first. You can knit these to match all your costumes. Experiment with fuzzy or novelty yarns for different looks.

Tips: Remove your rings and other jewelry before you slip on the gauntlet. The lacy knit will catch on jewelry . Hand-wash your gauntlets in a mild detergent and cool water and lay flat to dry.

Belly dance costumes require special care.

Make timely repairs. Don’t let a small snag or one picked thread become a disaster. Carry a small repair kit in your bag with a needle and thread, small crochet hook (for repairing picked threads), a tube of nail glue (quick repair for decorations that can’t be sewn), spot-remover, safety pins, and even extra sequins or coins. If you notice a loose decoration, a torn hem or a spot, tackle it right away.

Spot clean. Treat washable fabrics with spot-removing wipes or pens. Test the solution in an inconspicuous place, such as an inside seam, before you use it on the garment, if you’re not sure of the fabric’s washability. For dry-clean only fabrics, the small bottle of liquid in home dry-cleaning kits such as Dryel will remove many stains. Place the garment, stain side up, with a folded towel beneath and dab on the stain remover a little at a time until the stain dissolves. If you’re caught without stain-removing solution, blot the stain with a clean cloth. Don’t scrub. Clear club soda will also remove many stains on washable fabrics. For dry-clean only garments, get the stained garment to the dry-cleaner’s ASAP and point out the problem area to the cleaner so they can mark it.

Air them out. You don’t need to wash your costumes after every wearing. Instead, hang them in a ventilated area, out of direct sunlight, and allow them to air out overnight. This will be enough if you don’t notice any obvious stains or odor.

Test before washing. Check garments for labels with washing instructions. But many costumes are hand made and may not include washing instructions. If an item is cut simply and doesn’t include a lot of added decorations such as sequins or fringe – for instance, a pair or pants or a simple skirt – you should be able to wash it if the fabric is washable. Cotton knit, cotton velvet and jersey are usually washable if the dye is colorfast. To test, wet a washcloth with warm water. Lay the garment inside out on a white or light-colored towel. Dampen the seam allowance only with the washcloth and rub. If any color comes off on the towel, the garment isn’t colorfast and needs to be dry-cleaned. You’ll also need to dryclean items that are heavily adorned with sequins, coins, fringe and other decorations. Washing subjects these items to too much stress and can damage the fabric.

Dry clean. Try to find a dry cleaner who has experience handling specialty fabrics. Ask your local community theater or university theater department who they use to clean costumes. Because of all the decorations, belly dance costumes require special handling and you’ll probably have to pay extra. Also, the chemicals in dry cleaning solutions can discolor fabrics over time, so reserve dry cleaning for times when the costume absolutely needs it.

Transport costumes properly. Put costumes on hangers when possible. Wrap smaller items such as veils and belts in silk scarves. Silk won’t snag on decorations. Spread the belt or other item on the scarf and roll up into a long tube. Then roll the tube and stash it in a plastic or cloth zipper bag. You can also make cloth bags for storing belts, etc. Use a separate bag for each belt, pair of gauntlets, etc, and clip or hang the bag to the hanger for the corresponding costume. This will keep you from forgetting an essential piece of a costume as well. Cover the garment on a hanger with a cloth or plastic bag to protect it from dust and dirt, and from snagging on items you might walk past. Hang the garment in your car, or in a suit bag if you’re traveling by plane.

Consider lining your costumes. Cotton or silk linings help protect the outer layers of the costume from sweat, and add body to help support heavy decorations. You can purchase a regular bra and sew it into tops that don’t already include one. Wearing a slip or leggings under a skirt or dance pants also helps protect the fabric of your costume, and these undergarments are easy to launder.

Wear a cover-up. Not only is this good dancer etiquette, but cover ups protect your costume from snagging on upholstery or other furnishings, keep off the dust and sun at an outdoor festival, and prevent decorations from abrading against furniture and upholstery.

Belly Dance Costumes from the Closet!
All you need is to reach in

Is the current economy stopping you from buying a costume and performing to your favorite belly dance piece? If you answer is yes, don’t worry and reach in to your closet. Yes! A simple and yet pretty costume is waiting for you. All you need is time to mix and match.

According to the experts, the looks of the high quality, stylish, lovely sequined and beaded professional costumes are one of the main reasons why so many ladies are drawn to this dance, but it is also the lack of these $400 to $2,000 dollar costumes that stops them from performing.

So open up the closet, breath in and pay more attention to the clothes you don’t wear that often and you might be in for a surprise. Take out the beautiful ankle-length skirts you got for last summer, the tank tops that you planned to wear at the gym but never did, and the triangle or square scarves and shawls that you got for Christmas and haven’t gotten the chance to wear.

Yes! All you need is three pieces; a long skirt, a tank top and hip scarf. But, if you want to dig in deeper, and save time mixing and matching, look for a long and tight cocktail dress and all you will need is a hip scarf to go with it.

Going Gypsy on the audience?
A. With this style anything goes: You can wear really colorful clothes or chose neutral colors if it’s hard for you to mix and match. A long flowered ruffled skirt will look lovely with a peasant blouse, a little vest on top or a thick belt under your chest to play the part. A folded shawl or triangle scarf around your hips will accentuate your hip movements, and gold chunky jewelry will give you the finishing touch along a colorful hair scarf or flowers.

An Egyptian Queen Emerges?
A. You will need the same three pieces. This time, look for a one color tight ankle-length skirt, which you will mix with a tight tank top of any color as long as it’s the same color as the hip scarf. You can cut or fold your top to show off your belly. If your clothes have no sequins or embroidery of any type, try some glitter in your body and arms to get the shine going on. Wear long earrings and big matching bracelets to liven up the costume.
B. You will look as beautiful in an ankle-length dress as long as it’s tight to your body. Most of this night gowns do not have sleeves, so you don’t have to worry about cutting anything. Put on your belly dance practice hip scarf and jewelry. This look will look perfect if you’re dancing to Saidi. Whether plain or flowery, you can acquire some large plastic stones from your local arts and crafts store and add them to your dress. You can also cut the dress on the side to make it more interesting and show off a little bit of leg.
C. If you have a night gown with a tight top and a flowing or round bottom, you can ask your local tailor to alter your dress by making it into a skirt that starts on your hips, and sew the upper part of the gown into a really small tank top or a chest cover. Make sure the alteration is less than $200 hundred, because with that money you might as well buy the matching bra and belt set pieces for your costume.

A Tribal Fusion dance will mesmerize the public?
A. Wear basic blacks, red and purple colors. This look will need a nice red or black corset to go with a fitted black pants and a red scarf. If you don’t have a scarf, wear a black mini skirt on top of your pants and wear a thick belt in your hip line to accentuate your moves. Wear black or purple lipstick, really dark eye liner and remember pick up your hair and adorn it with flowers.
B. You can wear a long black skirt with a pair of gypsy boots, a tight tank top with a little vest and chunky silver jewelry.

Well, now you have not excuse for not performing. Just use a little bit of imagination and you will never run out costumes from the closet; that is of course until you have saved plenty of money to buy the real deal.

I’ve been wanting to work on a new costume for awhile now.  I have many inspirations that are helping me to create a look that is my own.  I want to create new bra, harem pants, and a skirt.  I recently bought a long sundress, that was a bit too long for me.  I am 5 ft. and I had to cut about 3 – 4 inches off.  I kept the fabric I cut off.

The fabric I had left over from the sundress has an ethnic print and was made in India.  So I decided to make the left over fabric into a mini skirt that would go over my harem pants, once those were made.  It is a great idea to keep left over fabric for future projects, I would have never thought that part of my sundress would become a skirt I would wear for belly dance.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to sew the skirt.  I had many ideas and after watching numerous You Tube videos, I decided to add pleats to the fabric.  The materials I used or that may be needed to make this project is:

1.  Fabric

2. Sewing machine

3. Either lace, ribbon, or metal clasps

4. Self healing mat

5. Rotary cutter or scissors

It is very simple to add pleats to the fabric.  To make pleats, fold the fabric and put it through the sewing machine and repeat.  If you want smaller pleats, make the folds smaller or if you want larger pleats make the folds larger.  Once I finished sewing I decided to use metal clasps since that was what I had.  I knew how to add the clasps thanks to my training at a design house I work at.

There are two clasps, one with the hole in the middle and the other with a round circle.  Put the skirt over your hips or wherever you want to wear it before adding the clasps.  That way you can see if you want to make the length shorter and decide where the placement of the clasps will be.   To add the clasp with the hole in the middle, just poke a hole through the front layer of the fabric on the desired place, just remember not to go through the second layer of fabric.    Repeat this step on the end of the fabric, only adding the other clasp from inside the fabric.

After you are finished try it on and add your belly dance belt or a hip scarf and practice.  Practicing in a new costume  will let you know if there is a wardrobe malfunction and you can fix it to prevent a mishap during a live show.  My next project will be harem pants, stay tuned.  Please share your comments.  Happy Dancing!

A few people have asked me to explain more about making belly dance bra’s, so in this article I will go more into detail on how to change the straps and to  cover the bra with fabric.

Before you start on your new bra, make sure the cups are as sturdy as possible, if not, purchase another bra or use buckram to reinforce the bra. Buckram can be bought at the fabric store. A bra should not have any overflowing or oozing over the cups and back straps and should not ride up when you lift your arms. One of the most important parts is the construction of the bra starts with buying the perfect bra!

This is a picture of what parts of the bra need to be altered:

Here is a picture of a back strap replacement of the last costume I made:

I cut the back straps from a very sturdy cotton that has absolutely no strech in it. You can also use grosgrain ribbon (for shoulder straps) if you want or sturdy interfacing, but I always use heavy duty cotton. Of course it nees to be covered with fabric so it looks like a real belly dance costume bra and not like a lingerie bra.

If you want to know how big the back straps sound be, measure the brack straps of any bra while you are wearing it. Belly Dance back straps are longer that the usual ones on a lingerie bra because they need to overlap. If you are making a tribal fusion bra they need to be even longer so you can tie them instead of fastening them with hooks.

You can use the cut-off black straps from your bra to measure how wide they should be where they connect with your bra. Basically this is what they should look like: 

Once you have replaced the back straps (the shoulder straps you do later) you can decorate your bra. Some people find it easier to first cover the back straps before sewing them onto the bra. I personally like my bra’s to be as seamless as possible so I do it afterwards. On this picture you can see how I pinned the fabric on (in this case I used velvet ribbon as well):

Here I pinned some ribbon and beaded fringe on my bra:

Pinning the fabric on the bra is very important, you can still make changes, move it around etc. When you use fabrics that have a direction like velvet or fabric with a pattern,  do not forget to make sure it faces in the right direction!

Here is the finished version of the bra you see in this article:

The worst mistake I have made myself was with my first belly dance bra for a student recital. I had only ever seen a few real costumes and had pictures of belly dancers in Egypt in the 60′s, so I based the costume on that look. What I did wrong was keeping all the original straps and putting sequins on them. It looked hopelessly unprofessional.

The next article will be on embellishing techniques!

We have all seen the beautiful jewelry that tribal belly dancers wear.  In this particular style of belly dance, the costumes are darker and the jewelry is more abstract.  The dancers typically make their own costumes and at times the jewelry as well.

Tribal belly dance jewelry consists of metal and silver jewelry.  Some can often be heavy especially if you like to fill your arm with bracelets and cuffs.  The jewelry is often bought at festivals or haflas and yes, the most popular place to find them is on eBay.  The bracelets, necklaces, and earrings all come from different parts of the Middle East and other places like Africa.  Turkey, Afghanistan, and India all have an inspiration among tribal belly dancers.  Purchasing jewelry of this caliber would have to be an investment, since it can get really expensive.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on tribal jewelry.  In fact, I made a pair of tribal inspired earrings.  To make a pair of your very own tribal inspired earrings, you need the following supplies:

1. a hot glue gun, tweezers,
2. earring posts (make sure you buy posts you aren’t allergic to, they can be irritating), and
3. two buttons that are flat in the back.

Some buttons even have the back part attached to sew onto clothes, if you really like a pair, you can cut off the back piece and then shave down the sharp edges.  By the way, another way of saving is subscribing to Joann’s email list, that way you receive coupons via email, even cheaper!  Make sure when your choosing a pair of buttons, they reflect your style and individually when you dance.

Material Needed to Make Your Own Earrings

I bought a pair of wooden buttons, that were made in India.  They have a large round shape and have a flower in the middle, they definitely had the tribal look.  I also bought a pack of earring posts, so I can make more than one pair.  Along with my coupon, I spent less than $7.

Procedure:

1. First off, heat up your hot glue gun.  Hot glue guns usually heat up pretty fast and be aware of where you place it to avoid burns.
2. Decide on where you want to place the earring posts on the button.  I placed it on the middle near the edge of the button.  Get your tweezers and grab the post.
3. Place hot glue on the post and by using the tweezers, place the post on the button.  You just turned buttons into earrings!

I look forward to your comments and if you have any more ideas on how to make earrings let us know.  Happy dancing.

A lot of belly dancers create their own costumes.  Making your first costume is very exciting. I will be publishing a series of ‘how to make belly dance costumes step by step’ and I will give tips and tricks on avoiding ‘costume mistakes’. As a beginner, it is so hard to get the right info on the how the to’s of belly dance costumes. I have made my beginners’ mistakes in the past and will share them with you.

The most common mistakes are made with the belly dance bra’s. Belly dance bras are different from normal lingerie bra’s because they have to withstand the dancing and keep the dancer ‘in’. A belly dance bra can be made from a lingerie bra, but you have to be careful to buy the right one. Padded bras are the what you need, because they have a good base to work with. You can use a pre-formed bra, but I prefer a padded bra that’s not preformed; it’s a little bit more flexible and easier to work with. Make sure you buy the bra a cup size bigger than you normally do: the bra will ‘shrink’ when you embellish and line it.

Next thing you need to do is cut off the back straps and shoulder straps and put buckram in the insides of the cups so the shape will hold after embellishing. I like to make an extra sturdy bit in the middle of the two cups: as you see in the pictures I have removed the original connection in the middle and replaced it with a bigger one. This is not always necessary, but it is a personal preference. I think it makes the bra more comfortable and durable. You will have to make new straps, this can be done with heavy duty cotton. Cut the back straps about the same shape as the original ones, only longer, as these will not have stretch in them. Same for shoulder straps. Cover them with fabric and add them to the bra. It’s important that the straps are replaced, otherwise it will not look like a real belly dance bra but like a lingerie bra (see the following two images). It also prevents unwanted bouncy effect while dancing!

Here is picture of a bra that I cut the straps of and replaced them (yes it looks horrible, but after it is all covered with fabric it will look very different):

This is the inside where you can see the buckram in the cups:

You’re now ready to add sequin, beads, fringe etc. Check this site next week: more on how to cover your bra with fabric!

The bra above looks now like this:

Before walking out onstage and after a performance, it is extremely important to cover the costume.  You don’t want the audience to see what your costume looks like and more importantly it’s proper etiquette.  Coverups can be just as exciting as the costume itself; it can be a glimpse of what’s to come in your performance.

You can make them yourself or buy them.  If you’re making them at home, you might want to buy at least a few yards to be able to cover you from the neck down.  You also want to have a larger then normal neck opening to avoid any wardrobe malfunction around your hair since it should be primped and set.  Also, a larger then normal arm opening to also avoid any wardrobe malfunction like getting your bracelets stuck on the coverup.  I found a great website to aid in patterns for belly dance costumes, there is even a couple for coverups.  To go to that website click here.

I have a couple of coverups that I have bought fairly inexpensive.  I found a full skirt and it is long enough to cover me and to get out of it I just pull the zipper down.  It cost me only $5!  Buying a skirt can also be a great way to use as a coverup.  I also like shopping at discount stores like Ross. If you visit a Ross Store, make sure you shop around the intimate section where the pajamas are usually hung.  I have seen some really beautiful drapings there that can be used as coverups.  I have seen animal prints, silk prints, and some indian prints with mirrors all under $20 and some were on clearance for less then $10!  

If you know of any other discount stores, please share them.  Leave me some comments and remember we don’t have to break the bank to look great.