Making Hip Scarves from Thrift Shop Fabric

I don't know about you, but I get tired of seeing the same old thing over and over again. I also get tired of hip scarves that are made to fit size 2 ladies - and only size 2 ladies, it seems sometimes.

That's why I fell in love with a hip scarf design I discovered a few years ago that consists of two parts: One for the front, and a separate piece for the back. The design works for any size dancer.

The two pieces are identical in design.

Each piece consists of four pieces:

• 
  The part in black will tie around your hips. Personally I prefer fabric that is stretchy for this part and be sure that the fabric is the kind of fabric ties nicely and stays tied while you dance.
• The part in red will be the scarf that covers you. Naturally, this part can be any shape you want it to be. (I like to use stretchy fabric for this part also.)
• The two green parts, are only attached to the red part and hang down in a draped effect. I believe that these two parts should be translucent, but this depends on your taste.

I've been working on one that I am making from a piece of black lace for the tie, pale green chiffon with shiny gold dots, and a blouse I found at the thrift store.

I got very lucky because I found a stretchy red, black, and pale lime green blouse in a size 3X - meaning I have lots of fabric to work from. This blouse is a blend of nylon and cotton. Keep in mind that if you are going to paint something, that cotton blends work VERY well with fabric paint.

Here's a pic of the fabric after I've sewn on some red gemstones:

The gemstones add quite a bit, to the paisley design, but I wanted a richer look so I painted the fabric with gold and bronze glitter paint:

Here is the finished product with the black lace tie and the pale green strips added to it:

I'm going to be making a bra to match this one so look for the set on estumes.com.

If you make a hip scarf and are looking for a place to post it, do so on estumes.com. Here are the instructions.