6 Pretty Ways to Hide Upper Arms for Dancers

6 Pretty Ways to Hide Upper Arms for Dancers

What body parts do you care about the most when you dress for performance? 🙂

One of the most concerning body parts for many dancers is upper arms.

I often hear comments like, “I want to hide my flabby upper arms!”

But the common solutions for hiding upper arms like wearing a black long sleeve shirt or a tie top get boring very quickly. 🙁

You need a variety of options to hide upper arms!

Plus arms are some of the most important parts of dance movements, so you need to be careful of HOW you cover up your arms.

So in this post, I’ll share with you 6 ways to cover up your upper arms for dance performance. For this post, I focused on beautiful ways to cover up, so you’re not limited to boring options, and even if you don’t want to hide your upper arms, you’ll want to try! Let’s get started!

Click here to download the free printable cheatsheet!

6 Pretty Ways to Hide Upper Arms for Dancers

1. Hip scarf instant shrug

8 instant shrug belly dance

Super easy solution. Simply take a large hip scarf, wrap it around your shoulders and tie at the back. It covers your upper arms and back, and if your hip scarf has fringe, it makes a really cute shrug!

Click here to see 23 other ways of wearing a hip scarf!

2. Ruffle sleeves

DIY ruffle sleeves to hide upper arms

Another easy solution. Simply take a strip of fabric that’s about twice longer than the length of your shoulder strap, and attach it to your shoulder strap.

Ruffle sleeve pattern
Ruffle sleeve attach to bra straps

You can make it as long for short as you’d like, and it offers nice coverage over your shoulder and upper arm, but since the ruffle has light feel to it, it doesn’t look heavy. It gives movements to your costume as well. 🙂

3. Princess Jasmine sleeves

DIY princess jasmine sleeves for covering upper arms for dancers

These whimsical sleeves are easy to make. Make a tube out of lightweight fabric, gather the ends, and attach them to your bra top. You can make them as wide as you like, and these definitely earn you design points!

Click here to see how to make these sleeves!

4. DIY bolero top / Crop Top

32 DIY belly dance crop top Turkish vest front

I showed you how to make this Ghawazee coat inspired shrug top in my last video, and it’s pretty simple to make! It’s super cute, and comfortable. The ruffle sleeves look gorgeous as you move your arms.

31 DIY ghawazee coat inspired shrug belly dance crop top bolero

Click here to learn how to make this shrug!

5. Drape sleeves

DIY ruffle drape sleeves for dance costumes

Another sleeve idea, but this one with curls looks super cute. Add the same curly ruffles to other parts of your costume for a cohesive look.

Click here to learn how to make these sleeves!

6. Lace shrug

DIY lace shrug to cover upper arms for dancers

Shrugs are often worn to cover up arms, but they can look heavy and weigh down your overall appearance. So try making it out of lace! Just like the curly ruffle sleeves, when you make something out of lace, it looks lighter, feminine, and classy.

Click here to learn how to make this shrug!

And if you’re curious about making a dress like the navy blue dress I’m wearing above, I actually teach how to make it! Click here to learn more about it.

Hourglass Belly Dance Dress Style #2 all sides

 Click here to learn how to make this dress!

So there you have 6 ways to hide upper arms! For your future reference, I’ve created a printable cheatsheet with above ideas. Download from below & keep it near your costume wardrobe! 🙂

Click here to download the free printable cheatsheet!

Hope you found these tips useful, and I hope you can enjoy thinking about ways to hide your upper arms now! It doesn’t have to be a compromise, it can be your unique, purposeful, design option 🙂

If you liked these tips, please share this post with your dance sisters! They’ll appreciate you sharing the information!

Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling! 🙂

P.S. Pin this image for a future reminder!

6 Pretty Ways to Hide Upper Arms for Dancers

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