Straps do not cross; they are too large on model.
Close up of belt back - this isn't the greatest picture, they look nicer than this.
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c0726 Fully Beaded Turquoise Bra, Belt, Full Chiffon Circle Skirt and Veil $210
SOLD OUT
Made in Egypt. Beautifully colored bra and belt set, includes skirt AND veil, luminous turquoise/aqua with touches of green, accented by gold.
Hand sewn beadwork fully covers both pieces. Gold glass seed beads outline design and edges. Primary background in holographic turquoise sequins, also with a few other iridescent blues/aquas. Iridescent green around edges and in some design accents. Beautiful square glass iridescent turquoise beads used extensively in design are a standout. Very, very, VERY slight variations in beadwork, essentially all are identical.
Fringe all along belt bottom edge and bra center is Egyptian (each strand hand knotted into a cord; easy to move, cut, reuse), but is glass seed beads instead of the sharper edged square cut bugle beads usually seen. Alternating swatches of gold and turquoise, colors are different lengths. Some belts have 6" gold and 5" turquoise, some have 8" gold and 6" turquoise. Really makes no difference in a group, either unnoticeable or nobody watching is going to care!
Bra has shoulder straps. As with many of the troupe costumes, the back bands are made extra long and the bra straps usually are too near the ends and need to be moved back toward your arms (for altering tips see How to Buy a Costume that fits"). There are slight differences in the center fringe bunches. All are made up of three alternating swatches, two shorter and one longer, however the color order may be different (gold turquoise gold or turquoise gold turquoise) and lengths may be different: 5" with 6", or 6" with 8". Really makes no difference in a group, either unnoticeable or nobody watching is going to care!
The skirts are nice quality chiffon, very full (probably a circle and a half), pull on elastic waist, does not open. I think the color in the photos came out a bit light, they are very rich looking. Two panels (probably one is full circle or close, other is half circle or close). As is typical with circle skirts, the edges are not sewn together so technically has two slits all the way to top. Monofilament in hem for extra fullness/flounce.
Accessories: Rectangular veil (undecorated) in same chiffon/color as skirt, a couple of lengths available.
Age/Condition: New. However, in addition a to a couple of small glitches (pretty normal at this level), these have been around a while and though nothing terrible or difficult to fix, they do have things you'll want to take care of:
As with almost all belts, on all of these you'll most likely need to move the bars of the hook and bars to get the belt to fit you; this is completely normal (so is having to move the hook & bars and often the bra straps on the bras). On several of the belts (noted with the sizes), you are also going to need to move the hooks. You'll be switching which ends of the belt the hooks and bars are on. Not normal. Still easy. This is because some belt hooks/bars are sewn on backwards. The skirt hems were not made well (not to worry, this doesn't reflect the quality of the rest of the costume. Looks like someone who didn't know how to use a serger did these, has nothing to do with the rest of the costume. In the worst cases, the stitches are (generally) too far apart and the monofiliament may be pushing out in loops, possibly in more than one place. Also some raw chiffon edges may be showing. If you have a sewing machine that does a zig zag stitch you can fairly easily fix this yourself. You have to push/pull the monofilament loops back in, then sew with a cross stitch over the areas where the stitches are so wide apart, centering the stitches over the monfilament. I did this successfully to several skirts. I rolled the fabric one more time (very tight and small) over the monofilament to take care of the areas where the raw chiffon edges showed. I ended up just redoing almost the whole hem on some, on others was able to "patch". Tedious but not rocket science if you have basic skills with sewing machine. You don't need to be terribly neat or careful, nobody will notice.
A couple of the bras have underwire ends poking out a little, noted with sizes (push 'em back in and sew over with a bunch of stitches; as a super-glue aficianado I would probably send some glue down there with it).
Some of the bras and belts have a fair number of sequins flipped over upside down (from transporting, rubbing against each other I suppose). You can ignore it, or flip them back (and of course if it were me I'd give them a tiny dab of glue). They're fine and shiny on the correc (front) sides.
Veils may have some stray threads to trim. They sewed some close to the selvege, and there may or may not be some selvege "fuzz" peeking out (this doesn't unravel, so unless it really bothers you you don't need to do anything with it).
Photos are of actual items for sale unless noted. Due to variations introduced by the camera, the lighting, and your computer monitor, colors in real life may not appear exactly as on your screen.
Sizing: Please order each piece (bra, belt, skirt) by NUMBER. Numbers have nothing to do with each other as far as matching or anything else (for example, bra 5 does not "go" with belt 5 and skirt 5), the numbering is only a way to clearly differentiate sizes for each piece. Bras "Should Fit" range is given; each number (1 - 10) is a single bra. If you are unfamiliar with my sizing, please read "How to Buy a Costume that Fits" (links also on front page of site).
Belts:
Shorten-ablility: Roll the top under your belt; a great advantage of separate skirts and belts. One good roll can get you several inches shorter, and no, no one can tell, and dancers do it all the time. Of course, you can cut and hem if you don't mind losing the monofilament. I'm sure there's a machine that sews that in, and maybe a seamstress/tailor who does fancy work would have one. See "Age/Condition", above, concerning hem issues.
Veils
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