From a design to a costume - short version

 Once I get around to it, I will write in depth about the aspects you should consider when designing and making a samba costume. For now, here is a short version of it, written and pictured around our childrens group´s costume for the grand opening of our new samba school premises in October 2015.

Samba Carioca´s colours are white and blue, so the costume followed those colours.

Also, as we had only a couple of weeks from start to finish and had many beginners (within the parents ;) there was no time for welding.

This is the original sketch. I wanted a very fresh look for the kids and drew a striped skirt. We decided to have a basic white shirt which could be easily bought so that the only thing that needed sewing was the skirt. And then with the addition of some silk flowers, sequin trim and marabou boa...

Only I could not find a striped fabric. So I went for a checkered blue-white instead.

A circle skirt was created.

The goodie bags I gathered for all of the kids (or their parents). :)

The head piece was just a piece of sequin fabric onto where some flowers and marabou trim were attached.

A belt was sewn and flowers and ball garland was attached. (By the way, any idea where on eBay you can find ball trim / ball garland / pearl trim or whatever you want to call it. The only version I have been able to find is this one with not that many pearls... All tips are welcome! I know it can be bought from Plumas e Cia for example, but well, for the prices, I do prefer eBay. :)

Here´s the skirt.

The final touches in the sleeves (attached with safety pins).

The head piece from the back.

And a little extra I glued together with the help of red wine, attached to the skirt.

And finally, at the grand opening, performing:

https://youtu.be/NjxC0nb1y0o

Plumes and feathers

Cheap rooster feathers in two-tone pink. Length about 10 cm.

Baby ostrich in pink. Length about 30 cm.

Blue marabou trim. Diameter about 5 cm.

Ostrich feathers. The ones with black stripes are natural feathers that have been dyed green. The brighter green versions in the middle are bleached and then dyed. 

Here the feathers are natural coloured pheasants. The tips are separately glued on and are probably rooster.

In this one ostrich feathers are used.

Red roosters and natural pheasants.

All photos by me or from my Pinterest account

TO BE CONTINUED

Lycra

The only suitable fabric for a samba costume is lycra. Unfortunately, it is not that easily acquirable in Finland, at least not so in the physical stores.

Lycra, also known as Spandex, is actually only a trade name for elastane. a special kind of fibre the Lycra actually is. Lycra fabric is actually only in part made of elastane, most of the fabric is poly-amide.



It is a great fabric for dancing and swimming because it does not hold water, it does not fray and it dries fast. However, it can not with stand high temperatures, so if you do iron (or hot-fix crystals!) be very careful!

Also, dirt, sweat and sunshine decrease the abilities of Lycra, so you should rinse your garment (if possible) as soon after use as you can.

Lycra comes in matte,


shiny



and hologram.


For samba, do you shiny or hologram. Matte Lycra looks a bit off next to a lot of shiny objects.

Also, do make sure you use bi-elastic Lycra; this fabric streches to both directions, whereas some cheaper ones are just elastic, meaning there is only a strech in one direction which is not very helpful if you are sewing the lycra on top of a circular (or odd) shape.



All photos from my loyal partner in Lycra fabrics, Flextex.fi.

For the love of flowers

Last spring our ala das criancas had a flower girl / flower fairy theme.

Throughout the costume, fake rose petals were used to create an uneven surface and, well, to create flowers.

Here´s a how to.

Start out with 4 petals.

Let them overlap slightly and then sew them together.

Add three petals on top, overlapping more.

Sew.

Add 1 or 2 more, folding them in half and rolling them slightly. Attach in the middle.

You can start out with just three, too.

Et voíla!

If interested, the petals can be purchased really cheap on eBay .

They were used for this, too.

Crystals or rhinestones?

I must admit it up front; I am a snob. I do not like plastic. I use crystals. (Whenever possible.) There. Now it is said. :D

For me, samba costumes are a gorgeous splash of colour and bling amidst the grey Finnish climate. When I started making my first costume, I was really lost and if it had not been for a Finnish samba costume celebrity Johanna Vehmas from Helsinki´s samba school Papagaio, my first costume would never have finished as I would not have had any idea where to start. As years have gone by, I have realised that starting is just as difficult for everyone and hence I started this blog - but that is another story.

Anyway, as stated, I am a terrible snob. And from the beginning it was clear that the plastic stones were not for me. I cried and bled for the cost, but even in my first costume, I used Swarovski crystals. Granted, though, my first costume was very cheap. I used the ornaments very sparingly. (Blush.) And in the end, the beads were plastic beads - I was not at all equipped financially for the look that my heart desired.

Photo by Toni Kaarttinen

I ordered the Swarovski crystals from an UK web shop Rhinestonesonline.co.uk/ . At one point, I received a sample for the Preciosa crystals along with my Swarovski order, read about them and have been mainly using them since. Swarovski and Preciosa are both made of glass, not plastic, so the shine and sparkle you get from them is great. Swarovski has something like 12 facets (cuts) per stone whereas Preciosa has 9. So yes, Swarovskis shine even more, but for the prices, I do like to use Preciosas.

Later on I realised I could get the Preciosa stones cheaper from Crystalstoshine.co.uk .

Also, I found out that the owner Cheryl is a darling of a person. So nice, so kind and gives such a great customer service that I could not go anywhere else anymore. :)

The only problem with Preciosa is that their range for colour and shapes is not asd vast as Swarovski´s. So for some special pieces I have used Beadaholique.com . They have a nice stock of everything and sometimes you can get decent bargains from their sale section.

Also, these sugar stones I used for my 2015 costume were from Beadaholique.

This is what they looked like on the finished costume.

Crystal trims sparkling away in the sunlight; you do not get this effect with plastic.

A pink butterfly by Swarovski in the middle of clear beads. The flat back crystals on the sleeves are Preciosa, the crystal trim from eBay.

Photo by Mika Sipura.

(Plastic) Rhinestones are nice because they are larger (in many cases) - and very much more affordable in comparison to the glass versions. That is why I chose the sugared stones. For me, they are a nice midway solution. They do not look plastic-y because of the sugar-look-alike on top. Granted, they do not sparkle like glass but with the help of crystal trim around them, the sparkle you saw in the previous photo is created.

One bad thing about the crystals is that it seems sometimes impossible to combine real crystals with rhinestones or with sequins; the sparkle factor is so very different. So for the most part there is no in-between; you either spend all of your money (and your savings and then some ;) or then stay in the safe zone. :D

Ornaments of a samba costume; shapes and sizes and sparkle beyond all

After you have designed your costume and started out with the structures and decided if you want to financially bankrupt yourself to the full or even more (meaning do you use sequins or go the extra mile and use rhinestones - or better yet, crystals), it´s time to decide the shapes.

Usually, and in the simplest manner, the samba costume consists of shapes.

In this costume, the shape is round. The round rhinestones have been placed on a soft foam sheet or on vinyl leather or felt fabric - or at least those are the materials I have been using. The shape of the stone is copied and enlarged by the number of rhinestone trim used around the stone.

In this costume, the stones are trimmed 1 to 3 times with different types of rhinestone trims each. Usually at least the last round (the outer rim) is made with clear crystals (or if you are using ball chain trim, gold or silver). This helps for the shapes to stand out more.

.

However, in the beginning, this is all you have: the stones here are so called sugar stones in white and pink, the crystal trim is clear. The lycra fabric on the bottom is pink to match the feathers and the overall colour scheme of the costume. The Lycra is sewn on to the soft foam shape from the other side. For the sewing, I always use fishing thread because it is durable and due to being translucent/clear, always the right colour, too.

Once the shapes are ready (for one costume you will need anything from 50 to 300 pieces) you can start placing them onto the bases. Here the nude coloured strip is a belt base which has not been covered with lycra yet. The material is vinyl leather. The pink base is the necklace where I used soft foam to create the desired shape, sew the lycra on top and placed and sew the shapes on top of everything. (Later on I added more crystals and beads)

Later on, the belt looked like this. The shapes are sewn in, as well as some plastic based rhinestone trim (the only version you should use on the parts of the belt that jiggle; this will not ruin your stockings!). I have also added crystals in AB and fuchsia.

Here I have used hot fix crystals in clear and AB, some sew on crystals, sequin fabric and sequin trim.

And here we have another shape, in AB crystal, trimmed with clear rhinestones and, at this stage, attached to the head piece with pins.

The nice things about using shapes is that you do not have to have an absolute clear vision (up to the very last detail that is) from the beginning. You are able to place the shapes and try them out little by little. The result is visually quite classy and simple.

Once you get more confident, you can elaborate the shapes.

Or ditch the shapes completely.

All photos by me or from my Pinterest account.

Structures of a samba costume: back piece basics

For the most part, the structures of a samba costume are made of steel wire and welded together.

I have only putting together back pieces, head pieces, hand ornaments, leg ornaments and necklaces out of steel wire, but I know some people also use steel structures for the bra. I just use a well padded bra for that. :D

Below is a simple back piece for a child dancer (the photo with only wire.). There´s a simple V-form in the middle, such as shown here, in a padded version, but the child´s back piece also has small wings which are made of  2 steel wire hangers.

The hangers are welded into the back piece on both sides with attachments in multiple locations.

 After the welding, I use duct tape to ensure all of the welding seams.

 and then I pad the parts that touch the body with foam.

Here is another version of a child´s back piece. The pink V-form is already padded and the pink lycra has been twisted around the padding. The flower shape of the wings was later on ornamented with fake rose petals.

At first, though, the flower forms was covered with a light weight fabric which was hot glued onto the frames. After that, the fabric was covered with rose petals.

The hot glue was put in in lines and the petals were attached to the glue.

And after numerous sticks of glue, this is what it turned into. :)

More about making a back piece here.