Completed! The Kalbelia Adventure

I can't believe it. The Kalbelia costume is ready - after months of stitching and using up kilometers of trims. You can see the humble beginnings here. 

But now step by step - if you plan to make a costume like this yourself. Actually this costume was not very expensive in materials - I used very simple things that you can even find in your stash. But it was probably the most time-consuming project I ever made.

You need for the skirt:

2 (!) 3-tiers circular cotton skirts

The skirt you can see in the first post is actually only the first half of what I made. Then I realized that the skirt had to be wider so that it swirls beautifully.

Lots (!) of trims and ribbons. Cheap satin ribbons are the best. I cannot name the exact amount I used, but I used at least 25m of each colour.   

Eventually some repurposed fabric in bright colours - in this case for the blue stripes on the skirt and the yellow pieces on the shirt with the cut-out diamonds.

In my first post I explained how I cut out the diamonds - actually a second time I'd probably first cut the diamonds out and add the white rickrack trim with hand stitches first before stitching it on the skirt with the machine. But it works both ways.
The sequins have been glued on the skirt with fabric glue - you could sew them as well, of course, but I didn't want to spend much time.

Then you'll need an already existing cotton blouse. I added some more length with some more cloth - this is optional.
The microbeaded stripes were the most expensive parts of the costume. Maybe I'll try to make them myself one day, beadweaving shouldn't be that complicated. The patterns are simple and you can make those stripes using a beadloom or even without.
The veil is made of very simple synthetic organdy and I just I added a silver fringed trim and a green ribbon for contrast.
So this is the result of months of research, and of stitching. We are just waiting for the next performance!

Kalbelia Costume I: Needs a Lot of Patience

For an upcoming workshop of Kalbelia dance I threw myself into sewing a costume.

The skirt is the central piece as the dance is full of whirling and spinning (see the first picture).













With a readymade dance skirt from Hongkong purchased from here, lots of ribbons from my stock and some fabric to recycle the adveture began:

 
 


  The diamonds are cut out from the fabric and basted. A narrow white ribbon will cover the edges later.

Many many hours later: lots of greens and blues. Red, yellow and white will follow....

Joy of Dancing: Two Performances in One Weekend

This weekend I was really lucky. I performed Saturday at the opening vernissage for the exhibition of the lovely paintings of Djamilia Hergenreder at the Frauenzentrum Weimar.

 

Djamilia is a wonderful painter and such a sweet person. On the pics you see me performing classical Persian dance from the Qajjar period. The little plates on the second picture are "played" with thimbles. Unfortunately my little daughter lost one of them somewhere playing, so I had to fabricate something with a ring and a rubber band to make a sound also with my right middle finger ;-) But it worked out well.

 

The second performance was with the "faires Frühstück", a breakfast with biological and fair traded goods to rise awareness for the circumstances of the production and trade of our daily food.

We were welcomed with fair traded roses, had a yummy biological buffet and a lot of other treats!

The main theme was "India" So I performed folklore dances from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Assam.

The whole morning we broadcasted live from the terrace - with lots of Indian music!!

The Radio Team on the terrace.

Bihu dance from Assam.

But performing on the flint (!!) was terrible... my feet still itch when I look at the pics!

 

But everything was so nice, we had such a supportive audience and this made me forget everything :-)

Finally: My New Rajasthani Bangles!

These cuties arrived some days ago; just in time for my performance of Rajasthani Dance at the Interkulturelles Neujahrsfest in Weimar. Impressions are here; you can see a snippet of my performance at min 13.13) with these bangles.
These are traditional Rajasthani bangles, I purchased them from here. (BTW: I can only recommend indiabazaar. The order was processed very quickly and the bangles arrived nicely packed. Thank you, Ajay! ) Here you have 60 (!!) bangels, actually far too many for my arms, I could put on only 40 of them.
They look more or less like this - but without the golden stripe (these ones on the picture I had borrowed from a dear friend, Lena.)