Flamenco!

Red Velvet Swirls

This is a heavy stretch velvet fabric that behaves beautifully when you dance, the extra weight means it takes it's time in the swirls but stays in the air for that fraction of a
second longer! I cut 4 panels with a slight flair, then added 3 half circle insets in between which end on the thigh. The 4th opening I left to give a sexy split. Then I added a circular frill all around the bottom on the skirt and up the thigh split.

Gold & Pink Falls 

A double sided stretch Polyester Suit fabric that was brought for a bargain £1 a metre at Birmingham's Rag market was used for this. One side Pink, the other Gold with a lovely shot weave. The skirt was made of 3 flared panels with a circular insert on the back seam. I alternated the circular frills up this inset to give a lovely waterfall back, two rows of frills completed the bottom. All edged in gold with a rolled hem on my overlocker. 

Bata De Cola & Bra

The bra was decorated with Tulip appliqué, frills, sequins, gems and rolled fabric to form fabric beads.  I used a circular frill to give a sleave effect which also covered the straps. The skirt is a traditional Spanish Bata De Cola with layers of circular frills both on the top of the skirt and box pleats in "Can Can" underneath.

The Story of The Beast

The Bata De Cola or "The Beast" as I call mine was a trip into the unknown... I'd never met one, I only had descriptions from my flamenco teacher and what I had seen on youtube. My flamenco partner Jo and I (pictured above in the pink & gold falls) set off to Birmingham rag market to to see what we could find. I had thought I would make a purple or red bata but as we needed around 10 yards of fabric per colour this Aqua cotton suit fabric at £1 per yard was a must, I then chose the Indigo fabric as it was a colour scheme I had always wanted to try and it was only 50p per metre, bonus!

The Bata had to be made quickly as our Flamenco teacher Diane was set to teach a workshop at the end of March 2014 so our Birmingham trip was in the February half term - around six weeks to complete. 

We brought our pattern from http://www.flamencodressmaking.com and printed out the many pages. Just compiling the pattern took a full days work and without each other I think we may have never got through the pattern assembling process! (I think Anke at flamencodressmaking has since made the patterns easier to work with). 

Buying the Can Can from Spain proved harder than it should have been as the website had errors on and was in Spanish (I have only very basic words). But after nearly a week of trying to work out was happening I managed to purchase it.  Can Can is a stiff plastic like fabric which helps to hold the skirts shape.

The skirt was made double in the same fabric, one as the outer skirt the same for the lining which made it really quite heavy straight off. The amount of outer frills you can add to a bata is personal choice but I went for 6 layers in total with 4 that wrapped all the way around - I added 2 extra in a turquoise satin on the back to give a more water like feel.

The Bata I ended up with is satisfyingly heavy and works beautifully. I am so glad that I had never met another bata before I made this one because this is NOT what I would have made. Compared to the ones made by my teacher and others worn by my class members this is uber heavy. But it works.  As a bellydancer I find dancing with a bata much easier than my Flamenco sisters, Flamenco it's self is very Alien to me but the Bata is totally different and suits a bellydancers hip and body aesthetic.  I Love my Beast but soon I feel I may make another... I will post here when I do.