Ladies' Ice Show Costumes

And finally we have...the women's costumes

 from the Coram Deo 2012 Ice Show.

This dress was inspired from Liesl's dress in "The Sound of Music".
Using a pattern from this web site http://www.edelweisspatterns.com/patterns1.php ,  I made some  alterations to the dress that flatter a figure skater.

Here's what I did:

• used crepe and chiffon, which added an extra flow and ease to the dress.
•  shortened the dress by about a foot.
•  excluded the top ribbon on the dress and just sewed on a bow.
•  took out the puffy sleeve and made a draping / breezy sleeve with a lettuce hem.
•  put in an invisible zipper.
•  lined the yoke
• changed the neck line shape from square to a rounded scoop

Here is a picture of just some of the material consumed by this project.
Shown here are 11 bolts of material and ribbon.

Being a designer/seamstress for a project like this is so fun, especially when I get to see the finished product on someone. Here I am straitening out an outfit before "show time"!

 She's ready to roll!

Here is a sketch of the dress with my alterations.
 Excuse the scribbling, it's straight out of my design book.
I didn't end up following my sketch exactly, 
but I followed most of it.

THE ICE DANCERS
(or at least some of them)

Spring Cleaning for One-New Wardrobe for the Other

Since friends know I love to sew/design, I receive lots of unused material and notions. Quite often I'll be given ready cut out patterns which were never completed. The pictures bellow show one of these such stories and how I made, "one man's trash into another man's treasure"! 

Materials and their Origin:

• Vest- Simple 70's vest pattern cut out but never sewn
• Vest Buttons- Cut off an old ragged sweater
• Vest Lining- From a trash bag full of scrap materials
• Shirt- Made from material intended for a summer dress but never completed
• Shirt Buttons- Cut from a man's old work shirt                                                           

What I added

• Celtic knot theme
• Side pockets
• Embroidered Celtic tree of life

Google images are great! I can type in any design and have a  picture of it pop up in seconds. Here's  a picture of the tree design I used on the vest. Obviously I didn't follow it exactly, but I never did like coloring within the proverbial "lines".

                                                                               

My intention was to create a correlation between the swirly design on the buttons and the shirt's material pattern with the Celtic tree of life design on the vest back. 

            

 

                                                                                         

This latest creation now resides with my friend and design "guinea pig", Anna.