a different kind of post!

Instead of showing my current quilting projects, this post is going to be about some of the Irish Dance Dresses I've made over the years. 

My stepdaughter started dancing when she was 9, after seeing the Riverdance video (she is now 21).  She was bound and determined that she was going to dance like Jean Butler (the lead female dancer).  After a bit of searching and a few false starts, she found a school where she was happy.  For the first few years she danced in a white blouse and black skirt with an embroidered cummerbund, but as she progressed through the levels, the need for a competition level costume grew.  Now these dresses were not cheap (some of these dresses cost in excess of $3000 dollars!), but me being the cheap soul that I am, and quite used to fashion sewing, figured I could make one for her and save us a bundle of money!  If you have never seen one of these dresses, at that time the skirts were very rigid - in fact the first several dresses I made have rigid steel braces sewn into the front of the skirt to keep the panels flat and straight!  These provided a fair bit of challenge in trying to figure out how to make them, but I persevered, and this was the result. 

sorry its such a small picture

In making the first dress I learned a lot, and figured I had to try making another.  Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of that one, but it didn't end there.  I made one for a friend of her's

and then she decided to try designing them herself (she was 15 at this point).  Here's the first one she designed

 

and a few progress shots while I was making this one

We progressed on from there, with seemingly, a new dress each year as she continued to grow. From this point on the dresses made were her own original designs, which she would draw out on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and give to me and say "make this one!" Always being up for a challenge, I continued to accept. Here are the ones that followed. Luckily, her growth spurt had ended and I only had to make one every two years or so. 

If you think they are garish, you are not alone! I've always described them as Disneyland meets Las Vegas, and they are generally not combinations that I would put together! The ones we made are tame, by many accounts! As the years passed the styles changed, more sequins, more bling, more colours, until now they are actually much simpler designs, softer skirts, easier to make, but now covered in rhinestones! I make the dress - I leave the bling to SD!

and then finally, this is the last dress I made - this one has been completely remade two times now as it was intially made with mutton leg sleeves and a white bodice.  It was determined after wearing it in one competition that there was too much white and the sleeves were too puffy, so the bodice had to be re-done, to minimize the amount of white.

I think I have one last dress in me, although I probably have the fabric for several more! but SD is winding down her competitive dancing, and will only have half a dozen or so competitions over the next year, and no requirement for additional dresses.  It has been a fun learning experience, and has served to greatly improve my confidence and ability to figure out how to make something and have it fit well.

Sorry for such a long post, next one will be back to quilting, I'm sure!

Cheers,

J