7 Ways to DIY Your Dance Costume

In this video/article we are going to show you 7 tips you can use to make your own dance costume, saving you money and giving you a unique look that no one else will have.  DIYing your own dance costume is not only fun, but with just a few simple techniques you can make costumes that look like it should cost you hundreds of dollars and it will cost you almost nothing.  You can either watch the video or read the article below, but make sure you read/watch it all the way through because these techniques work really well together.

1. Adding a Broach

Adding a broach is a simple way to add some flair to your costume.  Adding a broach allows you to do a number of different things, such as pinching in parts of your costume, hiking up one side of a skirt and of course adding a beautiful broach to your already awesome costume.   When you do use a broach you will want to make sure that you add some glue to it or clamp it down, to make sure that it doesn’t fall off.  For the full video on all the ways you can Add a Broach click here.

2.  Adding Fabric

Adding fabric is one of the best ways to make your costume look amazing, and there is a lot of ways to add fabric that do not involve sewing.  In our video on how to add fabric to your dance costume we show you a bunch of new ideas that you can use to change basic dancewear pieces into an absolutely amazing costume.   You can use knots, tie the fabric on, or you can even use broachs to add fabric.  Making your dance costume should be a fun process, and you need to make sure that you are not too critical on yourself.  Remember most people will be looking at it from far away, so step back at least five feet and see what it looks like.

3.  Layering

Layering is a super simple technique that once again requires no sewing.  You can layer skirts, gloves and a number of different things.  You can use either the same color item, or different color items.  In our video on layering we show you how layering similar colored skirts can give you an amazing look that no one else will have.  You will be amazed out how this simple technique will completely change the look of your outfit.

4.  Adding Lace

Adding lace can add a ton of depth to your costume, and there are so many options.  You can have lace that matches your costumes color, contrasts it, pearled lace, lace with rhinestones…the list just goes on and on.  We will show you in our video on Adding Lace all kinds of ways you can use lace that you may not have thought about before.  Another really interesting thing you can do is dyeing your lace, and we have a video about dyeing as well.  You don’t need to know how to sew to add lace, but it definitely helps.   We are going to be coming out with some great videos on simple sewing techniques so make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here to get those videos when they come out.  Make sure to stretch the fabric or costume to where it is going to be before you put on the lace.  You can have the person wear it or put it on some cardboard that will stretch it to the same place.

5.  Rhinestoning

People charge hundreds of dollars to rhinestone your costume…but this is crazy, you can do it yourself and its fun!  All you need to do rhinestoning is some glue, you can use E6000, its quick and fast drying, just make sure you are in a ventilated room.  You can also use a slower drying glue to make sure you like the placement of all the rhinestones before they set.  You are going to be amazed a few rhinestones take a simple look and turn it into a spectacular and amazing look.  For our full youtube video on how to Rhinestone your dance costume click here.

6.  Dyeing

Dyeing is actually one of my favorite ways to take a simple dancewear pieces and turn it into an amazing dance costume.  We have three separate videos where we will show you all kinds of amazing dyeing techniques.  In the first video we show you simple dyeing techniques, and you can use Rit dye to get these effects.  The next video we have is water color effects, but you can also use these techniques to get a forest look by using greens instead of blues.  One of my personal favorite dyeing techniques is the flames effect.  In our video I show you how to use red, yellows and oranges along with some shredding techniques to give your dance outfit an amazing flame like look.

7.  Changing the hemline

Changing the hemline on some basic dancewear pieces can take a costume from a simple look to something absolutely amazing.  You can do it with pants, skirts and other dance clothing items as well.  You probably have seen people that take a simple pair of pants and chop off one side of the leg to make it so they have a half short half pant look.  This is super easy and simple to do, and you can do it yourself.  We also have a video that will show you how to take a circle skirt and turn it into a square cut skirt.   You can also layer this square cut skirt with other square cut skirts to give your costume an absolutely amazing look.

If you enjoyed this article make sure you subscribe to our youtube channel by clicking here.  We will have a lot more tips on how you can DIY your dance costumes, as well as all kinds of great tips for dancers, dance studio owners and of course dance parents.

Cyndi Marziani