Spiral ruffle fringe like this is a fun addition to belly dance costume belt or skirt. These are super easy to make and great for using up your scrap fabric. If you have leftover fabric from making a circle skirt, you can make a matching fringe!
Photos from Bellydance.com (affiliate).
So in this video, you will see how to make these spiral fringes with a couple of variations. Let’s get started!
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To make these spiral ruffles, you need:
Fabric – I’m using leftover chiffon fabric from my circle skirt post. For the fringe you’ll see in this video, I will be using 30cm by 30cm or 12in by 12in per strip.
Your sewing tools – scissors, measuring tape, matching colour thread and your sewing machine
Find out more about the tools I use on the Resource page. 🙂
How to Make Spiral Ruffle Fringe with Flounce
First, we’ll cut a circle that is 30cm or 12in in diameter. To do this fast, I just fold my fabric a few times like this, and measure 15cm or 6in from the pointed end, and cut a nice curve. You don’t need to make the circle perfect here.
Next open up the circle piece of fabric, and cut a strip out of it in a spiral fashion. I’m cutting this one at about 4cm or 1.5in wide, which make a strip that is about 130cm or 51in long. If you want to cut the strip to make it shorter, cut from the outside end of the spiral, because you get nicer, tighter curls towards the centre of the spiral, so you want to keep that part.
Then, all you have to do is just finish the raw edges however way you want. I tried using pinking shears to finish this one, which saves a lot of time, but I prefer the look of one that is finished with a sewing machine. I just did a zigzag stitch along the edge.
And it’s finished! You can decorate the strips with sequin trim to add some shine.
Or if you want to add more body to the ruffles, you can use the lettuce hem technique from my post from a few weeks ago. All you need to do is when you finish the raw edge, just add fishing line to the outer edge. It’s a bit more challenging to do than finishing a circle skirt with fishing line, so start slowly.
This is great if you want to create full, luxurious looking ruffles like ones in this beautiful costume.
This beauty is from Dahlal.com. They no longer have this dress, but they confirmed that they can custom make it. 🙂
You can add a whole bunch of these ruffle strips to a waistband or even a piece of ribbon to create a ruffle fringe overskirt like ones in above pictures from bellydance.com. If you have a boring circle skirt, a ruffle fringe skirt will make it look a lot more fun and give more movements.
And here is how to make a flounce ruffle: if you sew on the inner edge, which is the shorter edge, of a flounce strip to a hem or a slit of a skirt, it creates beautiful ruffles. A great thing about a flounce ruffle is that it is not bulky like ruffles that you make by gathering up fabric. So it’s perfect for adding a little coverage to a slit of a skirt.
And of course, you can try making the strips wider or thinner to get the look you want.
Hope you enjoyed this DIY, and if you make your own, please share a photo on Sparkly Belly’s Facebook page. And if you want more DIY belly dance costume ideas, sign up for the newsletter from the below link to get updates and free access to the special page in my blog where I share special patterns and resources. 😉
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Thanks for watching, and keep sparkling!
P.S. Pin this photo to make it this long weekend 😉
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