3 sewing tools that make costume making faster & more fun!

Some tools can make a world of difference 🙂

Today I want to share with you 3 of my favourite sewing tools that made a world of difference to my costume making. After I met these tools, costume making has become easier, faster and more fun! 😀

If you are looking to upgrade your sewing tools, I highly recommend these. I’ll include where you can purchase these items below. Let’s get started!

Sign up for my free email course “Belly Dance Costume Making 101”!

*Disclaimer: I have affiliate links included in this post, through which I may earn a small commission from the vendors for spreading the word about their products. 

#1 Wonder Clips

These are just simple clips made of plastic, but they have a really good grip. You can use these like pins to hold layers of fabric together. I like using these when holding delicate fabrics that I don’t want to poke pins through and create holes.

Also, another one of my favourite ways to use them is when I try on costumes that are in progress and adjust the fit. When you don’t have someone to help, adjusting the fit of costumes can be challenging. But with these clips, I can just place the clips and adjust very easily.

You can purchase wonder clips here:

regular size

and larger size.

I use regular ones most of the time, but larger ones come in handy when I have larger seam allowances.

#2 Rotary Cutter

This was one of my first sewing tool upgrades. When you make dance costumes, you could be cutting yards and yards of fabric, and holding fabric scissors for an extended period of time is not fun and not good for your hands and wrists.

With a rotary cutter, you can cut fabric like you cut pizza! The blade rolls really smoothly, and with a little practice, it’s pretty easy to follow lines on fabric. Make sure to get a self-healing mat together with a rotary cutter so that you don’t scratch your working surface.

You can buy a set of a rotary cutter, cutting mat and ruler here.

I have an extra large 24 x 36 inch cutting mat which is helpful for when I cut long pieces of fabric (which is most of the time for belly dance costume making!). You can purchase it here.

#3 Dress Form

I hesitated a long time before I purchased a dress form, but now I love having one around. This is one of very inexpensive dress forms, and it doesn’t have fancy dials to adjust sizes. I just picked one that’s closest to my body measurements.

It’s great for trimming skirt hem to make it even, it’s great for seeing the overall look of the costumes I’m working on, and it’s also great for decorating while the costume is stretched out. It can be really challenging to have to work on everything flat on the floor, and fabric can act differently when it’s placed on a flat surface and when it’s hung vertically. So this dress form makes my life easier when I’m working on costumes, especially long skirts.

You can find a similar dress form here.

The above blue skirt is my Aurora Convertible Skirt. You can make the same skirt with gorgeous drapes here. 🙂

This is something I’d like to upgrade in the future to a better quality one like this Dritz one or this PGM one. It’s because, for example, I can’t poke pins through my current dress form because it’s not soft foam inside. It only has a thin layer of foam, which you can use pins with, but it’s not great for draping etc. But based on how I use the dress form, this one does a great job for now 🙂

These are tools that you don’t have to have to create costumes, but they help me a lot and improved my sewing. If you’re looking to upgrade your costume making tool collection, I highly recommend these 🙂

Do you have a favourite sewing tool? Share in the comment section below 😀

So I hope you found this information useful, and if you did, please share it with your dancer friends.

And if you want to learn more about basic tools you need for costume making, check out my free email course, Belly Dance Costume Making 101!

Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling! 🙂

Like what you read? Want to make more costuming bits yourself?

Sign up for my newsletter here and get my free email course, Belly Dance Costume Making 101!