Bata de Cola Pattern
Because it's so hard to find a bata de cola dress ready-made, I'm often asked for help on how to make your own.
Unfortunately, making a bata de cola dress is not for the faint-hearted. Even my regular flamenco dressmaker, who makes wonderful ruffled flamenco dresses, finds them difficult. Getting the fall of the ruffles right is a challenge, even for an experienced seamstress!
If you're determined to give it a try, this Folkwear pattern (right) is the only bata de cola pattern that I know of. Although it's not designed by a flamenco professional, the basic shape is there.
However, as you can see from the photo, the front is very short. You must adapt the pattern to make the front and sides longer, because you can't control the cola if you can't reach the hem with your foot.
You'll need to make the cola longer too, and add stiffening.
A good guide is that the back seam from your waist to the tip of the cola should be roughly equivalent to your height.
Folkwear Bata de Cola Pattern on eBay
 Flamenco Dress Practice Skirt Folkwear Pattern xs XL  US $19.95
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 Flamenco Dress Practice Skirt FOLKWEAR Pattern USA Mehrgrößenschnittmuster US $26.18
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Bata de Cola
Flamenco dancers use the words bata de cola to refer to both a dress and the dance it's worn for.
The bata de cola is a dress with a long train - if it's white, it can look rather like a ruffled wedding dress! At first glance it looks like a "feria" dress - the dresses worn for the Seville fair, which are too tight around the legs to dance properly in. However if you look closely, you'll see the ruffles start above knee level, giving enough room for the legs to move. And you need to move your legs a lot in this dance, not just to do the steps but to move the train around!
A well-made dress will have a train with enough stiffness to stay spread out at all times. A soft train may look easier to handle but it's actually more difficult - and it also looks less impressive. Look closely at this clip and you'll see the choreography is restricted to allow for the fact that the train won't fly properly:
Now compare with this clip:
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