Category: Costuming DIY

One of my frequently asked questions is, “How do you come up with ideas?” Well, the truth is that I am constantly filling my “creative pot.” Design isn’t just a single moment of inspiration. It’s a process that might begin with an indescribable eureka flash but requires a method to move from idea to a completed project.

Designing a Black Cape

One of the small projects on my plate is a black cape. My design brief was simple, a velvet and beaded lace cape or capelet that gives a Victorian or Edwardian impression. What fun! Once I had a general idea about what my client was interested in, it was time to begin my favorite stage of design, research!

Costume Research: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

These seven black capes are all from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Their website has a searchable database of their collection. The Costume Institute houses the collections of both the Met and the Brooklyn Museums. It is one of my absolute favorite places to conduct research about historic costume. www.metmuseum.org

I simply put “black” and “cape” into the search bar and it gave me lots of examples of capes. Of course, being an art museum, it also offered me works of art featuring cape designs as well. While there’s nothing wrong with works of art, I used the advanced search features to hone the search down to garments.

Costume Research: Pinterest

No search for historical costumes would be complete without hitting my favorite image storehouse, Pinterest. What I like most about the Pinterest website is that it allows you to collect and organize images from around the web into useful pinboards that you can refer to often. You can even customize captions, making notes to yourself about the images you save.

I keep images of capes on a Pinterest board labeled “Steampunk Inspirations.” I spent some time adding a few more images to my board as I poked around the Pinterest website and then further out onto the web for examples of short black capes.

Pinterest is a free website that anyone can join and use as often or as little as you like. As a designer, I find it particularly useful for organizing visual data and storing it in the cloud for later use.

Costume Research: Books

Perhaps it’s a little old school to refer to books, but since I’ve collected a lot of costuming books over the years, I took a moment to pull some of my favorites to see if there were any images that I found particularly useful. My collection includes many exhibition guides and I really love having an excuse to pull one out and look for inspiration.

Costume Research: General Web Search

My last go-to strategy for costume research is to hit the web and do some basic searches. I could pour for hours over hundreds if not thousands of images and pages. So, to keep from falling into the research rabbit hole, I begin by making a list of search terms. I write this list down and pay attention to which terms work. When I find things I like, I pin them to my Pinterest board for future retrieval.  In case you might be wondering, I always start with Google and then move on to Bing and use the same search terms, often with different results.

But now it’s time to get on with this project!
Off to sew,
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Friday, November 17, 2017

This month I’ve been participating in a monthly challenge on Instagram.   The #BPsewvember challenge is hosted by Australian blogger, and avid seamstress with sass, Amanda.  You can check out her fun and informative blog here.  Throughout November, her friends and fans on Instagram are joining in the fun and sharing projects based on the prompts.  

A Sence of Community

I love doing a search for the #BPsewvember hashtag and looking at all the uploads for the day and seeing what other sewists, seamstress, tailors, and costumers are sharing with the world.  We’re at the halfway point and I thought I would take a moment to do share some of my answers to this project.

Day 14 – Tricky – Have you seen wild curves as tricky as those on curves model Nicole Simone as Mae West?  I made the pattern, cut it, and with the help of some friends got this dress made.

Day 9 – Refreshments – Coffee, coffee, coffee.  I got this little emoji cup at the dollar store and used it all summer to sip my coffee from.  It’s whimsy made me smile.  Of course, I’m a bit clumsy, which is why I keep the “good cups” filled with pens!

Day 4 – Machine – I adore my workhorse, bottom-of-the-line all mechanical Bernina.  I treasure it, use it every week, and it’s the apple of my eye, the heart of my hearts.  Friends and lovers may come and go, but this machine is rock steady!

Day 11 – Sewing Buddies – I’m really enjoying the companionship of my tiny little dance troupe, Swirl who are my current enablers in the costuming department.  We sew, laugh, and dance together.  Best of all, they love assiut too!

Prompts Make me Think

I must admit I started on day 3, and I’ve missed a few here there. Perfection is not my goal.  For me, it’s the participation in the group experience.  The daily prompts really make me take a step back and think about my process, tools, space, and more. While some are easy, like machine or refreshment, other prompts take more time and a little thought. What was my most “Tricky” sewing moment?

Sharing is Caring

And once I have figured out my answer and shared it the group, then I am happy to look through other participants to see what their answers are.  It’s fun to both share my own answer, and read the answers of everyone else. If you are interested in seeing more of my posts of this challenge, come join me on Instagram!

Boy, I think image challenges are fun! 
See ya on Instagram,
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
November 15, 2017.

Today I received a question via my Facebook group “Studio Davina- Behind the Seams” and I want to share the answer.  In that group, I and the other members discuss and upload pictures of our costuming projects and share tips and tricks for making belly dance costumes, accessories, and other kinds of clothing. Today’s question from member S.S.:

“Why do you make solid side straps for bras, as opposed to stretch? (I know there is probably a reason, I just don’t know what it is. ) “

I think this is a really good question to ask when you are planning your own costume making projects.  In my book, Embellished Bras, I took my workshop of the same name and included the technique for covering a lingerie band.  I consider this a “basic technique” that every belly dance costumer should know.  However, in my advanced class, (and I’m sorry there’s no book for that one… ahem… YET) I present my technique for drafting custom patterns for bra bands. Is it harder?  Not really, but it wound up in my advanced class.

So, why do I make solid straps and bands? Here’s my list of reasons why I almost always remove the lingerie band and install a non-stretchy, reinforced bra band.

Adds Strength to Support the Weight – When costuming, I know I am going to be adding weight to the cups. Commercial bras are not intrinsically engineered to support the weight of the bust AND the weight of fringe, coins, and other heavy embellishments.

It will Last Longer – A harsh reality is that sweat of the dancer, either acidic or alkaline, will damage the fabric, elastic, and thread used in the construction of the lingerie band.  If I want the costume I make to really last, I use fibers that will take longer for perspiration to damage.

I Control the Shape – As a designer, I want to have the ability to control the shape of the costume. If I use the existing band, I’m limited to that size.  I like more territory to show off my taste and skill.

It’s a Dance Costume – As a designer, I like using bigger and thicker so the bras look more like clothing and less like lingerie. Alternately, I might want a super-thin back band.  Either way, I try to mask the lingerie origins of the base bra.

My Techniques Are Worth It – If I’m going to spend a lot of time working on a costume, I don’t want my threads breaking from being over-stretched.  Elastic is simply not as sturdy, and if I’m going to spend a lot of time, I want my work to last as long as possible.

Dancer Tipping Preference –  If you accept tips in your costume, which some dancers do, you don’t want it to be easy for a customer to pull and stretch your garments.  Many dancers treat the back band as a “Safe Zone” to effectively accept a tip tuck, without risking a grope.  Eliminating stretch adds piece of mind for the restaurant performer.

In my sewing business, I have three “grades” of costumes. For beginners or limited use costumes – I  will totally leave the band in.  It’s faster, it’s affordable, and in a limited run costume or for a one-shot performance, leaving the original lingerie bra band intact is perfectly fine.

However, I also have semi-pro and pro-levels of construction that always includes a non-stretching band. When designing costumes, just consider your needs, budget, and skill when project planning.  And always remember:

There’s more than ONE way to
do it the RIGHT way.

Ultimately, as a designer, you get to make all the choices!  No matter what you choose, just do it. 

Happy Costuming!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
November 10, 2017

Just wanted to take a moment to answer a quick question regarding adjusting my belly dance sleeve pattern. “How do you expand the sleeve to make the bicep bigger?”  In my experience, (and after making hundreds of pairs of these sleeves,)  the quickest approach is to use a simple slash-and-spread technique.

Cut out the pattern piece you plan on altering.  I recommend cutting just outside the black pattern line.

Draw a long line from the sleeve point to the middle of the upper edge.  See the top diagram for the position.

Slash or cut along the dotted line in the upper image, to – but not through – the point at the end of the pattern. You want your two pattern pieces to remain stuck together at the point.

Spread the pattern open to the desired width and tape in place on supporting paper.  I always use a scrap of the pattern paper.

How much should you spread?  That really depends on how much your fabric stretches.  My rule of thumb is to take your bicep measurement and subtract an inch.  Spread the sleeve pattern to your your new length, bicep – 1″ and then tape the pieces down.  It should look similar to the lower illustration.  If you can, sew a test sample out of similar fabric.

Original Post about Belly Dance Sleeves.

I suppose I could have redrawn it more formally, I just noticed I didn’t even cross my T’s in the word “pattern.”  If learning about fitting commercial patterns is on your agenda, I’m going to recommend investing in a good fitting book.  There are many on the market today, but there are two that I have found useful to have in my sewing reference library.

Reference Books on Pattern Adjustments

Pattern Fitting by Nancy Zieman – Nancy Zieman has an entire line of sewing books, and I find this one pretty stinking good!  Her methods are sound and her technique really works.  She presents a way of thinking and problem solving that will really help you make your garments fit beautifully.    It’s available as a book and in Kindle form.

Fast Fit: Easy Pattern Alterations for Every Figure by Sandra Betzina – Another iconic author in the sewing world, Sandra Betzina, has a slightly different approach to the same material.  I really enjoy her writing voice, and her method is easy to understand and really works.   Her title is available in hardcover and paperback.

These two books are my favorites, and they are both equally good. That said, you don’t need both!  You only need one fitting reference book to have on hand so pick the one that is most appealing to you. While I included links above for your convenience, I always recommend shopping for sewing reference books at your favorite used bookstore. These have been on the market a long time and so finding them second hand is good for both the environment and your pocketbook!

Now I want to spend the rest of the day flipping through my sewing books.  But no – time to hit the sewing machine and make some costumes!

Have a great day!
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
November 6, 2017