Hello Gang,
WHEW – have you ever had weekends that just seemed to be all work? Well, I’ve just come off a weekend just like that! Although it’s been a lot of work, it’s also been a heck of a lot of fun too! Because I’m self-employed, I try to work 4 long days and take three days to off to R&R. Loads of people ask me what I do and how I manage my time, so here’s a peek into my past three days.
Friday: Admin Work & 2 Customers
Every morning I spend quality time in front of my computer. I try to start my day around 9 am, and keep a similar morning routine to give my day shape and help me keep focused on the details of running a business. Bills to pay? Check. Books and products to ship? Check. So my morning started with answering email, checking social media, prepping photos and advertising my latest blog post.
Below: Top Left – I Made a square image of Zemira for Instagram to share last Thursday’s blog post using the Layout app on my phone. There were a few questions through my Etsy store that needed answering and some listings to update. I made a note that next week I have to rewrite my Announcement. Then I spent some time on my favorite website, Pinterest, adding some pictures to my boards. After that, I cleared my work table off and set up my kit so I could do some sewing.
Customer 1 – Azura’s Costume Alteration
In the afternoon, I had two meetings scheduled with a pair of glamorous Bay Area belly dancers. First up on the schedule was a repair job on a costume rehab project I did earlier in the spring. This berry-hued beauty was a modern bedlah set with a bra and embellished skirt. I took this bra from a full B/C cup, to an ample E or F. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what size it is now because I built the bra to custom fit my dancer.
I put a wire on the upper, inside edge of the bra cup, to support the upper edge. But after a few wearings, this wire was getting a little pokey! I opened up the lining and reinforced the edges, and gave them a curl so they won’t poke. I stitched down the lining back down and she is now ready to take the stage again, perhaps as soon as next weekend! I did the repair in about 40 minutes while my client waited.
Above: Before and After Bra Renovation
Below: Bay area belly dancer Azura performing at Hafla Adira hosted by Adira Dance and Costume.
Customer 2 – Shalimar’s Pink Rhinestone Bedlah Finished
I’ve spent nearly 20 hours working on this belly dance bedlah set. It has nearly 600 rhinestones individually stitching down rhinestones between undulating rows of rhinestone chain. My client, Shalimar, will be debuting this costume next week, so it needed to be perfectly fitted and finished this weekend. Unfortunately, we experienced style “drift” and the bra and belt no longer coordinated with the skirt. So, I’ll be making a new and different skirt this week. Her backup plan is to debut this bedlah with a white skirt. Later on, I’ll whip up a second bedlah set to coordinate with the orphan skirt.
Saturday Morning: Cleaning the Sewing Room
Once I complete a big costume project, I spend some quality time cleaning up my studio and sewing room. My sewing room was a PIT. It hadn’t been really tidied up for the past three months of intensive design work. I decided to roll up my sleeves and dive into this massive cleaning project. I’m about 1/3 of the way through and after a day-long blast, I’ll be finishing up in hour-long blasts throughout this week.
Below – Sewing Room viewed from the door. There’s a guest bed under that pile. On the right, you can see the before and after of my craft bench. As of this moment, my bed is almost clear and I have another table not shown that is still a tragic pile.
Sunday: Makeup Video and Belly Dance Cheer Team
My co-author Sara Shrapnell organized a “cheer team” to entertain, pose for pictures, and cheer on the walkers at a fund-raising lake walk for the organization Boldly Me. A group of dancers converged at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont, CA.
Since I was putting on a full-face of belly dance makeup, I decided to film a FaceBook live of me putting on what my hubby calls my “Belly Drag.”
The day was beautiful, the scenery was gorgeous and we spent the morning bouncing around in the sunshine. Although we were simply told to dress modestly, we all arrived wearing shades of turquoise, blue, and purple with pops of gold and red. The photo below of Sara and tribe was taken on someone else’s phone by our spotter Poppy Maya.
The best part about this event was that I got to see some of my work in action! There is nothing more gratifying than to show up at an event and I get to enjoy seeing a dancer wearing costume pieces I’ve made. On the left is belly dancer/roller derby queen Demmalicious wearing a turquoise princess-line dress with a simple soft hip wrap. Sara on my right is paired a red stretch-velvet dress with a super quick and affordable “Made in a weekend” bra and belt set. We made these pieces for our book, “Becoming a Belly Dancer: From Student to Stage.” It was great to see these pieces out and about again!
WHEW! What a jam-packed three days! Costuming, cleaning, dancing and finally some quality couch time with a book! I spent the rest of Sunday working on edits for the next book, “Color Theory with Pencils and Mandalas” which accompanies one of my fashion design classes. I’m going to be porting the class into digital form in the coming months. You can see me below, happy to have my eyelashes off, in comfy clothes, but taking a breather before heading into the shower.
And though I told myself I would take today off, yet here I am writing this old-school blog post. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my world. I hope you have a great week!
Happy Costuming & Delicious Dance
Dawn Devine ~ Davina
Sept. 18, 2017
We’re in the middle of the launch week for the Belly Dance Bundle, and I was interviewed by the project mastermind, Tiffany Noro. Although I was under the weather, at the tail end of a cold, I was really happy to participate the launch party with this video. Why did I write Zills: Music on Your Fingertips? Why did we choose to include it in the Bundle? These questions and more are answered in this short video.
