Where to add stones to dresses?

[mamaskate]

I've been looking at skating dresses on the Sharene website. They offer the dresses with the option of adding different numbers of crystals. However, they don't show pictures of the different options.

Can anyone tell me what kinds of designs you get when you order 400+ crystals or just 100+ crystals?

I know I could do it myself, but I don't know what designs to do.

[BuggieMom]

The designs are still going to be basically the same as what is shown in the picture, just less or more. If a dress is pictured with a design at the neckline and stones scattered all over, the 100+ option will only have them at the neckline, not all over, and the 400+ option will have everything shown, just a bit more of it.

You don't have to stone the dress exactly as they have. Look around at different websites and see what catches your eye. It may be something completely different than Sharene has.

[Skittl1321]

Just a note, 100 stones is NOT that many. This dress (which I did myself with rhinestones instead of crystals because it's just for a local competition and i was trying to stay cheap) has 113 stones:
http://pics.livejournal.com/skittl1321/pic/0004kkff/

Now 100 crystals will add more sparkle than this dress has, because obviously cheap rhinestones lack that- but if you are wanting coverage, 100 isn't much.


Does Sharene allow you to stone your own dress? I know some custom skatewear designers do not.

[Sessy]

You get the most sparkle by getting bright-colored rhinestones from a good manufacturer like Swarovski and spreading them out not in a pattern but just over the entire area of the body with even distances between. Like a grid where the stones go at the cross-points of the lines of the grid.

Lots of smaller stones sparkles FAR better than less, but larger ones. Back in ballroom dancing, 1500 stones on a dress wasn't even that much and around a 1000 of those went on the bodice. You'll often achieve better sparkle and a more wash-friendly (and thus, resale-friendly) dress if you use sparkling glitter materials. Those are usually very expensive (at least the ones that don't look like they're made for halloween) so oftentimes only the sides or front/back of the bodice are cut from those and the rest is made from cheaper plain lycra. You end up with a cheaper end cost and more sparkle than using stones this way though, that's of course if you make it yourself, not sure about ordering.

[herniated]

Just remember - the more stones you put on the heavier the dress becomes. And, yes Sharene allows you to stone your own dresses. I agree with buggiemom regarding the placement of the stones and looking at other websites to get ideas.

Lately, I'm liking using stones that match the color of the dress.

[mamaskate]

I would assume that I can add stones to any dress that I buy, if I decide that I want more embellishment. I have used Swarovski crystals to embellish a couple of plain dresses, but my designs were simple and followed the lines of the dresses.

Would 400 stones really add a lot of weight?

What size stones would Sharene use, or would they put different sizes on one dress?

[coskater64]

400 stones won't add that much weight and even my dress with several hundred stones aren't that heavy, I average about 1000 stones on my dance dresses, but there is a lot of dress.

8O

[herniated]

I don't know... Most of my dresses have around 400 stones. If I use more than that it 'seems' heavy to me. But I'm really fussy about it. It also depends on the size stone I use. If I use 400 large stones, it's heavy!!

[jenlyon60]

400 size 20ss stones are not that heavy when scattered on a dress, or even if just neckline-outlined.

A lot of dance dresses have 8 to 10 gross (that's 1100-1500 stones) on them (longer skirt also).

I usually use 5-8 gross of stones on the pre-teen sized dresses I've stoned for friends. These are for kids competing Pre-Juv/Juv.

I personally don't try to match the color of the dress too closely because I find any effect can get lost in the "matchy-matchy" effect, but that's just me.

I will use some stones to match the dress, but I prefer having some level of contrast, perhaps a darker or lighter shade of the color of the dress mixed with crystal AB etc. For example, on a light blue dress I stoned for a friend of mine, I used a mixture of crystal AB, light sapphire AB, sapphire, dark sapphire and a very light blue (Light azure I think). The bodice was scatter stoned in a gradiated pattern, with a heavier concentration of stones near the waist, and very few near the shoulders/top of bodice. Also the part near the waist had more of the darker stones. This gave a bit of a gradiated color effect from a distance. The dress was a stock dress, so not convenient to take it apart to dip-dye.


Hyacinth AB and volcano are also really useful effect-coated stones.

[mamaskate]

[QUOTE=jenlyon60;355524]For example, on a light blue dress I stoned for a friend of mine, I used a mixture of crystal AB, light sapphire AB, sapphire, dark sapphire and a very light blue (Light azure I think). The bodice was scatter stoned in a gradiated pattern, with a heavier concentration of stones near the waist, and very few near the shoulders/top of bodice. Also the part near the waist had more of the darker stones. This gave a bit of a gradiated color effect from a distance. The dress was a stock dress, so not convenient to take it apart to dip-dye.
QUOTE]

That sounds beautiful! Do you have any pictures you could post?

[Sessy]

What's also REALLY cool is a black dress with the black diamond pyramid crystals on them. Unfortunately you need thausands of them to sparkle.

[sk8tmum]

And, like everything, stoning has to take into account the body inside the dress.

For example, if you are heavier in the hip and don't want to emphasize it, then, don't do a pattern that draws attention to the hip. The eye will get pulled to the sparkle; try putting the crystals on the upper reaches of the bodice.

Further ideas to slim/whatever: using stones in a vertical pattern (think vertical vs. horizontal stripes); not putting a ring of stones around a thicker waistline; not putting a ring of stones around the bottom of a skirt if you are heavier in the leg. If you have a tummy, then, be careful that the stones don't draw emphasis to it (unless you're fine with that).

I like using appliques or embroidered detailing, and highlighting them with stones; or, I use metallic thread (silver looks good on dark colours) to design an embroidered pattern with stones inset. The glitter of the thread works very well with crystals, and you get a really impressive result. For one dress, I wove a vine pattern of silver up the back of the dress, and created flowers with crystals; silver leaf-shaped sequins added to the vine effect, too. It saved me a lot of crystals, and it was incredibly pretty on the ice.

For straps, instead of using that regular stone-space-stone-space-etc pattern, I use stones in random sizes and random placement (scattering them about); you get a very shimmery play of light that changes as the skater moves; I use everything from those tiny ones that you can hardly pick up to about SS16 on the straps to get the effect.

And, my favorite tip (don't laugh, I saw it recently): please don't put a detail of stones on either side of the bodice of the dress that makes it look like the skater is wearing rhinestone-encrused pasties. Think about it, and you'll be able to visualize it - !8O

[Sessy]

Reminds me of this dress worn at the olympics by one of the youngest contestants, which was a colored dress with white panties. Seriously it looked like she'd put on her grandma's underwear on.

[BuggieMom]

I think I put about 7-8 gross of stones on my dd's latest FS dress, which is a childs size 8, and it *did* add some noticeable weight to it, but not massive amounts. On an adult size dress, I have added as much as about 10-12 gross and it didn't add a bunch more weight. Of course, I go a bit over the top sometimes!:lol:

I like the tone-on-tone look myself, especially if you want sparkle with out it being IN YOUR FACE sparkle. In the case of my dd's FS dress, it was a royal purple, and I used Crystal, Violet, and Amethyst, the last one was almost the same color as the dress. It has SO much sparkle, but it is not gaudy. If I knew how to post a pic, I would!

I agree w/sk8tmum...body type matters. One thing I try to avoid is lining the bottom of a skirt on a shorter, thicker body. It just stops the eye and makes the body look more compact than it is.

Pasties?!?! I gotta laugh!! I always worry about putting a rhinestone RIGHT THERE at just the right place to make it look like...ummm....the skater is a little too cold, ya know?!?8O

[jazzpants]

Here's the picture of the Sharene dress I was wearing with 300 stones (and they are 20ss stones...)

http://flickr.com/photos/jazzpants/2055450814/

I have 300 stones on my dress and I think it looks pretty plain to me. Sure, if you look closely you might see some of the stones along the outlines of the skirt, some between the velvet and the lace, and some scattered along the lace too), but there are no stones on the sleeves!!! What weighs me down was the fabric in which the dress was made off (in this case, it was velvet....)

[Sessy]

BugieMom, go to www.imageshack.us and upload your photo there from your computer ==> "browse", find it, select it, click ok/upload, then click "host it". Then when it's uploaded, you copy/paste the URL it gives you "for direct linking".

[BuggieMom]

Thanks Sessy!
Let see if this works...

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/2334/rhapsodyjb6.jpg

ETA: hey, it worked! *does happy dance*
The stone colors don't show up all that great, but you can see them fine in person.
The back is almost exactly the same, only lower.

[littlekateskate]

I love stones on nude sleeves. I think its beautiful! :) Your dress is awesome.

[twokidsskatemom]

Thanks Sessy!
Let see if this works...

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/2334/rhapsodyjb6.jpg

ETA: hey, it worked! *does happy dance*
The stone colors don't show up all that great, but you can see them fine in person.
The back is almost exactly the same, only lower.
great dress !! what is her music?

[herniated]

What's also REALLY cool is a black dress with the black diamond pyramid crystals on them. Unfortunately you need thausands of them to sparkle.

Hey, Sessy! where do you get 'black diamond pyramid crystals' I'm working on a black dress right now.

Buggie Mom! That dress is AWESOME.

[stacyf419]

If I may (hope this is not inappropriate on this board), I just had BuggieMom make me a custom dress for Adult Easterns. She's stoning it as I type this, and even without the stones it looked AMAZING!! I have never seen such nice work. Truly professional, and a pleasure to deal with. I highly recommend her.
And she didn't even pay me to say this! :lol:

[Sessy]

Hey, Sessy! where do you get 'black diamond pyramid crystals' I'm working on a black dress right now.

Buggie Mom! That dress is AWESOME.

Swarovski. Not sure if they're actually called pyramids.
We used to get them at a skate shop in Duisburg, Germany (it's called Tanzmaus I believe) where mom would drive once a year or so just to get stones (and sometimes, shoes). You had to order stones several months in advance there. Mom only did the black diamonds for a collar once like six years back though, she said it was too expensive to do the whole dress that way.

[doubletoe]

Hey, Sessy! where do you get 'black diamond pyramid crystals' I'm working on a black dress right now.

Buggie Mom! That dress is AWESOME.

I used about 900 Swarovski flat back "black diamond" crystals on the black velvet part of this dress (sorry, I'm slouching so it's hard to see how they lie on the dress):

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_6246402/1eee/__sr_/81c9.jpg?grIMfwHB4OQIoX7X

I remember looking through Skating magazine, seeing how the crystal pattern on Kimmie Meissner's dress suggested a corset, and I copied it.
http://www.championsonice.com/images/skaterimages/biomain_meissner.jpg

The good thing about the black diamond crystals is that they look like truly clear crystals when you put them on top of a darker color. The regular clear crystals look white, which makes them look kind of fake.

[herniated]

Thanks Sessy and doubletoe. I'm currently using Swarovski black crystal. Not sure if they are black diamond crystals. I have to check. They are completely black. And doubletoe you and your dress look beautiful!

Just checked, I'm using the 'jet' crystals not black diamond.

[airyfairy76]

I used about 900 Swarovski flat back "black diamond" crystals on the black velvet part of this dress (sorry, I'm slouching so it's hard to see how they lie on the dress):

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_6246402/1eee/__sr_/81c9.jpg?grIMfwHB4OQIoX7X

I love your dress doubletoe - is that a Watercolour dress?

[mamaskate]

I love the pictures of the dresses!

[doubletoe]

I love your dress doubletoe - is that a Watercolour dress?

Yes, it is!