Creating The Top Hat

For the hats we purchased a basic black Halloween store top hat and decorated it with assorted trims, flowers, feather accents, tulle and clock parts. The quickest way to attach the trims to the hat is with a fabric adhesive such as Liquid Stitch or a spray adhesive made for fabric work. The feather accents and clock parts can easily be added under the hat band before the glue dries.

The Feather Collar

Take one of our feather collars and with the curve of the feathers following the neck and tie it in the back. Be sure the band is flat along the back of the neck and in front of the shoulders. If you want to hide the tie section at the back, you can put the collar on first then put the bodice on second.

Customizing A Bodice

To save money (and space in our dance closets!) we simply reversed one of our colorful bodices that we already owned. We attached trim and accents using fabric adhesive and hand stitching, being careful not to go thru the colorful sari fabric on the other side. We swapped out satin ribbon for the original ties included with the bodices (these could have been contrasting colors but we chose black satin for this look). For the shoulder accents, we bunched up small amounts of black tulle purchased at our local fabric store and tucked it in the front and back tie section of the bodice.

The Skirts

We used our Bustle Tuck with 2 skirts. You can learn how to create this on our Skirt Tucking Page. To tie in with the shoulder accents and give a more finished look to the waistband add a little tulle. We used about 1/2 yard of the same tulle and tied it around the waist. You could leave a large tulle tie at the back or hide it under the bustle tuck in the skirts. It was a great look on stage ..and we got a ton of comments just walking down the street!

The Optional Finishing Touches

We decided to wear boots. If you decide to wear shoes and you normally perform barefoot, be sure to practice in them. They respond differently to dance movements in general and to spins more specifically.

Instead of wearing rings or bracelets we chose long black gloves. These are usually pretty easy to find at most local costume, bridal or vintage clothing stores. During the autumn season halloween stores are also a good bet. Be sure to get gloves that are sized so they don't slide down during your performance. If you find they are a little loose, tack in narrow elastic on the inside along the top edge. If they are too tight you can splice in similar (or contrasting) fabric along the inner seam along the length.