Black and Red Bellydance Top

So, I've made myself promise that I won't buy new fabric for bellydance costumes or other sewing ventures until I make a significant dent in what I already have.

The first of these "stockpile" projects is a black and red bellydance top (and belt to follow).  I started with several yards of stretch black pleather and a few yards of red and black tassel trim.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the early stages, so I'll keep this part brief. I started by covering an old bra with the pleather.  There are a ton of good tutorials on how to do this, but this time I followed Shushanna's tutorial.  (Another great tutorial is on Shira's website.)  I did it all by hand, so it took a while, but it worked out fine.

After that, I hand-stitched the black tassel trim along the bottom of the bra cups and red from the straps along the midline.  Lastly, I had some random red tulle (from a Christmas present bow, actually!) that I hand-gathered and stitched along the top of the cups.

Here you can see the corner of the infamous couch.

Recycling X-Mas present ribbon FTW.

At this point, I knew I had a good start, but the bra needed something.  It needs a brooch or kuchi in the middle (still on the hunt for a good one), but I wanted it to have some extra spunk.

You can see the start of my plan with the upper right picture--originally, I was just going to add some silver chain loops from the bottom of the bra, but while I was sizing it, I realized that the chain looked great against the pleather (I can't imagine how this would sound out of context!).  So I decided to stitch the chain to the top edge as well as the bottom of the bra, just at the top of the black trim.

I put a stitch through every other link, sewing the ones that sat vertically on the bra edge.

Start with the needle coming through the back, near the top.
You have to be careful stitching pleather, because the holes don't go away
if you mess up and need to undo your work.

It's a little hard to see, but I put the needle through the link and through the top edge of the bra.

Ta da!  Part one, done!

I used the same method above the black trim.  After that, I added two loops of chain under the cups, stitching the top link of each end to the bra.  All together, it probably took between 2-3 hours while watching the original Beauty and the Beast TV show with Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton.  I will say, make sure you have good light and keep your shoulders relaxed.  I had one heck of a neck-ache afterwards!

Sorry for the poor lighting!

I've still got a bit to do.  I need to add straps and find and add a brooch in the center, but that should come together easily enough.  Then, it's on to the belt!