New coin bra

 Being in a troupe called for me to make a new coin bra! It's been a work in progress for a couple of months, as I would stop at a stage in which it was wearable but not quite done yet. I think it's done for now, though I may eventually cut off the original straps and replace them with something sturdier.*

The trim is made from a belt that I loved which was simply too small for me. It was a bit difficult to stitch down to the bra, but definitely worth it to have embroidery and mirrors instead of simple brocade ribbon. I added the coins by hand -- that was this week's project, and it only took me less than 4 hours, spread across two nights of DVD-watching (season 3 of Parks and Recreation, in case you were wondering).

The center piece is a kuchi pendant. A couple of the dangles were missing, but no big deal, I just rearranged them to make a hole in the middle and attached this scarab pendant that I've had forever. There is definitely something to be said for having DIY skills and a huge stash of beads to pull from.

My next bra project will be more fusion-y than traditional tribal and will involve covering the entire bra in fabric. I'm pretty excited about it.

*Belly dance purists -- I know a lot of you have a pet peeve about coin bras that are clearly lingerie bras with stuff sewn on them. I get it. But everyone in my troupe wears this style of bra and we always wear a tie top or Turkish vest over them, so that pretty much only the trimmed parts show.

BRAS!

Now that I have your attention...

Hello, loyal blog readers! Insert a self-flogging sentence here where I talk about what a horrible blogger I've been and make lousy excuses. Follow that up with a promise to be better.

And now we can move on to bras. I've been wanting to make more belly dance bras. The studio always has cool bras, but they're never my size, and besides, I have needles and thread and coins and beads, I should be able to make my own. If only I wasn't busy trying to finish my BFAC project (more on that tomorrow). But since I don't have any performances coming up any time soon, there's no great rush.

I've had the nude bra for a while, I actually bought it to wear as, you know, a bra, under clothes, like a normal woman, but Tucson is too blasted hot to wear extra padding on my breasts. So I decided to make it into a dance bra. My first thought was to tea dye it, but initial tests quickly showed that the synthetic micro fiber would not hold the dye. So instead I'm going to try to cover it with that pretty brown, white and silver stripey fabric, for an awesome steampunk look. I should even have plenty of fabric to make a belt or maybe even a little panel skirt (I love panel skirts). The only problem is that it's an odd shade of brown and I couldn't find any appropriate trim to match it at JoAnn's. I'll have to shop around.

The other bra is a little more doubtful. I found it at Target for $8. They have the same style in a lot of other beautiful colors, so if it can actually support the weight of embellishments and look decent as a costume, it will be awesome. I'm just not certain if it's sturdy enough or if it will have quite enough coverage. But I would love to have some nice, colorful bras to go with my nice, colorful costumes, instead of sticking to the usual tribal black.

As a side note, there are those among the dance community who find it incredibly tacky and possibly even downright offensive to wear a bra that has not been covered by other fabric (hence my desire to experiment with the nude bra above). I'd like to acknowledge that segment of the dance population, and state that I understand their feelings. However, in my area it's pretty much the norm to take a bra and just add trim and coins and such, without an extra layer of fabric. My compromise is that I will no longer wear a lingerie bra without layering some sort of top over it to conceal the straps. I'm sure that's not good enough for everyone, but it's not my goal in life to please everyone :)

Experimentation!

I have a bra that I hate, but because I hate to throw away perfectly good bras (darn things aren't cheap), I decided maybe I could modify it enough to turn it into a steampunk dance bra.

The first step, though, would have to be changing the color. It's that hideous peachy fleshy beige-y tone that only a bra could be. There's no pretending it's any sort of outerwear when it's that color. My first thought was to tea-dye it, and a quick Google search revealed that tea-dyeing is so easy that I really had no excuse not to try it right away. So I brewed up some cheap tea, snipped off part of the bra, and went on my merry way.

Of course, this bra isn't just hideous, it's also synthetic. The tea dyed it, but only to a slightly darker, still fleshy tone. Drat.

I'm now examining my options... I could try dying it with coffee, which supposedly makes a deeper brown. I could try making some Kool-Aid dye (Grape + Orange = brown sludge, right?). I could apparently use Lumiere paints (I found directions for using them to paint/dye bathing suits). I could use Rit dye. I could cover it with more attractive cloth. Or I could say that this is all a lot of work for a bra I don't really like anyway, and go down to Target to buy a white cotton bra that would take better to tea-dyeing.

And that is the story of what I did this weekend. I played with my bra. What did you do?

And now, a bra!

Wow, it's gotten all costume-irrific over here at the ErtheFae blog! First two days of steampunk, and now finally, my bra. Sorry about the glare, the non-flash shots didn't turn out.

So. I started out with a cheap padded bra from Target and then I put my DIY skills to use. Ribbon and trim were hand-stitched down, and I accented the ribbon with some copper sequins. Then coins, bells, and "copyrite" beads* were hung from swags of Charlotte** bronze seed beads. For a final touch, I put a round pendant in the center to cover the strip of cloth (called a gusset, I think) between the two cups, so it would look less like lingerie and more like a tribal bra.

It's photographed on top of a scarf that I intend to wear with it. I'll take some model shots of the whole ensemble in a couple of days -- it's too hot and humid today for a 10-yard skirt and makeup.

I tried to take photos for my next tribal jewelry post, but none of them turned out, so I'll give it another try tomorrow with a different background.

Oh yes! In all of the clothing-related excitement, I keep forgetting to post about Daily Specials. Sacred Clouds earrings are on sale today!

*The mysterious "copyrite" beads have tenetively been identified as chalcopyrite, which makes sense. They look about right, and it would be pretty easy for "chal" to get dropped in transit and translation.

**For the non-beaders in the audience, a Charlotte is a small seed bead with a single cut or facet, giving it a little sparkle. They're also sometimes called one-cuts or true-cuts.

It's dogsitting time again!

From Monday to Thursday I'll be up in Marana sitting my friend's three awesome dogs -- and bringing my two crazy corgis along for the ride. Will I survive 4 days with 5 dogs? I sure hope so!

Anyway, I'm bringing my laptop and I should have internet, if I can get onto my friend's network. She said I could use her Mac, but I've never used a Mac in my life and I'd be worried that I'd mess something up.

I had planned to bring my BFAC kit along and work on my project, but I'm still up in the air about what I want to do this year. I had an idea right away, but I've really been second-guessing it. Unfortunately, every new idea that I come up with is stymied by one or more of the difficult-to-use beads in the kit. Hopefully I'll daydream something while I'm gone. The deadline is fast approaching.

Oh yeah! My bra is mostly finished, just needs the central motif attached. I'll get pictures when I get back from dogsitting. I'm very happy with how it turned out, though I ended up using a lot more coins than I had planned.

Swingin' Earrings

Today's Daily Special is another favorite: Webmistress. I seriously think these are the most awesome earrings I've ever made and I can't believe that no one has bought them and worn them out dancing. C'mon, what's not to love? Artist-made lampworked beads, swinging chains of vintage beads... and long enough to practically brush your shoulders! I'm about ready to take them out of my shop, put them on Niobium wires, and make them my own. That's assuming, of course, that no one buys them while they're on sale for a modest $30. That's right, $30 for a very unique pair of designer earrings. You can't beat that!

It's beginning to look like I won't do any photography until tomorrow, but on the other hand, when I do start taking photos, it won't just be of jewelry. I'm going to be reviving the "Beads" section of my Etsy shop as I go on a massive mission to destash! Be ready to be dazzled by artist beads, unusual focals, and all sorts of Czech glass, stone beads, and more.

Meanwhile, I've been making good progress on my bra. I replaced the troublesome cowrie shells with some stone beads -- the mysterious "copyrite" to be exact. The silvery-grey and golden flashes go well with the mixed metals I'm using, while at the same time adding a different touch than I'd get from a pre-made coin bra. That's the nice thing about being a beader. I have a lot of unusual materials at my disposal!

Belly Dancer Dreams

Today's Daily Special is Neon Dragon, a glowingly gorgeous woven bracelet over a memory wire core!

Setting up my now-expired Mermaid-themed Treasury was so much fun that today I jumped at the chance to make another Treasury. This one is called Belly Dancer Dreams and it's all things that I would love to wear and dance in. Clothing, jewelry, hair accessories, even some perfume. While I was looking for the right items to feature, I even found some new sellers to add to my ever-growing Favorites list. Oh, how I wish Etsy let us sort our Favorites!

Speaking of things that belly dancers dream of, I'm making good progress with my coin bra. I'd be making even better progress if not for the fact that I decided I didn't like how the cowrie shells were hanging, requiring me to undo all of the dangles I added last night. Need to find something to replace the shells with. It's a shame, because cowries are such an ubiquitous tribal adornment, and they made my bra look a little less cabaret. But I'm sure I'll find something appropriate somewhere in my collection.

Today's a day for mermaids

The Daily Special for today is Moonlit Seductress. A $25 discount brings her down to a nice, round $100. I think she's just perfect for Summer. Wouldn't she be great for a beach or pool party? Just make sure you take her off before you take a dip -- mermaids love the water, but beads and Ultrasuede prefer to stay dry.

Moonlit Seductress isn't today's only mermaid, however! Last night I had the chance to snag a Treasury on Etsy, so I did. I like to do an actual theme when I curate, instead of just "here's a bunch of stuff I like" so I chose mermaids for last night. My Treasury is called Seduced by a Mermaid and while it is a bunch of stuff that I like, it's also stuff that looks beautiful together.

In other news, my bra got off to a slow start yesterday. My package of sewing needles disappeared! After an hour of digging through the house, I found a short Big Eye needle which I decided to try. It sort of worked, but it poked my fingers a lot and bent a lot. Then late at night, I found a lone sewing needle hiding in my bead needle case, and I was in business! The black and gold ribbon is now sewn down to one cup, and it doesn't look half bad for a beginner job.

I'm making a bra!

Well, technically the bra is already made, and I'm just making it better. I decided that I wanted to make my own coin bra. Chris is out of town for 3 days, I'm going to have a lot of free time to kill, and really, it's just time to do something a little different. So bra embellishment it is!

I set out with Chris on Friday night determined to get the necessary supplies. Our first stop was JoAnn's, for heavy-duty thread (to hold the coins on) and ribbon. I wanted a black and silver jacquard/brocade type ribbon. My coins are silver, most of my dance jewelry has silver as the primary metal, so a silver ribbon seemed like a must. Unfortunately, JoAnn's didn't have a single black and silver ribbon.

So I'm making a mixed metal bra. I have a black and gold ribbon, and a trim that is black and a metallic that is somewhere between silver and gold. Plus silver coins, a gunmetal pendant that I might put at the center to hide the strip of cloth joining the cups, and I might even add some metal sequins if I'm feeling adventurous.

The plain black ribbon is for turning the bra into a halter-strapped bra instead, for a slightly less obviously-lingerie look. This will be good for those times when I'm not wearing a ghawazee coat or Turkish vest to cover the straps. Although, I'm torn on making this alteration -- I couldn't find any detailed instructions on-line for doing it, and it seems like it would be less secure than the straps the bra comes with. It would be incredibly embarrassing if my bra flew off when I was dancing, you know.

Whatever I decide to do, I'll post more pictures when it's done!

(By the way, today's Daily Special is Underworld! Awesome Gothic earrings, only $25)