Who Needs Clothes?

I like to think of myself as a fairly crafty person.  Not everything that I make is clothing.  Sometimes I like to to try my hand at other things as well.  In my bellydance post I mentioned that my style is tribal fusion.  One of my favorite things about the style is the accessories they wear with their costuming.  It's a neat mix of goth/roaring 20s/tribal topped off with some giant silk flowers. 

<-- This is a close up of the detail of one of the hair falls I made

 This is what the full fall looks like.  It's about three feet long. -->

I made a matching set of these.  They are fairly simple.  The top is four-strand braided down to and in between the cowrie shells.  The bells came from so old anklets I had.  They add a nice little jingle but nothing too extreme.  I plan to make more of these in the future and experiment with different lengths and styles.

I am really pleased with how the headband turned out.  The base is just a white headband with gold accents threaded in the design.  I found it at Hobby Lobby as well as the flowers.  I had the long chains left over from when I made by scale bra and the little bit of metal you see on the other side is an old gypsy earring I owned.  I just sewed everything onto the headband and it came out quite lovely.   I also plan to make more of these, again in varying colors and styles.

To see these two pieces worn with an outfit see the last picture in my bellydance post. 

Bellydance

Gaming isn't my only hobby; I also bellydance.  I've been dancing on and off since I started college so I'm going on 6 years at this point.  Recently though I began dancing with a troupe in Auburn and have made some costume pieces for such a purpose.

These were taken at the first performance by my dance instructor and troupe leader Seraphina.  She's a wonderful dancer.  You can find her at http://www.facebook.com/OtakuBellydance.

I did not make the pants.  They were yoga pants that I just split up the side.  The base of the bra is just a black bra from Ross.  I added a black beaded trim with silver embroidery.  The coins are actually from a pair of necklaces I bought some time ago.  All the members had a color.  Mind was peacock blue so I made stripes from a deep blue braid.  I studded it with colored seed beads as well as some silver beads.  Just call it my version of sequence.  The center piece and drape chains are from Hobby Lobby.  Behold my mad hand sewing skills!

I also made the belt.  It's rather simple in it's construction design.  It's also a black base with coins that match the one on the bra as well as heavy middle-eastern coins.  They are sewn over a lighter blue ruffly trim and interspersed with seed beads.  There is a large Kuchi pendant in the middle of the back and it ties in the front through two silver loops.

This picture is from our second performance.  I added yarn falls to the belt and I wore a mesh undershirt.  I was performing a gothic tribal fusion piece.  More on the hair things in another post!  This picture was taken by Layna.