So you have a design idea, and you’re ready to shop for fabric.

But many fabric stores like Joann Fabrics have closed in recent years, and it’s getting harder, especially for beginners, to find the specialty fabrics we need for belly dance costume making. Where do you even go? Which shops are reliable, affordable, and actually carry the right materials we need?

I’ve been teaching belly dance costume making for over a decade, and in those 10 years, the way we source fabric has changed a lot. So to help beginners get started with confidence, I’m launching a new Beginner’s Guide to Belly Dance Costume Making series. This post is the first step: finding fabric.

So in this video, I’ll share the most updated list of online fabric shops, notions suppliers, and embellishment stores, recommended by the Sparkly Belly community and me. And at the end, I’ll also tell you what to watch out for when shopping for fabric online.

Let’s get started!

Get the FREE Fabric & Embellishment Store Lists here!

Recommended Online Fabric & Notions Stores

You can get my list of many online fabric stores for different countries here, but these are the top 3 that I recommend, especially for beginner costume makers!

#1. Fabric Wholesale Direct

I keep on hearing about this store from the Sparkly Belly community and other sewing YouTubers all the time, and I personally like to browse this shop for many reasons. 

First, they have a great selection of the types of fabrics we use for dance costume making, and they come in so many colors. For example, this polyester chiffon comes in 43 colors, and there are 6 shades of green alone!

They have a notions section as well, and you can find invisible zippers, threads, and stuff.

But what I really love about this shop is that when you select a fabric, you can see not only the images but a video showing the texture, thickness, and stretch, which really helps you understand the fabric better and shop with confidence. 

You can order samples, too, which is awesome.

And here’s another thing I love. You can see tons of customer creations using the product. This is really helpful because you can see how the fabric stretches or drapes, and if you see people making similar items to what you want to create, you can be sure that the fabric works.

So overall, I definitely recommend this shop to beginner costume makers or someone who is making troupe costumes because you can find lots of colors in all types of fabrics like chiffon, satin, stretch velvet, they even have stretch lace and sequin fabric. The only downside, to me personally, is that they don’t carry a lot of printed stretch fabric. They do have some, but if you’re looking for lots of fun printed stretch fabric, check out the next store.

#2. Spandex World

Spandex World has been around for a long time, and I’ve personally shopped here before online and in person. 

They specialize in spandex fabric, so look at the colors, textures, and prints they have! 

You can order samples, and make sure to check out the clearance section for great deals.

So if you’re looking for interesting stretch fabric, take a look at Spandex World.

#3. Etsy

Now, many costumers in the community are finding great fabrics on Etsy too, and it’s nice to support small businesses.

For example, someone in the community recommended AlexLAFabrics on Etsy, and I already love what I’m seeing!

I see lots of textures in this shop. Sequin fabrics or other decorated fabrics appear expensive at first glance, but the texture adds depth to your design and instantly elevates your creation and saves lots of time decorating it, so depending on your project, it’s worth looking into these fabrics with interesting textures. 

So these are the top 3 fabric shops recommended by the Sparkly Belly community, and there are actually lots more shops recommended, for different countries as well, so I put together a complete list. The list is free, so go ahead and take a look at it here. 

Embellishment Stores

Now we also need lots of decorative items, and here are recommended shops for different categories. 

For Beads:

Fire Mountain Gems

Fire Mountain Gems is a great shop for quality beads. For example, for seed beads, they carry Miyuki, Preciosa, Toho, and you can’t go wrong with these brands.

For Rhinestones :

Planet Rhinestone

For rhinestones, Planet Rhinestone was recommended by the community, and I love how you can see customer creations, and you can get a better idea of how they look and feel.

Lace Trimmings & Rhinestones:

http://Aliexpress.comAliExpress

I personally scout around Aliexpress for lace trimmings, appliques, and rhinestones because sometimes I stumble upon great finds. 

I used these beaded appliques for my recent costume, and these black lace trimmings for a dress I made last year. 

Also, I’ve ordered acrylic rhinestones from Aliexpress. Acrylic rhinestones tend to be less expensive than glass rhinestones, and they are lighter, so if you’re using a lot of them on your outfit, it makes a difference in the overall weight of the costume. I got acrylic rhinestones from here last time, and they don’t look cheap. From a distance, it’s hard to tell that they are acrylic, and the purple color shows well, too. 

Beaded Fringe

So beaded fringe is a little harder to find, but there are a bunch of vendors out there. You can find the list with 6 shops that carry beaded fringe from the link below, but here are a couple:

Turquoise International:

This is a belly dance costume store that’s been around forever, and they carry a selection of beaded fringe.

DeeEgypt on Etsy:

Etsy is a great place to find unique decorative items like beaded fringe. 

If you’re looking for coins, buttons, or pendants used for a fusion outfit, I recommend you look around Etsy for these items.

And again, you can get a list of all the shops mentioned in this post and more from this link. So go ahead and save that for the next time you shop!

Things to Watch Out For When Buying Online

But wait. Before you shop for fabric online, there are a few things I want you to remember so you won’t waste money buying the wrong things.

1. How to Find the Right Color and Texture

The biggest challenge of buying fabric online is finding the right color and texture. This is probably the biggest weakness of sourcing fabric online, and not being able to touch and feel the fabric you’re buying. 

But don’t worry, there’s a solution for that. 

Many online shops let you order samples, or they might be called swatches. They can send you small pieces of the fabrics you’re interested in for a small price. 

If the shop has sample booklets, and if you plan to use the type of fabric a lot, these are good to buy too, but these are harder to find.

So wherever possible, I highly recommend you order samples first and check the color and texture before ordering yards of fabric.

2. Check the description

When I shop for fabric, especially stretch fabric, I check for these 3 things.

First is content. Stretch fabric that’s good for dance costume making is one that contains some spandex. You want to see 5-20% spandex here to make sure the fabric has good stretch. 

A good stretch here means the fabric stretches well like this, then recovers to the original size, which is super important in creating fitted garments. 

The second thing to check is a 2-way or 4-way stretch. Some stretch fabric only stretches in these 2 directions only, and others stretch in all 4 directions. For most dancewear garments that require stretch, 4-way stretch works the best and creates the most comfortable outfits. 

Finally, check for gsm. GSM stands for grands-per-square-meter. So basically, it tells you how lightweight or heavy the fabric is. So before you even order samples, you can have a rough idea of how thick the material is. For example, the spandex fabric I tend to order for my fitted dress is about 280gsm. You might call this light to medium weight lycra. So if the number is smaller, you’ll know the fabric might be lightweight, and if you choose something like stretch velvet, as you can imagine, it weighs more, and it should be thicker.

Again, the best way to check this is by ordering samples, but these pieces of information will help you narrow down your options!

3. Shipping

Sometimes they might say free shipping, but it may be applicable only to a certain country, so watch out for that.

And obviously, international shipping will cost more and take more time.

4. Finding the Right Fabric

You might do this intuitively now, but check reviews and examples. You can learn so much about the fabric by reading about how people used the fabric and their sewing experiences. This wealth of information helps you figure out how easily it is to handle the fabric you’re interested in before you buy it. 

It’s sad to see in-person stores leave the market, but this type of review and customer photos weren’t available back in the day, so that’s a huge advantage we have today.

Alright, I hope you feel more confident finding and shopping for fabrics, notions, and embellishments online for your dance costume projects.

Again, you can get the FREE complete list of shops and more here!

And if you liked this video, check out my sewing machine guide, which helps you choose the right machine for costume making.

Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!

P.S. Pin this image on your sewing board!

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