The mirrors are 5′3”x7′3” total. I bought them as one piece, and then asked to cut them so they fit into the trunk of my car. There are 3 pieces in total, two pieces of 3′1”x5′3” and one piece of 1′x5′3”. The mirror starts 13” from the floor. It works well for dancing, however if you do floorwork or workout on the floor  and you need to see yourself in the mirror then you might want to hang them lower.

Home studio

Yet another set of zills, right? Wrong! This is not just another set of zills. Yael Moav, one of Eilat Festival’s organizers ( who also happens to be my first teacher back in 2001), borrowed me these zills, after I passed the auditions to festival’s contest. She got them as a present from the late Serena Wilson. Serena was Yael’s teacher and a good friend for 17 years. I haven’t had a chance to meet Serena, but during my beginner year in Arabesque Yael taught us her drum solo choreography and made sure all of us knew who Serena was. Later on, already in the States I read Serena’s book which contained lots of easy explanations on the moves, the music, the props, in short anything about our dance form. Serena trained hundreds of dancers and is really a great icon of the belly dance community.

Serena's present to Yael

Yael offered me to borrow these zills for the competition, claiming that mine were barely heard during the auditions. She complimented on my playing saying that being so precise I could pull this set off. The set seemed to be Zildjian’s (judging from the pics from their website). They were quite  heavy, at least twice as much as my Afghani Saroyans,  extremely loud and they only had a single slot! This meant several problems. First of all, no snug fit, thus less precision and danger of loosing them during performance. Second and most importantly, the elastic knobs on the inside made it really hard to do the essential to my solo clicks. The clicks are done by securing the thumb cymbal and hitting the middle of the other cymbal at a 90 degree angle. Because of the knob many clicks came out mute! Rings and clacks also appeared to sound less crisp.

Elastic knots vs flat elastic on double-slotted Saroyan

My goal was to come up with a safe way to secure the elastic and getting rid of the giant protrusion. On the first try I used s small ring to prevent the elastic from slipping away.  The result didn’t satisfy me. It was better than tying  the elastic from the inside, but the ring would not stay flat against the zill dome.  I then came up with an idea of using 2 rings, but soon dropped it for being too cumbersome. Finally I decided to get some help. My mother-in-law is perfect for this kind of mission, because she’s a artsy–craftsy type and as such she never throws anything away. Often times I come up to her with whimsical requests and more often than not she delivers. This time I asked her for a “tiny flat button with two prolonged slots”.

My father-in-law looked at me as if I lost my mind. My mother-in-law went upstairs and 30 seconds later I had about 5 buttons with two prolonged slots, all in different sizes. All of them fit inside the zill, but none was flat enough for me. Fine, said my mother-in-law and disappeared again. Thirty seconds later she couldn’t hide her content watching me all happy and giddy staring at her find! It was plain perfect and I was beating myself over not thinking about it myself. Can you guess where it came from?

The mysterious button

Back home I took apart a couple of old bras, sewed the elastic and tried the upgraded zills on. The fit was snug, the clicks came out perfectly fine, but to my utter disappointment the zills weren’t tuned! Each zill had a different pitch and this resulted in garbled overtones! It might have been fine for simple 1-2-3 1-2-3 to a loud track of music, but it wouldn’t have passed unnoticeable in my sagat solo. So I made an executive decision and ordered another pair of Saroyan’s Afghani’s, this time in silver, so I can have a higher-pitched  heavier pair. It worked as a charm, however I will always be grateful to Yael for this special touch of belly dance history.

Cutouts are ready!

Here is a tutorial on how to attach a circular trim with cutouts onto a circular skirt. All of the thumbnails are clickable, and if you click on the bigger picture it will open up the original file, big enough to see the details.

Fitted hip-length yoke with a zipper

I modified my double veil pattern for the circle skirt.

Traced adornments lines with hubby's help!

Started decorating with ribbons

Added a row of silver mesh, it took me one hour to finish!

To be continued…

Basic Pattern – Front and Back

Constructing your basic pattern from scratch takes a lot of time. Once you are done don’t cut it out but transfer it to another paper or plastic.

Pattern Cutouts

Use transparent plastic to transfer your basic pattern. It’s easier to transfer, pin to fabric and store. I used IKEA shower curtain ($1.5)…

First Fitting – Front

Use cheap cotton fabric to adjust your pattern. Gotta love those whales…

First Fitting Continued – Side View

First Fitting Continued – Back View

Fitting and Modeling

Use the dummy to model the neck line, the sleeves, etc. and modify your pattern according to the new adjustments

The underskirt and the bra
At the performance I wore the skirt and the bra from my "vintage" costume that I made about a year and a hlf ago.

Ghawazee Coat in Action

p.s. On my way back I decided to go through Istiklal Caddessi and just as I turn onto it I hear a deep smoky voice shouting “Siya SiyaBend CDs, Siya SiyaBend CDs, only 20 Turkish lira”. That was no else than Murat Bızon, Siya Siyabend soloist. We chatted a little and I scraped my pockets for my last 11 lira of the day.

And off I go to Sulukule.

After the class with Reyhan I decided to go to Pierreloti, a cute oasis in the residential neighborhood of Eyüp. It is named after a French writer Pierre Loti who had special affection for Istanbul coffee houses. Since I took a bus from G.O.Paşa I couldn’t find the Teleferik (a cable car) so I climbed to the top of the hill and was rewarded with the most beautiful view of the Golden Horn and a portion of manti. I lingered at the restaurant for about an hour giving my sore feet a good rest. Taking the teleferik down didn’t feel as stupid as I expected it to be thanks to the view.
After Eyüp I headed to Unkapani, an industrial zone that hosts a whole building full of music distributors who sell CDs and DVDs in wholesale prices. I stopped at 5 with no luck for Ahırkapı Büyük Roman Orkestrası (but no fear, I got later this week on Istiklal!!!).

Click on the picture for large view with explanations(695KB)