DIY: Repurpose Damaged Hip Wrap Into Jewelry

You are shimming away in class and the next thing you know beads and coins are shooting from your hips in every direction. At first you aren't quite sure where they are coming from. For a split second you even think, "Neat, a sparkling shimmy shower." Then, with great disappointment, it hits you. Your hip wrap is starting to unravel.

You do what you can to make it last as long as possible. You gather up the coins and beads that fall off. You tie or glue loose threads together. You may even try trimming and sewing the raw edges in the hope that it will stop the offending fray from taking over the entire wrap. It is about this time you decide to donate the wrap to the "community basket". There is one at every studio. A basket full of old raggedy hip wraps for new students to share and wear during class. But alas, eventually it becomes almost impossible to wear, beads and coins raining everywhere. Your beloved hip wrap becomes an under foot nuisance that, slowly over time, gets swept up and dumped into the trash.

Before throwing your hip scarf away, (or into the back of your closet because you are too sad let it go,) see if you can repurpose it into jewelry. Use this jewelry for yourself, as gifts for dancers, or donate as door prizes or other fundraising cause.

Supplies

• Old hip wrap with damaged, frayed, or missing coins
• Barrettes and/or earring hooks
• Fabric glue
• Glue gun (and glue)
• Thread
• Needle
• Scissors

• Use the clear drying fabric glue on the cut threads to prevent fraying. See instructions here.
• Hand stitch the chiffon fabric in a "rolled hem." I type "rolled" because I just squished, tucked and folded the fabric under holding it in place with wide sloppy stitches. The chiffon area will be hidden by glue and coins so no need to make a true, fancy rolled hem.

• Cover the barrette with hot glue.

 

• Glue the coin fringe to the barrette.

• Hot glue some loose coins on top. All done!
• Wear and enjoy.

An alternative to the barrette is hip wrap fringe earrings as seen in the bottom picture of this post. For earrings, make a cleaner prettier rolled hem and then hook an earring hoop through the fringe. You can make them hang long like in the photo or loop them multiple times to create a jumble of fringe for each earring.

You can really run with the idea turning larger chunks of fringe into necklaces or use smaller pieces to decorate bras, belts, armbands, headbands, you name it.

 

 PS. Try to look more excited about saving your old hip wrap from the trash.

Have fun and Good Luck!

~N

DIY Emergency Costume Sewing Kit

Every dancer should have an Emergency Costume Sewing Kit in their bag. Even if you can't sew well, chances are you will be at a performance with other dancers who can help you out in an emergency as long as you have the supplies on hand. This kit uses a few items from around the house and is easy to assemble.

Supplies

• Empty pill bottle
• Thread
• 2 needles
• Safety pins
• Hooks and Bars
• Seam ripper
• Paper clips or bread wrapper clip
• Scrap of paper

Wrap about a yard of thread around the paper clip or bread wrapper clip. Most of my sewing emergencies involve hooks coming loose so I use upholstery thread.

Fold the scrap of paper into a long rectangle. Fold the paper in half and poke holes through it with the needles.

 Flatten out the paper. This will keep your needles organized and easy to find.

Fill the pill bottle with the needles, thread, hooks and bars, safety pins, and seam ripper. DIY Emergency Costume Sewing Kit done! Toss it in your bag and you're good to go.

I had to remove the cap of the seam ripper so it would fit in the bottle. I stored it face down so I don't get stabbed in the finger when I remove it. I chose the seam ripper over a pair of mini scissors because it serves double duty of cutting thread and ripping out those loose and broken hooks and bars for repairs.

Times to use your sewing kit

• The obvious - repairing loose and broken hooks on bras and belts
• Cutting off broken fringe or stray threads
• Use the thread to tie together broken necklaces and bracelets as a last minute fix to get you through a performance.
• Store beads, sequins, and jewelry that break during a performance for later repairs.
• Safety pins - enough said
• Make a fish hook and line with the paper clip and thread to pull rings, keys, etc. out of sinks, vents, and other tight spots. (Hey, you never know.)

 Good Luck and have fun!
~N