Bad figure skating costume

Hey! Someone knit that horrendous looking headband. Back when my girls did a wee bit of figure skating, I always wanted to find a way to incorporate knitting into one of their costumes, but that is not what I had in mind.

No, my girl's aren't skating anymore, but I'm still a fan of figure skating. In their defense, bad costumes have their place, as it gives us low brow folks something to talk smack about.

Hair Flowers

When I was a little (roller) skater there were very talented parents who made these gorgeous hair accessories for their skating daughters. And there were crafty moms who also sold their hair accessories at contests too. We all liked to look at all the pretty flowers and hair ribbons. Now, I'm not saying mine are equal to those I remember, but I did try to emulate the flowers from my  memory.

Well, now that these are done, I'm finished with the girls' skating costumes.

Dress on Ice

The dress had it's test run today. It passed. The head coach (well, the most senior coach in the rink) liked it too. So we're green light, go for coach approval. Yes, I do worry that they won't like my dresses.

NY NY dress

The back of the dress

At the last contest, the little sister sat quietly in the stands just watching. There were so few skaters in the beginning levels that I thought it was kind of silly I hadn't bothered to enter her into the contest too. She too would likely win a medal for just having shown up...and that might help her get over her feelings of being left out.

So our coach is working with her a little each week and she's going to skate to NY NY at the next contest.

I had this fabric on hand and since everyone in NY wears black...all the time, it was clear the dress should be black. Then I decided to look at dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn for inspiration, because I wanted a "classic" look. I saw a few "Breakfast at Tiffany" styled dresses I liked, but decided that this dress had to have sleeves, and I didn't want to fuss with a zipper. So I came up with a simple off the shoulder scooped neck and back get up. The fabric shines on it's own, so I just embellished the shear and neck line with beads.

Last night I finished her dress and beaded it up. I just have to come up with hair accessories for both girls and this season's dresses (maybe we can eek out two seasons again ;) will be done.

New Contest Dress

This is the dress! I've been working on this "classical" polka concept for a while. The music is Tritch Tratch (chit chat) polka by Johann Strauss...and I just love how everything is coming together! My daughter and her coach worked on the first part of the program today...and I'm just tickled pink! I just don't think I could get tired of ever listening to this piece and watching her skate to it. I'm happy with how the dress has turned out thus far.

This afternoon, I'm working on the beads.

And then, I have another dress to make up for her sister when I'm finished...and will have to start this all over again.

Practice Dress

I made this practice dress about a week ago. It was mostly so I could see how the new pattern I bought worked for my daughter's body type. Of course, it needed to be tweaked, but it's easier to buy a pattern and then tweak it, then to try and draft my own pattern. So I needed to start with a practice dress.

Maybe one day I'll be good enough at design and sewing to draft my own patterns from scratch. I'm self taught, so I learn something new with each project.

skate dress time

 I really was milking it when I got two seasons out of the last dress I made for my daughter. Alas, she's too big for that dress now (nearly popping the seams), and it's time to craft another one. Thus, the planning has begun! I'm kind of nervous. I hope I can pull this one off.  

Old dress, new dress

Last week the girls wore their "pretty" dresses for skating. Charlotte's coach wanted to see how her dress would look on the ice. Felicity just didn't want to be left out.

I've since finished the beading on the sleeve cuffs.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya!

Tomorrow, You're only a day away... and now the dress is mostly finished. Just a few finishing touches and this season's skate dress will be done.

Boy's skates...girl's skates

Skates are expensive! So when one sibling grows out of his skates, and his younger sister could use them (cause she's complaining her skates are too tight)...well, girls can wear black skates. Of course, there's a relatively easy fix for black skates. Boot covers!

Pretty pretty boot covers! They go with her pretty dress. So here you go, my first sewing from the new house. The dress was mostly done, but I had to alter the neck line (it was coming up too high) and finish the elastic in the legs.

Pixie Dust!

This years Halloween challenge is complete, for one child at least. Tinkerbell does seem to suit her personality. The skates are just sort of my whimsical addition, we'll probably leave those at home on Halloween night.

I've not seen wings that look right. I don't think she'll notice if we never find them either. We still have a pink pair from the last two years, which I'm certain would be sufficient.

Fun side Project Update

I've been working...no, that's not accurate....I've been doing other things and not working on my daughter's snow white costume. Today I put the practice costume together real quick before we headed out to town for her Skate lesson. This is just the practice dress, to help inspire her during practice. The fancy one will have shimmer fabric and puff sleeves.