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Tassel Belt Pattern for American Tribal Dancers

Make a tie-on hip belt with tassels that will stay up, stay together and look good for a long time.

... Cut on grain so it doesn't stretch;

... Shaped with simple darts to keep it on your hips;

... Lined to give it stage-worthy presence and to support tassels and fringe.

The short version

  1. Select a piece of fabric 4” shorter than your largest hip measurement and 1” wider than your maximum desired depth;
  2. Taper both short ends from the bottom so that the ends are 4” wide;
  3. Attach a lining and turn the belt, leaving the short ends open;
  4. Make the ties;
  5. Attach the ties at the open ends of the belt;
  6. Top-stitch the belt;
  7. Add darts at several points to create shaping and to give body to the belt.
  8. Make and attach tassels.
American Tribal hip belt with tassels

Design Considerations

Color: Color-coordinated fabrics, tassels and grosgrain ribbon make belt design easier. Black is a traditional and easy theme color for tribal belts.

Texture: Mixing incompatible textures will make the belt seem less professional and distract from the dancing.

  • Matte fabrics like cotton and linen may not match a metallic brocade;
  • Very shiny synthetic satin may not match a folkloric tapestry;
  • Tightly woven fabrics may not look good with loosely woven fabrics.
Less extreme versions of different textures are often compatible. For instance, silk charmeuse (which has a gentle shine to it) may work very well with a quality ikat fabric.

Pattern: A fabric with a woven-in design is often a good choice if you don't intend to ornament the belt body after sewing. Brockade, ikat and tapestry provide built-in designs.

Grain: This pattern is designed for a belt body, lining and ties cut on the grain, which means with sides running parallel to the selvage or to the weft (woven threads). Cutting on the grain makes for strength and stability; cutting off-grain will permit the fabric to stretch in uncontrolled and undesired ways. Experienced fabric artists can overcome a belt body cut off-grain by underlining and/or quilting to an underlining cut on the grain.

1. Select your fabric:

  1. The upholstery remnant table at your local or online fabric store is a good place to look for fabric, but be careful. You don't want to end up with a belt that looks like sofa upholstery.. If the pattern appeals, analyze how it will look on stage around your hips.
  2. Second-hand clothing stores sometimes have brocade or wool garments made of the perfect material. Examine the fabric carefully for wear before purchasing. Cut around worn spots, holes and stains.

Materials List

 Fabric for Body
width x length		 Fabric for Lining
width x length		 Fabric for Optional Underlining
width x length		 Fabric for Ties 1/4”
grosgrain		 Tassels Ornamental bead with 3/16” hole
A Tribal belt (with tassles) is often narrower than a Classic belt used in Egyptian or Turkish belly dance. This is to keep the belt from cupping under the buttocks, which reduces the potential movement of the tassels. However, some dancers go the other way and make a very wide belt. These instructions can be adapted to suit a wider belt. Elongate the slope of the belt front towards the back. Depending on the depth, you could end up with a belt hem that is almost entirely on a curve.
Tribal belt 6.5” x
(hip - 4”)		 6.5” x
(hip -4”)		 6.5” x
(hip -4”)		 10” x 42” 4 yds Depends. Try 1 per 3” length of belt. 1 per tassle

2. Taper the Ends to Shape the Body:

The goal: to shape the body and lining quickly and without a pattern. If your belt body needs to be underlined, do it now.
Mark the front slope on the belt using chalk or fabric pen.
  1. 7" width or less:
    Make a mark 4” down from the waist on each end;
    Make a mark 7” in from the side on each bottom;
  2. 7 - 9" width
    Make a mark 4.5” down from the waist on each end;
    Make a mark 10” in from the side on each bottom;
  3. Connect the marks with a smooth line and cut.
  4. Round the bottom of the cut into a smooth curve that extends towards the back center of the belt a bit.
Shaping the American Tribal tassel belt body

3. Shape and Attach the Lining to the Body

The goal: sew the belt body and lining together quickly and accurately.
  1. Optional: One inch from the top edge of the LINING, attach 1/4 - 1/2 " grosgrain to prevent any stretching at the waist.
  2. Right sides together, lay the shaped Body fabric on top of the lining fabric, lining up at the center top edges.
  3. Sew the TOP edges together using a 1/2” seam allowance, backstitching for strength at each end. Do NOT sew the short sides.
  4. On the bottom edge ONLY: trim the lining to match the Body shape.
Shape the tassel belt lining
  1. Right sides together, with the Body fabric on top, pin Body and Lining together at the bottom edges.
  2. Sew edges using a 1/2” seam allowance, backstitching for strength at each end. Do NOT sew the short sides.
  3. Turn right side out.
  4. Press flat.
Sew the tassel belt lining to the body

4. Make the Ties

Make two flat ties neatly and quickly by following the instructions in the Ties page. Make ties that are at least 18 inches long.

5. Attach the Ties

The goal: attach the ties to the belt quickly and neatly by stitching in a circle.
  1. Lay the belt on the table..
  2. Fold under the seam allowances at the ends, making an open circle at each end. Press and/or baste the raw edges in place.
  3. Insert a short end of a tie into each end.
  4. Pin or baste closed.
  5. Top-stitch the sides closed. I use a long narrow rectangle to flatten the enclosed seam allowances.
Add ties to tassel belt

6. Top Stitch the Belt

Goal: Neat topstitching that will emphasize the beauty of the belt and strengthen the seams.
  1. Make sure the belt is pressed with seams positioned properly.
  2. For the tribal belt: with the belt body facing up, run a seam from the middle of the finished end of one tie, across the top of the belt and the other tie, then down around and across to where you started. Recommend stitching no more than 1/3” from the edge.

7. Add darts

Goal: create exterior darts that will make the rectangular belt conform to your figure, be less likely to slip down while dancing, and maintain shape under stress.

These darts are not like the ones on dresses.

  1. You don't have to be exact (although you can if you want). You need a few generic darts added to curve the belt and add body.
  2. In dressmaking, darts are sewn before sewing the garment together. In this case, we sew the darts AFTER everything else is complete. This allows the bulk of the dart to act as self-boning, and also allows you to make adjustments in the future if required.
Mark dart position by dividing the the belt into eighths and pressing the folds. (It does not HAVE to be eighths -- but eighths seems to work well across a wide variety of sizes and materials.)
  1. Fold the belt body in half, with the lining side on the outside.
  2. Iron each half into half. This creates quarter-belt marks.
  3. Iron each quarter into half. Now you have eighths.
  4. Run a basting stitch down each fold to keep the fabric from shifting when you sew darts.
add darts to tassel belt
Pin and sew darts at folds 1, 3, 5, and 7 as marked on the diagram. The darts are 1/2” inch at the top and taper to 1/8” at the bottom. Because of the turn of the cloth, these four 1/2” darts reduce the belt waist size by 6”.

You can run the dart to the very bottom of the belt, or you can stop part way. Your choice.

If you want to have darts at points 2, 4 or 6, you can: but narrow the taper of the dart to 1/4 inch or you may end up with a waist that is too small. Unless, of course, that is what you are trying to do ... resize the belt for a smaller person.

As you make your darts, you will see your belt curving a bit. This is what makes it fit better.

Make and Attach Tassels

  1. Make tassels following the instructions at Farfesha.com.
  2. Think ahead about how you are going to attach the tassel to the belt and use the yarn, tie, shoelace, string, ribbon, whatever, that you plan to attach the tassel with in step number 2 when you are tying the strands together and before you wrap the neck. I call this tie the tassel lead.
  3. Threading a bead through the attaching string is a nice touch.
  4. Sew the tassel lead to the back of the belt at the desired spot(s).
tassels for American Tribal belt

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