Want to make a belly dance bra that fits you perfectly on a budget?
In this series of articles and videos, you can see how to make a belly dance bra that looks beautiful, fits you well and lasts a long time.
The Ultimate Guide will show you the following topics:
Part 1: Materials you need (this article)
Part 2: What to measure, how to cut a bra base, how to make side & shoulder straps
Part 3: How to cover your bra base with fabric
Part 4: How to decorate your belly dance bra
*This Ultimate Guide is pretty long, so if you want to download the PDF version of the entire 4-part series, you can! Download it for free from here.
So let’s get started!
How to pick the correct type of bra
First, you need a bra that serves as a base for your costume bra. You can use your own old bra or new, but the important thing is that the bra is firm. This is going to be a costume bra, so you want to make sure the bra is firm enough to hold its shape and most importantly, you feel safe and comfortable while you move around and dazzle your audience.
An appropriate bra base should have cups made from foam and keeps the shape without being help up.
If you are still not sure, try the smartphone test. If you can put your smartphone on the cups, and the cups don’t sink in, the bra passes the test!
What type of fabric to use for strap bases
Your bras are most likely made from stretch straps, but belly dance costume bras should have no stretchy parts. Some costume bras may have stretch straps, but it is this type of straps that scream underwear.
So we will make straps to replace these bra straps. To make straps, you will need interfacing. Interfacing is a type of material that is often used to give structure to clothing or hat or costumes. Your local fabric stores would probably have a section dedicated to interfacing. It comes in different thickness and fusible or non-fusible. I tend to use medium weight for bra straps and strengthen it with other materials for added texture and security.
Fusible one saves you time of sewing, as you can just use the heat of an iron for it to stick to other fabric. For bra making, I use fusible one, because it will be all covered, so I don’t worry about it coming off. But you can use sew-on interfacing by all means. When I didn’t know about the existence of fusible interfacing, I used sew-on all the time.
The other materials include felt. I don’t recommend using just felt, since fragile felt can stretch and rip. This should be used to add thickness when you use interfacing as a base.
Also, you can use canvas, denim, or even non-stretchy old cotton shirt. You can use anything that is non-stretchy and sturdy, and gives some thickness. If these fabrics have printed patterns on them, be careful because the patterns can show through even after they are covered with another layer of fabric.
For shoulder straps, I recommend grosgrain ribbons. Grosgrain ribbons are relatively thick and strong, and have horizontal stripes. It doesn’t matter if you use grosgrain ribbon or interfacing, because these will be covered with fabric later, but some interfacing can rip when it is cut thin, so be careful!
What type of fabric to use for bra covering
Based on my own experience, the easiest material to work with is stretch velvet! Velvet gives nice, rich colour and texture, and the fuzzy finish hides small imperfections. The stretch helps too, when it is time to cover the bra with the fabric. So I recommend stretch velvet as your first choice, if you are trying this for the first time.
Once you have tried velvet, you may want to venture out to other types of fabric. You can try satin – stretch or non-stretch – or metallic lycra is nice and shines nicely on the stage. The key thing here is to pick opaque material. If you want to use see-through material like chiffon, then you will need to somehow cover the bra base first with a different material or the bra and strap bases will show.
Tools and other materials you need
So other materials you will need to make a belly dance bra is pants hooks and eyes and snap buttons. I like to use a combination of pants hook and eyes and a set of snap buttons for belly dance bra, because just having one or the other is simply not secure enough. You can use small hooks and eyes like your ordinary bras, but professional costumes use pants hooks and eyes and not only are they sturdy, but they hide well too.
And of course, you need your sewing kit. That includes needles, matching colour threads, lots of pins, scissors, measuring tape, marking pens. If you are extra cautious with your bra hooks and buttons, use button & carpet thread for sewing these.
Alright, so now you are ready to get to work. If you find this article useful, please share it with your classmates, and check out the part 2 of this series for how to measure, cut the bra and make straps!
Oh, and before you go, did you know you can get all of the How to Make a Belly Dance Bra series in one PDF document?
Click here to get the PDF version of the entire Bra Making Ultimate Guide for free!