Reves Mecanique: Burning Man, sequins and faux fur!

Dust tornado

Last August we went to the Burning Man festival (amazing experience!).

One of the principles of the festival is gifting. Which made me think, what can I contribute to the festival that is unique and is something I really want to share with other people?

I decided to make sparkle bikini tops! After a quick trip to the fabric market I made 18 bikini tops, after which I could no longer stand to see blue sequined fabric.. But all the girls were very happy with them, I wore mine all the time. Only my sister didn't wear hers, but I think she's not really a sequined kinda girl.

Lots of sequins!

Me and my sister

Our decorated bikes and sequined shorts that I made

We also had to think about our outfits, so that involved more sequins and some faux fur as well. Me and my sister made faux fur capes for at night, very nice and warm! I got some zebra print faux fur with pink sequined fabric, my sister went for bumble bee faux fur with blue sequined fabric. I think the people at the fabric market were really wondering what we were going to do with all those crazy fabrics.

Spot the dogs..

My sewing machine wasn't really happy about the combination of faux fur and sequins that had to be sewed together and I had to sacrife quite a lot of needles!

We added L-wire to the capes and vest, so we would be visible in the dark

Offcourse there were more sparkly things to be made, another bikini top, shirts and shorts! When I have a good excuse for sequins there is no stopping me!

Working on our capes and my bikinis in the hostel

Amazing things happening in the desert

Very romantic Titanic scene

Fabric shopping with my sister in San Francisco

We wanted to use spandex to create our shade structure, it was quite difficult to find in San Francisco, I wished they would have had a Spandex House there instead of New York..
In the end we found what we were looking for and our shade structure turned out quite nicely!

Our little camp

It was an amazing experience, the first days were tough, because of the heat you become dehydrated very quickly and my body had some difficulty adjusting to that. But after 2 days everything was fine and I felt very good! Especially at night when everything lightens up it really is a magical place.

I also found it very cool to see how everybody dresses and how creative people are, making a stranded pirate ship in the middle of the desert? No problem! A giant octopus which throws flames at the rhythm of the music? It's there!

We met lots of super cool people, some even from Australia, with whom we shared lovely breakfasts, cocktails and laughs. After a couple of beers I promised one of them a fanny pack made from the faux fur that we had on our bikes. When I got home I started thinking, how do you even make a fanny pack?
So I analyzed my own and started cutting into the faux fur. I did have to redo the zipper once, but I think it turned out quite nicely. I even added an interior pocket which I made out of cotton with mushroom print that I got on Spoonflower. We then made a nice suprise package and sent it to Las Vegas! He was very happy with it and I've already seen a lot of Facebook photo's of the fanny pack being worn! :)
On another note, I need to stop making strange promises to people about sewing for them, I promised my sister I would make her a bathing cap that would keep her dreads dry. hmm..