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Assiut/Assuit Belly Dance Costuming DIY Design

Three Day Assiut Challenge – Day Two

Bra Base for Quickie Assiut Costume - Frederick's of Hollywood Exxtreme Cleavage Bra

Hello Friends in Dance and Costuming,

It’s day two, and boy, am I worried about not getting this all done!  But you know, I only really need to get it “done enough” because my motto of the moment is “Done is GOOD!”   Actually, that’s sort of the motto for my whole life.  With the skirt taken care of, with two cuts and 20 safety pins, it’s time to tackle project two, the bra.    There really is no way to fake this bra.  I’m just going to have to put my nose to the grindstone and stitch like mad!

First, I grabbed out my black bra.  This is an Exxtreme Cleavage bra from Frederick’s of Hollywood.  (Find it here)  I’ve been wearing this style of bra for quite some time and have made dozens of belly dance costumes from this make.  Although it’s a bit pricy, it really does create a gorgeous plunging cleavage line.

Bra Base for Quickie Assiut Costume – Frederick’s of Hollywood Exxtreme Cleavage Bra

I love this palm-tree motif with alternating short and tall palms.  Before I started cutting, I played with the layout of these stripes on paper.  Once I sketched out my possible designs, I wrote down my order of procedure, so I wouldn’t leave out any important steps.  And in the spirit of full disclosure, here are my sketches.  Thus proving, you don’t need to be a great artist to be a good costume designer.

Notes on assiut layout over cups. Man, I need to work on my penmanship before I share more prelimenary sketches! ! 😉

Okay – So now that I determined that I am insane for picking the hardest design I could come up with for this piece of assiut, it’s time to start applying the fabric to the bra.  I start by laying out one cup first, measuring the cloth to make sure that if I cut the cloth, I still have enough fabric to make the other side.  Thankfully, I do!

I like to begin at the main focal point, which for this bra is the center front.
From the center front, I work outward along the upper edge of the cup. I decided to put in three tight bands of the palm-tree trunk pattern at the edge to make a very dense and eye-catching strip of silver.
Once the upper edge is pinned into place, I return to the center front to make a series of little pleats, folding in the plain black under the palm-tree trunk stripes.
Once the center front seemed densely silvered and lovely, I figured out which stripe I could use for the bottom edge. Here you can see the excess cloth is still attached. ALWAYS ALWAYS measure twice and cut once. (because fabric won’t grow back – darn!)
Take a deep breath and cut. I know what you are thinking. I cannot cut assiut! But fear not – it’s just fabric. I’m using new assiut from Egypt. And while expensive, it’s not THAT expensive or difficult to get. Now – if you’ve got a VINTAGE piece, that’s a different story. Think long and hard before cutting into vintage assiut.
Gently mold the cloth around the cup. Here, I’m making box pleats to bring the cloth into the arm hole side of the cup. My goal is to sport as much of the silver embroidery as possible. So I pleat carefully, making sure not to squash the cup down and loose the bra shape. Never pull, just smooth the cloth over the bra.
After pinning the whole way around, I take a look at it now. Is there anything that looks off or jarring to my design eye? If so, now is the time to make any adjustments. Actually, I think this doesn’t look half bad, if I do say so myself!

JUST FOR THE RECORD – I HATE THESE PINS!!!   I am traveling and some of my tools have gone missing.  I ran out to the nearest pharmacy and got their only style of sewing pins.  They remind me of Lucky Charms cereal.  Blue Stars, Red Hearts, Yellow Butterflies.  They are wimpy,  dull, and are not coming home with me! I long for my lovely yellow-headed quilting pins and my sleek extra long silk pins.   *sigh*    Next week!

And now, it’s time to replicate this design on the other cup.  Just a few words on this process.  Follow the same steps in order, and you will get closer results.  Don’t be shocked if you need to do more pinning and futzing with it to make it match.  What ever you do, don’t sew down the first cup!  You might find it easier to adjust both to match rather than trying to make one look just like the one you just sewed.  Once you’ve sewn it, you’re not going to want to rip it out!

Now – it’s time to cover another cup.  (This time I don’t have to stop to take pictures, Yeah!) and then the sewing like mad portion of the project begins.   Check out the next post to see how it turns out.  ~ Dawn Devine ~ Davina

 

Sewing Assistant – Sammy waiting for me to drop something.. anything… There is nothing in the world as energetic and potentially dangerous than a 5mo old kitten!

PS – Special Thanks to Jamie Hanrahan for letting me use his dining room table, light and most importantly, the use of his sewing assistant Sammy.  This beast is diabolically cute, but I miss my well-trained old-lady cat Sassy who is most expert at finding “the middle” of every piece of cloth.  Just an FIY – Assiut is very very attractive to cats.  It’s shiny metallic bits and open network are perfect for kitty claws.  Protect your expensive fabric!  And that was my public service announcement for the day!  ~ DD~D

 

 

By Davina

Davina ~ Dawn Devine is a belly dance costume designer, dance instructor and author of more than a dozen publications on Middle Eastern dance.