Another way to add texture and interest to your dance costume is by creating a flower pattern using rhinestones. This technique takes a costume that is really simple and plain and adds bling to it. Also, it adds color without dying the costume and it really draws your eye to the area of the costume where you want more attention.
Supplies:
- Dance piece
- Large Rhinestones and small rhinestones
- E6000 Glue in a Tube or
in a Syringe - Toothpicks
- Two paper plates
- Seamstress chalk or bar of soap
Directions:
Choosing Your Materials
The flower pattern can be used on any dancewear you chose – dance tops, skirts, shorts or briefs. The flower pattern can be small or big depending on the room available, whether you use small rhinestones or big ones or a combination of sizes and how many rhinestones you use. So basically in choosing your materials you start with the dance garment and then you choose the size and colors of the rhinestone depending on what you want the finished flower to look like.
Preparation Before Gluing
For our sample, we are again going to use our high waisted briefs and we are going to be using some smaller stones and some larger stones. Before you start rhinestoning, you want to look at the area where you want to place the rhinestones and make some decisions. Do you want the flower in the middle? Do you want it on one end? Do you want to stretch it out to cover the whole area? Do you want several flowers across the area?
Find that front center point. The easiest way to do that is to take the back seam in your thumb and pointer finger and pull the brief out to where the opposite end will be the front center and mark
it with seamstress chalk or the corner of a bar of soap. To make it easier for you to see what we are doing, we will use a scrap of fabric to actually do the rhinestoning. For our demonstration, we are going to mark the fabric with a pin to make it easier for you to see. Do not use a pen when you work on the brief because if you make a mistake or change your mind, you are stuck with the mark and you will not be able to cover it up.
Placement of the Rhinestones
For this demonstration, we have chosen both small rhinestones and large rhinestones. We will use the large rhinestone for the center of the flower and the smaller rhinestones are going to surround that large rhinestone. Before you start gluing, there are a couple of things you want to do. In our demonstration, we are going to put two flowers in the front and two in the back. So, you want to count out the rhinestones and then divide them by four. That will let you know just how many rhinestones you have available for each flower. Let us say you have twenty small rhinestones for the front and twenty for the back and you need five small rhinestones per flower, that means you could place four flowers in the front and four in the back.
Then, lay the rhinestones out in the pattern and size you want for the flower. That will help you visualize the flower and help you determine how many rhinestones you will need for each flower. Since you have already calculated how many rhinestones you have for each flower you can now see if you have enough rhinestones for the flower as you have laid them out. If not, you may need to adjust the flower accordingly. Once you have determined you have enough stones for the pattern, measure the size of the flower. That allows you to determine how much room you want between the rhinestones. Since you know the size of the area to be rhinestoned and the size of the flowers, you can now determine how much room you want between each flower. If you lay out a few of these flowers on the area without using glue, you can tell if this will work visually and you can adjust them a little before actually gluing them down. Keep in mind that you will also be performing the same on the pack so you will want to consider how much room you will want to leave on the side of the briefs so that the distance between the flowers on the side will be the same as the distance between the flowers on the front and the back. An easy way to glue the flowers in the right spot is to create a guide. You can create a guide very easily by tearing a little piece of paper the same size as the space you want between the flowers.
Gluing Down the Rhinestones
Once you have determined exactly how many rhinestones per flower, how many flowers you are going to have, and the distance between all of the flowers, you are ready to start glue. At this point, we are going to demonstrate the use of the syringe. Using the syringe, carefully place a dot of glue on one of these pre-marked spots. Then pick up one of the large rhinestones in your fingers or using tweezers and placing that large rhinestone and place it on the dot of glue. Then complete the pattern for the smaller rhinestones. Some people prefer that method. We, however, prefer to put a little glue on the paper plate and then pick up a tiny bit of glue on the tip on a toothpick. Then, using the toothpick, put a little glue on the back of the rhinestone and flip it over to place it on the spot marked on the garment. Put the rhinestones upside down on paper plate to make it easier.
There are two ways to lay out the smaller rhinestones. The first choice is to place one small rhinestone on each side of the large rhinestone and then one above and one below the large rhinestone. Lastly, place one small rhinestone in between these four rhinestones, giving you a total of eight small rhinestones around the large rhinestones. Make sure the rhinestones are equidistant from each other and preferably a width of at least a toothpick between them. This choice gives you a small flower. The second choice is to place the small rhinestones equidistant from each other in a circle around the large rhinestone. These rhinestones can be placed further or closer apart according to your preference. This creates a larger flower. Whichever choice you use, you need to take into consideration the previous determined spacing. If you change the choice of placement and how far apart the rhinestones are, the flower will be larger or smaller and you need to recalculate that spacing.
This pattern gives you two very different flowers using the same pattern. Repeating the choice of placement and spacing, glue the rest of the flowers on the front and then repeat the whole process on the back of the briefs. Whichever method you use, once you have placed the rhinestones in place, gently tap the top of the rhinestone.
After you have initially glued the rhinestones down, you can slide the rhinestones around a little, but be careful because if you slide them around too much, you will have a trail of glue. Also, if you end up with a string-like piece of glue, you can remove it carefully using a clean toothpick.
Remember, these flowers will be seen from a distance, so even if you are not thrilled with the gaps between the rhinestones when you are up close, they will not be seen from further away.
