This is one of the most requested costume pieces – belly dance body stockings! Not only do they help cover your belly, but they offer more canvas to add sparkles for your belly dance costume.
In this video, you will see how to make this simple belly cover design that fits your body. So let’s get started!
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To make a belly dance body stocking, you need:
Stretch mesh fabric – Find stretch mesh called power mesh. Power mesh is often used in body stockings for dancers, and it’s super stretchy and sturdy. If you want skin tone body stockings, power mesh comes in nude colour as well. ½ m or ½ yd is more than enough.
Matching colour lingerie elastic – This elastic has a little fuzzy side and may come with a little lace trimming. I’m using one that’s 1cm wide, and if you get as long as your underbust measurement, it’s more than enough.
Underwear that fits you comfortably – we’ll use this as our pattern.
Hooks and Eyes
Sewing tools – see Resources page for my favourite tools 🙂
How to Make Belly Dance Body Stockings / Belly Stocking
First, measure the length from your underbust to wherever your underwear sits.
This handy template is available at Designers Nexus 🙂
Next, place the front side of your underwear on your mesh fabric, and trace it. Power mesh is 4 way stretch, but one direction is stretchier than the other. Make the waistband of your underwear parallel to the stretchier direction.
Around the thigh areas, add 1cm or ½ in seam allowance. Don’t worry about the seam allowance at the sides, since the fabric stretches very well.
Then extend the side lines by the measurement you took earlier minus 13cm or 5in.
Then we repeat this for the back side of your underwear. Trace, and extend the lines by your measurement minus 13cm or 5in.
Just cut along the lines.
Match up the sides and the crotch section right sides together, and do a small zigzag stitch with a 5mm or ¼ in seam allowance. If right side and wrong side aren’t clear, just pick a side you like. 🙂
Then fold the raw edges around the thigh area by 5mm or ¼ in, and fold again one more time. Place pins to hold it, and do a small zigzag stitch.
Turn it inside out, and you should have something like a half swimming suit.
Take the elastic, and put it around your underbust. Make sure it is pretty tight and snug, and cut it. Then mark 4 equally distributing points by folding it in half and placing pins, and repeating it one more time. Take the top of the body stocking and do the same.
At the top edge, take the elastic, with the fuzzy side up, and align the non-decorative edge of the elastic against the raw edge of the body stocking. So the right side of the body stocking and the right side of the elastic are facing each other. Match up the 4 points and the ends of the elastic should overlap a little at the centre back.
From the centre back, do a small zigzag stitch very close to the decorative edge of the elastic, and as you sew, very gently pull the elastic so that the lengths of the elastic and body stocking will match up and stay stretchy.
Once you go all the way around, take the elastic and fold it over, so if you see from the right side of the body stocking, all you see is the little decorative edge of the elastic. If the fold seems bulky, feel free to cut the excess mesh. Do a little wider zigzag stitch right along the non-decorative edge of the elastic this time, and again, gently pull it as you sew.
Now we’ll sew on the little hooks and eyes. First, we mark 8 equally distributed points on the top of the body stocking. Start by lining up the side seams, and mark both the folded points with pins. Then line up one of the seams with one of the pins and mark the folded point. Do this 3 more times, and you have 8 points marked by the pins and seams.
Then we do the same with your costume bra. Fasten the snap button and hooks. First, locate the centre between the cups and place a pin. Hold it like this and opposite point is the centre back. Mark it with a pin. Now you just have to line up the pins to locate the side points, and again, line up the adjacent pins to find a middle point between them.
Now, for the body stocking, we sew on the hooks facing out on the right side at the 8 points. Make sure to place the hooks right at the edge.
And for the bra, place the eyes, round side down, at about 1cm or ½ in from the bottom edge at the 8 points. If your strap is thin like mine, you may have to use snap buttons instead of hooks, so that the bra and the body stocking are connected seamlessly without your skin peeking out here and there. Depending on your bra design, you may have to sew on hooks and eyes more strategically to make sure your skin does not peek out.
And that’s it! I find it easier to first slip on the body stocking, do the hooks first and fasten the bra. Hope the body stocking makes you feel more comfortable in your costume. And feel free to decorate the body stocking if you like. 😀
If you make your own, please share a photo on Sparkly Belly’s Facebook page. And don’t forget to sign up for the Sparkly Belly newsletter from the below link to get updates and free access to special patterns and resources only available to newsletter subscribers.
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Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!
P.S. Pin it to make it later 🙂
Want to make more costuming bits yourself?
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