My daughter is a figure skater and one of the things I have been doing lately is making skating dresses. I love doing them! They're a nice change of pace from quilts nad tuffets, and the fabrics are so fun and sparkly. I spend a lot of time making group costumes, but am wanting to do more individual costumes. Here's a simple black dress wth lots of Swarovski crystals. I have worked with crystals before, but not in this quantity. I have to say, it sure is FUN! This dress has cyrstals in clear, two shades of gray, and black.

Here is one of her skating; it's hard to get action shots with an iphone through smudgy rink glass! 

I was honored to make this dress for one of the skaters on the adult synchro team. She wanted the skirt a little longer so I added a strip of the velvet fabric with a slightly shorter strip of lace overlaid on top of it. The pattern is the Carmen dress from Jalie. I cant wait to see her skate in it!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated this blog. Shame on me! As I'm sure you know, when you get busy, some things fall to the wayside. This, sadly, was one of them. But taxes are done (yes, taxes were the culprit) and I'm back at it!

I made this little Lion King inspired skating dress for my youngest-ever client, who is all of five years old! I used some of the fabric from my daughter's synchronized skating team's dresses. 

So when I'm not teaching tuffets or other classes, I spend a lot of time making skating costumes! You might remember my previous post about the synchronized skating team costumes I made last fall. Since then I've been spending a lot of time teaching or at skating competitions. Right now I'm also making a few individual costumes. Here's Molly's friend who is skating to "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down" at a competition tomorrow:

She'll be wearing white tights at the competition and I think she'll look great! Of course, a can of Static Guard will have to be no more than ten feet away from her at all times! There are a couple of layers of tulle between a base layer of swimsuit lining fabric and a top layer of glissenette, which means there will be a lot of static.

Figure skating is a wonderful sport. It's fast, it requires artistry, and it's athletic. From a sewer's perspective, it also features gorgeous costumes. 

Everyone's familiar with figure skating, but are you familiar with synchronized skating? It's where teams of between 8 and 20 skaters perform routines in unison. Their skating creates shapes and formations that a single or pair simply cannot do. 

My daughter is a figure skater, but her real passion is synchronized skating. I've shown costumes that I've made before, but this year I made costumes for three teams -- 35 costumes in all! They made their competition debut this past weekend at the Dr. Porter Synchronized Skating Classic in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

I have been talking a LOT about tuffets on this blog, but that's really a recent development in my life. I'm about to get heavily into the other "side" of my sewing life, which is making skating dresses. Sadly, these aren't as photogenic in process and will take a long time, not to mention there is a bit of the element of surprise, especially for the skaters. So while you may not see them as much in the next several weeks, they will be happening in the background.

My daughter skates on her own, but her real love is Synchronized Skating. This is the fastest growing skating sport and we are hoping it becomes an Olympic event soon. I'm in the process of making costumes for at least three teams this season. So stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, my daughter skated in a competition this past weekend. The girl she skated against was on her Synchro team last year, and I made this 60s-inspired dress for her a couple of months ago.

And here is my daughter and her dress: