How to Make a Jingle Dress Belt

A jingle dress is a type of ceremonial dress worn at many modern American Indian powwows. The jingle dress dance originated among the Ojibwe, and the dance is accented by the thousands of "jingles"' that adorn the dress. These can make the dresses and skirts heavy, so a jingle dress belt is a must to keep your costume in place while dancing. These ceremonial outfits can be highly traditional or less so, depending on what you want to use the costume for and also your role in the jingle dance. This jingle belt will help hold your jingle dress up and define your waist, but the instructions are designed for simplicity rather than traditionalism.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Wide leather belt
• Jingle dress
• Metal circles
• Fabric glue
• Metal shears
• Rag

1. Try the belt on with your jingle dress. Make sure that it will work with the style and pattern of the dress. Other than the metal circles that you will fix to the belt, any other patterns on the leather should conform to the patterns on your jingle dress.

2. Lay your metal circles out on the belt. They should be several inches apart from each other. The metal circles should have the same diameter as the width of the belt. If any of the circles do not fit on the belt perfectly, use the metal shears to trim them down to size. Position the circles so that they will not be in parts of the belt that will have to bend sharply. They should be mostly in the front and back of the belt.

3. Use the fabric glue to fix the metal circles to the belt. Use a glue that will work on leather. Use plenty of glue to be sure that the metal circles will hold. If any excess glue leaks out from under the circles then wipe it off quickly with the rag.

4. Let your jingle belt dry for 48 hours. Keep it in a warm, dry place. Once it is dry, you can practice wearing it with your jingle dress to be sure that everything stays in place before you wear it during a performance.

Tips & Warnings

• Many people like to decorate their jingle belts with conch shells or beading that matches their jingle dress. This is fine, but you do not have to have an elaborate jingle dress belt in order to dance, in most cases. Some people make a simple fabric belt out of the same fabric as their jingle dress. These blend in better with the dress, but do not alleviate the weight of the dress as much as a sturdier, leather belt will.

[Lakota99]

on 6/2/2009 Miigwetch!