How to Alter a Beaded Belly Dance Bra with Chani

Looking for ideas on how to alter a beaded belly dance bra?

Have a vintage costume that needs an upgrade?

In this post, Chani, our alteration expert, will show you how to alter a beaded belly dance bra top seamlessly and make it fit you! Enjoy 🙂

---

This is a vintage costume I bought on-line many, many years ago. The belt is very wide with scallop shapes along the top that has a wire in it, to help keep the scallop shape. 

I would say 99% of this type of work is going to be sewn by hand. I love hand sewing, as I find it very soothing and meditative. If you are not a fan, this may not be the best type of project for you. I hand sew in the car, watching a movie (particularly one my husband wants to see that I am not that interested in!) or during a family Zoom. You will want a variety of needle sizes, but standard sewing thread will do fine for all the work (unless your beads are particularly fine, in which case you will need a thinner thread and smaller needle).

The problem with this costume

While I loved the costume, the bra cups were too small. I probably could have used lingerie tape (double-sided tape you can buy at the drugstore) to avoid a “Janet Jackson” moment, but to be honest, I prefer more coverage. I felt too much of the upper part of each breast was exposed, and I would spend more focus in a gig on not ‘popping out’ than on dancing! 

How to Alter a Beaded Belly Dance Bra Top

The first thing I did was remove the original lining from the cups, and any beaded edging. (I did this one a while ago, so I am afraid I do not recall what that edging was.)

The goal is to find the best way to blend the added band to the original cup so no one would be able to tell the difference. Sometimes that works with the existing edge in place, sometimes you will want to remove that — every costume is different! (You will see another project, same concept as this one, where I kept the original top beaded edge and used it to actually define the added section by matching that line along the top of the added edge.)

You may need to stabilize the top of the existing cups; you can just run a simple hand-sewn running stitch to hold the layers together. They will get much denser stitching when you add the new band (see white stitches in the photo below).

The added band is a heavy interfacing that one can buy at any fabric store. I used two layers to make it even stiffer, and whip stitched the two pieces together (see the white stitches along the top of the scallop edge. Your goal is to match the weight of the existing cup as much as possible; this one is fairly stiff, so I opted for a double layer of interfacing. We will circle back around to other stiffening options later in another post. 

The next step is to determine the size and shape of the addition — it will need to be a curve that matches the top of the existing cup and then follows my shape so as not to have any gaps at the top.

I guessed a curve for the bottom by pressing a rectangle of interfacing into one cup, then pinned it to the cup with safety pins. (This is not always easy to do if the cup is really hard, thick, or even molded plastic. Try different options: duct tape (really!); pinning to the lining only if still in place — whatever you need to do. But make sure the added pieces cannot shift or your fitting will not be accurate.) Safety pins are the best for fitting: they stay in place and cannot fall out, and as long as they are closed don’t poke you as you fit yourself. Then I put the bra on; I recommend having someone hold it closed, or keep hooks on it so you can really put it on.

Don’t “guesstimate” by simply holding the cup up against you; the fit may be different once the back straps are fully hooked, as for many costumes the band itself pulls the bra tighter than you will hold it and will change the shape of your soft tissue. 

As you may have guessed by now, there is much trial and error in this type of work. Be patient, work methodically, and try different methods of attachment of the new band (as noted above) to make sure you have a size and shape that feels good, fits well, and is smooth. Each project will be different based on the construction of the original costume. But the end result is gratifying and presents a costume unique to you — so, to me, well worth the effort!

Once the bra was on, I used a pencil to draw the general size and curve I wanted for my added band (I did not worry about the scallop shape yet; my drawn line indicated simply the top of the new band). Be sure to draw a line along the upper edge of the existing cup or you won’t be able to tell where the overlap is.  You only need to make a ‘pattern’ for one side (unless you have very different sized breasts, and then you should create a unique pattern for each side; be sure to mark them L and R). 

See my sketch: I cut the curved rectangle of interfacing, which I pinned into the existing cup. I drew a pencil line indicating the new top edge of the cup, or how much I wanted to add. Then I drew a line at the top of the existing cup, so I could tell where to place the addition after I removed it. Once I unpinned the interfacing, I marked the scallop (see immediately below) and approximately 1” (2.5cm) from the overlap line and cut the interfacing there for the bottom edge of the addition.

With the overall size and shape determined, I copied the scallop edge and laid that over the pencil line for the top. I literally took a piece of tracing paper and traced the scallops from the belt so that the scale would match (not bigger and not smaller, but the same size). 

Before you sew the interfacing to the bra, cut the same shape in your outer fabric, or make a paper pattern to use later if you have not purchased fabric. Cut your fabric about 1-1.5” (up to 2.5-3.75 cm) larger all around so you have ‘wiggle room.’ The more fragile or fraying the fabric, the more allowance you should give yourself. With knits, you need less extra fabric. 

Trim the overlap of your interfacing to about ¾ to 1 inch (2-2.5 cm). With regular sewing thread doubled, whip stitch over the top edge of the cup through the interfacing.

You are NOT sewing the edge of the interfacing to the edge of the cup; you want the interfacing to overlap the back of the cup for smoothness and strength. (See sketch above. The dark shaded part is the inside of the cup; the lightly shaded part is the inside of the cup that is covered by the overlapping interfacing. You want about 1” (approx 2.5cm) of overlap with the interfacing to (a) create a strong contact between the new and the existing materials, and (b) to make as smooth of a transition from existing to new as possible. The short diagonal marks indicate the whip stitch from the inside. The stitches appear vertical on the outside, and you travel to the side to make your next stitch, on the inside — hence the slightly diagonal stitch pattern on the inside.)

Here is a tip for preparing your sewing thread: thread both cut ends of your thread through the eye of the needle, creating a loop of thread. On your first stitch, pass the needle through the loop, and voila! you have secured your thread without a knot (which can always come undone). This is a trick I use when beading, too. 

To end your thread, always stitch over at least three times in the same spot, pulling the thread snug. Before you cut, take a long stitch away from your over stitch, pull the thread slightly to give some tension, and carefully cut, making sure not to cut anything else. When you cut the thread, the ‘tail’ will pull into the layers of fabric and you won’t ever have dangling thread ends poking out from your work. This won’t matter when you are stitching the new band to the cup as you will be covering it with fabric; it is when you are covering with fabric and are looking at a final layer that it is good to ‘bury’ the thread tail. 

Now you are ready to start the re-creation part of the project — the fun part!

The original fabric was a royal blue, so although it doesn’t show I like to keep things as true to the original as I can — hence the royal blue base fabric. You will start by covering the original top edge of the bra. While it will get covered with trim or beads, you still want to stitch neatly in case some of it ends up showing.

If helpful for you, turn ½” and iron the lower edge of the fabric following the curve. You will be neatly stitching this over the top edge of the cup. If the fabric is slippery, or a knit, it would be worth the time to baste your folded edge (use a lighter color thread to make it easy to see for removal of the basting later; don’t use a darker color on a light fabric as it can sometimes leave marks on the fabric). 

Using safety or straight pins, pin the folded edge over the whipped top edge of the bra, as close to the existing embellishment as you can get. With small stitches, sew the fabric to the bra. You can choose to stitch through the whole pile of fabric or skim the top picking up only the surface fabric. I prefer the first method; while this doesn’t have to be a strong row of stitching, I always figure every bit of stabilizing I can get in this alteration is a good thing.

After the fabric is stitched into place and you have checked that it will lay smoothly, you are ready to baste across the top. I knew I would be adding beads to the edge, so I used white thread to make it easy to follow the scalloping. The remaining fabric is left hanging over the edge; this will be clipped, turned, and stitched later, and the cup lining will go over the raw edges.

Now we start beading!

Shopping for Beads

For most of us, there are local bead shops where we can shop. Honestly, I have even had success matching basic beads at Michaels or Joann Fabrics. It is unlikely you will ever get a perfect match for your beads, but you can get something close enough. The good news with costumes is you are wearing it in motion, and no one is going to be able to tell that your new beads are a little bigger or darker in color than the originals. Think of what I call the “galloping horse” rule: when you have a model wearing a garment on a runway, no one can see the imperfections and last-minute changes made to the garment before the model hits the boards, because she is always in motion.

Beads are made in several places around the world, and they vary in size, shape, cut, and color by place of origin. Japanese beads are not going to match Czech beads, for instance. Your goal is to get as close to size, color, and — importantly — surface quality, as you can. You don’t want to choose a metallic bead just because of a good color match when the bead you are matching is opaque. 

Be sure to take your costume with you! You want to have a sample of every bead you are trying to match. If you can do so by just taking the bra, as in this case, it is easy. But if you need the whole costume, take the whole costume. I have extremely good color memory (I can go into a fabric store and choose another textile or thread and be nearly perfect in the color) yet I would never buy beads to alter a costume without having the original beads with me. 

If you live in a bead desert, you may have to rely on the internet. This is hard to do because your screen will not show color the way it may truly look, or the same as the color on a different screen. Do not hesitate to call the shop and describe your project! More often than not, you will find someone who is enthusiastic about helping you. Project people love sharing the joy of a project. 

There is sometimes one other opportunity to get beads for your project: take them from the costume itself. I think of this as ‘mining’ for beads: you go digging. If the costume has arm covers or a headband that you don’t use or can live without, you may get enough beads from those, depending on how bead-intensive the costume is. I have sacrificed costume elements when I could not get a good match; or if the skirt is too long and is beaded, you may be able to ‘mine’ beads from the hem. Be sure to secure the threads holding the remaining beads, if you take beads from existing costume pieces that you still plan to use!

Generally, I have found that sequins will need to be ordered — although again, I have had some success with matching at Michael’s. Sequins are a little easier because there are fewer variables in size, color, and finish. These turquoise iridescent sequins were ordered; I gathered up several projects and ordered for them all, at once. 

Let’s start beading.

To start the beading, we want to take care of the top edge first.

This particular costume has a very common edging technique we have all seen on costumes. To reproduce it, you want to string more beads than the length of your stitch. Generally, I have seen 4 or 5 beads on each stitch. If you have not done this pattern before, do a little test run for an inch or so on a scrap of fabric; you need to figure what angle to stitch at (roughly 45 degrees), how long your stitch should be to get a slight arch in the beads, and — importantly — where to start the next stitch. If you look closely (I know the focus isn’t the best on the above photo) the next line of beads starts next to the second bead up from the bottom of the prior stitch, not at the first bead. With your practice run, you can suss out all the details before you start on your actual costume.

I am not a fan of glue or knots. Both can come undone. Instead, I like to secure both the start and end of the thread with stitches. Start with the non-knot, loop method described above, and finish with the overstitch. This will be the perfect instance in which you want to bury the thread tail by pulling your needle out an inch or so away.

The beads are not a perfect match but as a finished product, one would not be able to tell at a glance. You can see that the beads I am using on the top edge are larger than the silver beads edging the leaves on the cup; but if I hadn’t pointed that out, I doubt you would have noticed.

Notice that the silver beads used to delineate the leaves are smaller than the top edge beads. I was able to ‘mine’ enough beads for those elements but knew I did not have enough for the whole project. The beads on the edging are new, while the beads on the added band are mined.

The pattern I chose is taken from the belt (see below). I used a white colored pencil to draw the shapes I wanted directly onto the blue fabric. I then outlined each leaf, sewing through all the layers to the back. Do not sew just to the outer fabric, as the beads will be too heavy. Once the outlines were done, I sewed the gold beads in the center of each leaf. 

Generally, I only sew two to three beads at a time. To create a smooth line of beads, I will then backstitch and run my thread through the last bead, then string on 2-3 more beads to make the next stitch. This common thread through the last bead and into the next beads keeps them straight and tight against each other. If you are unsure, again, do a practice run of a single element before you start your costume. Considering the time and effort you will have invested, you want to nail it when you work on the actual project. 

Once the metallic round beads were in place, I started to fill the shapes, using the color placement of the belt as my guide. Here I wanted to recreate the beading technique used on the belt, so the number of beads per stitch is whatever was needed to cover the space. In narrow tips, it was a bead or two; across the middle of the leaf, it might have been 5 beads. 

The last embellishment element after the beading was done, was adding sequins to fill the space between the leaves on the new top band and the sequins on the original cups. If you look closely, they are certainly not perfect — but again it doesn’t matter per the galloping horse rule.

To finish, you need to fold the blue fabric to the back and stitch it down. This optionally can be done once the edging is done and before beading, or when the beading is complete — your call. The scallop edge is certainly more complicated than a straight edge, and I don’t recommend it for a first project! For a straight top, simply fold the fabric over where it is smooth and snug (but not pulling) and lightly whip stitch it in place, making sure your stitches don’t go through to the front.

For the scallop edge, I cut the blue fabric to about ¾” margin (about 2 cm”), then carefully cut directly into the low point between each scallop. Then, clipping or folding the fabric as I went, I had to carefully stitch the fabric in place to retain the curve of each scallop. If I didn’t have to clip fabric, I did not; each clip is at risk of raveling or clipping into a beading thread.

Once the top edge was finished, I re-attached the straps and relined the bra. We will go over relining a whole costume in a dedicated post. . . so stay tuned!

The costume now is one of my favorites. It looks great, it feels great, and I know it fits me well. In addition, it remains highly resalable as a fabulous vintage costume. Win-win!

– Chani (chani@sparklybelly.com)

---

Hope you enjoyed this How to Alter a Belly Dance Bra tutorial by Chani! If you did, please share this post with your dance sisters 🙂

If you want to read how to alter costumes and/or create your own costumes from scratch, make sure to sign up for the Sparkly Belly newsletter below so you won’t miss future posts like this one!

Click here to sign up for my newsletter (+ get the BONUS free course, Belly Dance Costume Making 101!)

Thanks for reading, and keep sparkling!

P.S. Pin this image on your costume alteration board 🙂

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!