In Part 2 of the How to Make a Belly Dance Bra series, you saw how I prepare all parts of a belly dance bra base. In Part 3, you will see how to cover the bra base with the fabric of your choice so you can start decorating it!
And if you haven’t already, you can get all these parts of the How to Make a Belly Dance Bra series in one PDF document, so you can access it offline. Great resource to add to your costume reference collection.
Click here to get the PDF version of the entire Bra Making Ultimate Guide for free!
How to hand stitch
In this section, you will see me hand stitch the fabric to the bra base. You can use a sewing machine here, but often the foam in the bra is too thick for a sewing machine to handle. Plus, when you use a sewing machine, the stitches will show. If you don’t mind the stitches showing, or if you plan to completely cover the stitches with decoration later, using a sewing machine will save you time.
You can use whatever stitching technique you are comfortable with, as long as the fabric stays on the base well and all bra parts stay together. But in case you want to know how I do it, here is how.
So first you thread your needle. Make a nice tight knot at the end.
Start by putting through the needle from below the fabric, so the knot does not show. Then bring your needle down to the left of where you started, put the needle through and bring it out to the left again. And repeat. When you are done, make sure to make another tight knot to secure the stitching.
How to cover a belly dance bra
There are many ways to cover a bra, so I will show you one that I think is the easiest and still achieves a clean look.
So, from Part 2, you should have 2 bra cups, 2 side straps, 1 center strap and 1 or 2 shoulder straps depending on what shoulder strap style you picked. And also in Part 2, you’ve already covered the shoulder straps with your fabric.
Let’s start from easy ones. Spread your fabric, right side (or pretty side) down. Take the center strap, lay it interface-side down on your fabric. Pin it to the fabric, and mark 1.5 cm seam allowance. You can just eye-ball it if you feel comfortable. Cut along the lines.
Then replace the pins to pin the fabric to the base. Sew along the edge. I like to hide the interface-side, so when it is finished, the softer felt is facing inside. If you plan to sew lining inside of your bra top, then this wouldn’t matter, but since I can be inpatient when I’m making my own costume and can’t wait to start wearing it, I tend to make the felt side touching my body.
Once the piece is covered, repeat the same steps for side straps. Again, lay a side strap, interface-side down on your fabric and pin it to the fabric. Add 1.5 cm seam allowance. At the thinner end of the side strap, I like to give more, about 3cm. Once the seam allowance is marked, go ahead and cut.
Add slits along the curved side, then fold the seam allowance over and place pins. I’ve done the same thing to the other one. Make sure when you place the side straps side by side with fabric side up like this, they look like a mirror image. If your slide straps look identical, it means you’ve created 2 side straps for the same side of your bra. (Yes, I’ve done it a couple of times.)
Once you make sure you’ve made a side strap for each side, stitch along the edge.
At the thinner end, I fold the fabric twice and stitch all around it. Because this is where a hook and eye closure is attached, I feel more secure if there is more fabric to sew them onto.
Now we are going to cover the bra cups. When I started making my own costumes, I found this part the most difficult. But don’t worry, I will show you the easiest way of doing this based on my experience.
First, having too much fabric when you are covering a bra cup is very difficult. So place a bra cup on a flat surface. Then place your fabric right side up on top of the cup. Just eye ball about how much fabric you are going to need. Cut around the cup, and make sure you have more than you need.
Now you have a nice smaller piece of fabric to work with. Place it on your bra cup, make sure all sides of the cup is covered. Then, start from the top corner, where the shoulder strap was attached before. Pin the fabric to the cup there.
Then work your way down along the curve of the cup. Place pins every couple of cm. Then work your way from the same corner down the other way. Make sure to remove any fabric gathering up. Always smooth out the fabric.
Looks like there is too much fabric at the bottom, but don’t worry, we will take care of it. So work your way around a bit further and place 1 more pin on each side.
Now, we will make a dart to take care of the excess fabric. So to make a dart, take the excess fabric, hold it up like this and tuck one side inside of the other side. In this case, I am taking the left side of this gathered up fabric, and fold it over. Now, I like when the folded line goes straight down. So slide the fabric over until the line comes down. The line should start at the highest point of the cup, the top of the hill. Once the line comes straight down, smooth out the fabric and pin the fabric. Take your time here, because if you do a good pinning job here, the finished product will look very nice and professional.
Once the fabric is pinned to the bra cup, flip it over and start sewing from where you started pinning. So from this corner, stitch along the edge. If there is too much fabric, you can trim it here to make your sewing a bit easier.
When you stitch along the edges and you are almost at the dart, stop there. We will sew and secure the dart now. If the fabric gathers up from stitching, now is the time to smooth out everything and adjust the dart if you need to.
Take your threaded needle, and put it through from the inside of the dart, where the line starts. Then, we will do very small stitches. Take a little bit of fabric from the bottom layer, then put the needle through the folded edge. Again, take a little bit of the bottom layer, and take a little bit of fabric from the folded side again. Repeat the stitches, and as you can see, the stitches are not very visible, but they are keeping the dart together. Keep stitching until you get to the bottom and make a knot.
Now go back to stitching along the edge, and finish up.
Repeat the process for the other cup.
Assemble!
By now you should have all parts of your bra base covered in your beautiful fabric. So it’s time to assemble them together.
Start with sewing the cups together with the center piece you have created. Pin them all together. I usually use this strong craft & button thread to sew them together. Make a knot, and sew along the edge of the triangle. If the cups are together, sew them together first. The underwires are very hard, so try to grab the fabric around them.
Then pin the triangle in place, and sew along the edge. Make sure you are not stitching all the way through to the front of the bra cup, or your stitches will show.
Once you stitch the inside, you will notice that there is a gap between the cup and strap in the front. Stitch up the gap and secure all parts using a matching thread.
Then pin the side straps to the bra base. Try holding up the bra by holding the side straps from both sides, and make sure everything lays nice and straight. Take the same thread and sew along the edge. I like to first sew along the edge of the side strap, then make a circle and sew along the edge of the cup.
Lastly, pin the shoulder straps. For now, just attach the straps to the cups, and we will finish up the other ends later. If you are making a halterneck, just attach one end to one of the cups.
Finish up!
Sew on a pants hook at 5mm from the edge on the inside of the right side strap. And sew on the bottom part of the snap button 5mm from the edge of the left side strap.
Now put on your bra, and see how tight you want the side straps and shoulder straps to be when they are hooked together. The right strap comes on top of the left strap. You may want to have a friend to help you mark where the edge of the right strap should go with a pin. Then mark where your shoulder straps should go in the back. If you are making a halterneck style, just bring the strap around your neck and pin it to the top of the left cup.
Now take off your bra top carefully. Place the eye of the hook to where it should go, based on the marking, and sew it on. Same with the snap button. Hold the top side of the button against the inside of the right side strap, line it up with the bottom part. Sew it on. Make sure the stitching doesn’t show much on the outside of the fabric, unless you will cover it with decoration later.
Sew on the shoulder straps, and your bra is ready to be decorated!
Or, you can get it in a PDF version by signing up for my newsletter from below 🙂
Click here to get the PDF version of the entire Bra Making Ultimate Guide for free!
7 comments for “How to Make a Belly Dance Bra Pt 3:How to Cover a Belly Dance Bra”