FOA belly dance logo Flowers of Araby Bellydance, Saint Louis, Missouri
FOA belly dance home
About Flowers of Araby
FOA photo gallery
News
Upcoming belly dance events
Hire a Dancer
Belly dance classes
Student Pages
Belly Dance Education
Costuming sources and instructions
Buy belly dance stuff
Links to other belly dance sites
Contact Flowers of Araby
Flowers of Araby Sitemap

Peacock Costume II

Beads and Sequins

The Bra  
When we last left our costume I had just finished sewing on the base material. Next I sew a couple of rows of sequins so I know where the design around the edges is going to go. Then from there I can decide where to put my main designs. This costume is peacock inspired so the main design will be three peacock "eyes" on each cup. First I bead the outline for the eye
   
Next I Fill in the outline with gold, leaving a space for the blue center of the eye. After that I surround the gold with a green color I picked out
   
Then I fill in the middle part of the eye with dark blue surrounded by a blue/green color. I need the finish the third eye and fill in the rest of the area with sequins. I'm using peacock blue sequins divided up with 3 peacock green beads between them.
   
After that's finished I do my edge design which will be based on the smaller feathers on a peacock's tail that come right before the big feathers we're all familiar with.First I do the outline in green, then I fill in it with gold beads. In the middle I put a row of peacock green beads.
   
Now I have to do the same to the other side!
   
Here's the design I started for the straps. The black part was then covered with the base fabric (unless you did this before you attached them to the bra) and blue sequins. Here are details of the finished straps.
   
   
 
   
I added an AB Swarovski rhinestone to the middle. I removed the stone from a headband that I never use. You should always keep that kind of stuff around in case it can be added to a different costume. Here is the finished bra! There will eventually be some looped green fringe in the middle of the bra but I'm not going to add that until I order the fringe for the belt.
   
Costume worked on over a period of 9 days for an average of 2.39 hours a day.
Time spent on Top: 17.5 hours
Time Spent on belt: 4 hours
Time Spent on skirt: 0 hours
Money spent on costume so far: $71
   
The Belt  
Now I'm working on the belt. After I covered the base with the base fabric I beaded the smaller feathers at the top. You can also see light patterns that I traced to show where the peacock eyes will go.
   
I build the outlines for my peacock eyes. Then I fill it in with gold beads.
   
I finish it off by adding the colors in the center of the eye. Here is what the back of the belt looks like after I complete all of the eyes:
   
I also added two rows of sequins before the picture was taken in case you were wondering what that sparkling at the bottom was. Next I filled in the rest of the space with my peacock blue sequins and beads just as I did on the bra. Here is the finished front of the costume:
   
Here's the back.
   
Here's a picture of the entire belt! Yay!
 
Costume Stats:

New costume info started on 10/11/05

Time spent on Top: 35 hours

Time spent on belt: 39.5 hours

Time spent on skirt: 0 hours (haven't started yet)

Time spent on arm bands: 0 hours (haven't started yet)

Time spent on headband: 0 hours (haven't started yet)

Money spent on costume: $97 (including the material for the skirt and armbands)

Next I am going to order my fringe for the belt. Then I will sew it on and add fringe to the top. Then I will add a cotton liner to the inside of both the top and bottom. Then the bra and belt will be finished...oops I almost forgot to add the hooks to my belt, I'll have to do that as well.

Then I can get started on either the skirt or the arm bands. 

-Deserae

Peacock Costume Part I  
Back to Costuming Page  


Contact Us at:
flowersofaraby@yahoo.com
or
314.807.0891


Copyright law protects all articles, images, and artwork appearing on this web site.
© 2005 flowersofaraby.com