Belly dance project 1 - The "blue" Turkish workhorse
Not a lot of detail here because I didn't write this up as a project precisely
I bought a Turkish style bra and belt on eBay for a fairly low price based on its "project" status.
In short I:
-removed all of the fringe and put all the shorter fringe back on in different places
-changed the nonsensical cup angle by removing, reshaping, and moving the center piece of the bra
-reinforced or replaced a considerable amount of the sequins and reinforced every potential stress point (i.e. anywhere that a hook or eye is likely to be attached) with wide grosgrain ribbon (the purple stuff visible in some shots)
-added a second lining layer (tee shirt jersey) to the whole thing
-re-manufactured the straps completely as they were WAY too short and pretty badly chewed up looking
-camouflaged the holes in the fabric where the straps ripped out in the back with fabric salvaged from the straps
-camouflaged an edge on one of the cups where it had been cut and badly re-edged
-added hooks back on and in most cases replaced eyes with bound thread loops. They were easier to place in the sequins and ended up being nearly invisible.
Boy howdy was this a project. Full set of the before and after photos are here.
Here is the auction shot of the bra and here is the shot of the belt.
Here is the after laid out flat and here is a body shot
What I have learned:
Don't do rehabs on cheap sets I'm not committed to keeping. I am far too much of a perfectionist to re-sell something that's badly done and there's no way I'm making back my time on it. This kind of set goes for between $200 and $250 new. I paid $65 and I'm asking $120 OBO for it (and not really getting any bites, a couple of nibbles though).
Just for the purposes of scale; that means if I had worked on it for 7.5 hours at minimum wage I would break even. Sadly I worked on it for well longer then 7.5 hours (in the interests of sanity I purposefully did not keep track) and I think it's fair to say I should be getting better than minimum wage for work like this.
I have also learned that I don't particularly mind doing sequins work. This is a Very Good Thing(tm) as I'm currently doing a butt-tonne of it (more on that later).
I bought a Turkish style bra and belt on eBay for a fairly low price based on its "project" status.
In short I:
-removed all of the fringe and put all the shorter fringe back on in different places
-changed the nonsensical cup angle by removing, reshaping, and moving the center piece of the bra
-reinforced or replaced a considerable amount of the sequins and reinforced every potential stress point (i.e. anywhere that a hook or eye is likely to be attached) with wide grosgrain ribbon (the purple stuff visible in some shots)
-added a second lining layer (tee shirt jersey) to the whole thing
-re-manufactured the straps completely as they were WAY too short and pretty badly chewed up looking
-camouflaged the holes in the fabric where the straps ripped out in the back with fabric salvaged from the straps
-camouflaged an edge on one of the cups where it had been cut and badly re-edged
-added hooks back on and in most cases replaced eyes with bound thread loops. They were easier to place in the sequins and ended up being nearly invisible.
Boy howdy was this a project. Full set of the before and after photos are here.
Here is the auction shot of the bra and here is the shot of the belt.
Here is the after laid out flat and here is a body shot
What I have learned:
Don't do rehabs on cheap sets I'm not committed to keeping. I am far too much of a perfectionist to re-sell something that's badly done and there's no way I'm making back my time on it. This kind of set goes for between $200 and $250 new. I paid $65 and I'm asking $120 OBO for it (and not really getting any bites, a couple of nibbles though).
Just for the purposes of scale; that means if I had worked on it for 7.5 hours at minimum wage I would break even. Sadly I worked on it for well longer then 7.5 hours (in the interests of sanity I purposefully did not keep track) and I think it's fair to say I should be getting better than minimum wage for work like this.
I have also learned that I don't particularly mind doing sequins work. This is a Very Good Thing(tm) as I'm currently doing a butt-tonne of it (more on that later).