Hi Sally,

www.aussietribaldance.com

Free patterns, advice, cholis to buy, links to other Aussie sites, etc.

Cheers! Annabella

hi, welcome to the wonderful world of tribal! word of warning; it is very easy to get totally carried away with tribal costuming!!
few pointers; unless you are a really good sewer, don't bother making a tiered skirt as it is time consuming, can be expensive and a bit on the tricky side. Tribal harem pants are fairly easy to make, you can get the fat chance pattern which is really a set of loose instructions. Just get some really cheap material ( i used skirt lining for a practice run) and give it a try. Generally 1.5 meters per leg makes really baggy harem pants and the easiest way to do the top is to do a gather stitch, then sew on a waistband that fits your hips. I have made quite a few pants and have finally gotten the hang of it after about 4 or 5 pairs! (shameless self promotion but I do have 2 pairs for sale, look in my profile/photos).
Cholis are pretty easy and you can also get the pattern from fat chance bellydance. It does however, help to have one in front of you that you can follow along with the pattern but you can now get good stretch cholis from lots of people in aus that are reasonably priced. Once you have made a few, they get pretty easy; I have knocked one up a few days before a gig even!
hip belts and bras are fun, check out what other people have, look at their photos etc to get inspired. I am about to make some tassel belts for selling that will have a scalloped/pointed shape on the hips and at the bum that one of my troupe members devised a pattern for. Just make a pattern on newspaper and go from there, also, use Velcro to fasten it across your front as it sits nicer.
Overall, cholis, harem pants and belts are fairly easy to copy a pattern off, so maybe get one of each to follow as you do have to pay for the fatchance patterns.
Good luck and feel free to email to chat further!!
:) Sophie

The costume Goddess books are good for ideas and do cover some tribal patterns. Welcome to the world of tribal. Im relatively new too - After three years of traditional bellydance I decided to try tribal March this year. Good luck with your tribal travels