{"id":6374,"date":"2018-07-25T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T21:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2018-07-25T14:04:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T21:04:26","slug":"assiut-cocktail-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/2018\/07\/assiut-cocktail-dress\/","title":{"rendered":"Assiut Belly Dance Gig Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often talk to dancers who are looking for that perfect gig dress.\u00a0 The perfect garment to wear to shows, parties, and events. The Ideal dress has to fit loosely, without any compression at the waist. Ideally, it should be dressy, give a great first impression. Extra points if the dress is easy to get in and out of, resists wrinkles, and is washable.\u00a0 However, the main goal is to appear glamorous, completely pulled together, and expensive.<\/p>\n

\"Alisha<\/p>\n

Above: Photographer Alisha Westerfeld on left wears an assiut cocoon coat.<\/em>
\nShalimar on right wears a swing dress made of modern assiut.<\/em>
\nPhoto snapped at the Marrakesh in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TurquoiseMaking an Assiut Dress<\/h2>\n

While we had a great time at the belly dance show that night, the amber-hued lights of the restaurant have impacted the color of the dress.\u00a0The photo on the left gives a better idea of what the dress looks like in daylight.\u00a0The key to making an effective assiut dress is to keep the design lines simple and let the imported hand-crafted fabric be the star.<\/p>\n

Buying Modern Assiut<\/h2>\n

Often, the most difficult step in making a dress is finding a nice assiut shawl to work with. Search for all the major keyword variations of assiut, assuit, and tulle bi telli.\u00a0 There are many dealers to choose from, so pick the best deal for you.\u00a0 I always recommend using a credit card with buyer protection should something in the transaction goes awry.\u00a0 As you shop, pay careful attention to the length of your piece. in an ideal world, your shawl would be double your back neck to hem measurement.\u00a0 For the dress above, the shawl was about 4″ too short.\u00a0 Consequently, I had to piece the shoulder line in order to get the desired look.<\/p>\n

Lining and Notions<\/h2>\n

In addition to the assiut shawl, I choose to use\u00a0an aqua-hued swimsuit style material to line the garment. This bouncy, comfortable, and easy to wash fabric offers a stretchy lining that allows the assiut to give and move but unlike the assiut, the lining will snap back to shape.\u00a0 In addition to the lining, I purchased to finish the garment was a package of single-fold bias tape and a spool of thread.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MacCalls<\/p>\n

Pick a Pattern<\/h2>\n

While my design was made from a customized pattern, it’s a very common style that virtually every commercial and indy pattern company offers.\u00a0 Look for very simple lines that are sized for stretch fabric.\u00a0 Avoid patterns with complicated features such as collars, darts, and unusual necklines.\u00a0 If I were going to buy a pattern to make another dress of this style, I would pick up the McCall’s M7432.\u00a0 However, if you already have a collection of patterns, remember to shop your stash before you go shopping.<\/p>\n

\"Finish<\/p>\n

Cutting and Sewing<\/h2>\n

I always make a sample dress before I cut the final fabric.\u00a0 For this turquoise dress, I made the test sample out of the lining fabric and Shalimar tried it on to ensure that the pattern fit. Even when working with a commercial pattern, a sample and test fit will allow you to fine-tune the fit and make design adjustments.\u00a0 If your assiut shawl is too short to make a dress, this is the time when you will make a plan to extend the garment.\u00a0 For this dress, I needed to add assiut at the shoulder line in order to make the pattern match on the sides of the dress.\u00a0Photo Left: Prepping the bias tape for machine stitching.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Finish<\/p>\n

Using your favorite sewing machine and a regular straight stitch, sew the dress together.\u00a0 I made all my fit adjustments on the lining and then stitched the pieces together at the shoulder.\u00a0 To keep lining and dress correctly aligned, I stay-stitched around the neck and armhole.\u00a0 I used bias tape and a\u00a0warm iron to press a curve into the tape as I pinned it to the outside of the dress.\u00a0 Next, I machine stitched the bias tape.\u00a0 I folded it to the inside and hand stitched the bias tape to the lining.\u00a0\u00a0Photo Right:\u00a0 Bia tape prepped and ready to hand stitch to the garment.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Above:\u00a0 This assiut dress has a slight cap sleeve and since<\/em>
\nthe assiut panel was wider, it has a fuller hem. The front is lined with
\n<\/em>bathing suit fabric and the back of the dress is solid black.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Finishing Tips<\/h2>\n

Once your dress is lined and the shoulder and neck seam finished all that’s left is the hem.\u00a0 For the best result, I like to hem the lining slightly shorter than the assiut to reduce the risk of it showing when the wearer is standing still.\u00a0 In the aqua dress at the top, I elected not to hem the assiut, but rather cut it even and left it to swing free.\u00a0 On the black dress, I hemmed the assiut at the bottom edge of the triangular border design.\u00a0 My preference is to hand-hem through assiut designs to minimize the appearance of my sewing.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

I love making these swing assiut cocktail dresses. If you are looking for inspiration for making an easy and comfortable assiut dress, I recommend checking out my “Assiut Garments”<\/strong> Pinterest board<\/a>. If you’re contemplating making a dress and have any questions, join the conversation in the Studio Davina – Behind the Scenes<\/strong> Facebook Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Best of luck in all your costuming adventures!<\/em><\/strong>
\nDawn Devine ~ Davina<\/em><\/strong>
\nJuly 25, 2018<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Belly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

I often talk to dancers who are looking for that perfect gig dress.\u00a0 The perfect garment to wear to shows, parties, and events. The Ideal dress has to fit loosely, without any compression at the waist. Ideally, it should be dressy, give a great first impression. Extra points if the dress is easy to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[45,8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assiut-assuit","category-belly-dance","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/2018-7-15-Assiut-Alisha-Kim-Web-1.jpg?fit=576%2C696&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YZtR-1EO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6374"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6405,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions\/6405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}