I'm trying to save some money on my figure costume, and I recently came across some rather attractive winter cocktail dresses on sale that I thought--hey! if the skirt was shorter I could wear that! Then I thought. Hey! I've got cocktail dresses I never wear any more!
So my questions:
1. Is there more involved than just shortening the skirt? I mean, there's going to be a lot of fabric cut off, I could probably do just about anything with that.
2. The whole panties in public (PIP) thing. Can I just pull on some dance pants over a pair of skating tights and be done with it?
3. Is this somehow 'not good practice?' Does it look funky on the ice? Mind you I'm nearly 60, so the whole beaded, illusion fabric thing, is not my style. I just want some simple dresses for tests, and when I look at the dresses on the skating sites, there's nothing there for the 'mature' skater.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Well, depends whether you plan to show the knickers to anyone.

Do you fall often in such way that the skirt ends up around your neck?
Do you do some lifts where your legs go up?

If none of the above apply, I think you are safe. Who would know? Choose the same colour of knickers with the dress. I have done skating test in my black (non skating) skirt and over the thights I put bottom from my bikini (swim suit bottom). Although the test had plenty of spirals in it, no one knew that it is not skating skirt. (I took the skirt and those bottoms for practice before the test and my coach examined it thorougly and she was happy that no one would know).

Thanks for the advice hanca.
I've learned here from the forum that my figure costume needs a skirt shorter than an ice dance skirt. and while it's not my intention to show my knickers to anyone, with a short skirt, obviously anything can happen. One likes to do
'prior planning to prevent problems'. I assumed dance pants would be okay. I just wondered if maybe the fabric was better to match the skirt (e.g. velvet skirt-velvet briefs).

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Be careful of putting velvet briefs under a velvet skirt. Depending on the cut of the skirt and the direction of the nap, you may have a problem with the skirt hanging up on the briefs.

I've got a dress for skating, black, that I just put black hotpants under from an underwear store. Looks fine. Do find pants with a very, very high waist though, and a dress with a low waistline and certainly NOT an empire line!

If the dress you're shortening is not 4-way-lycra but a more ruffable or running material (think tricot, certain types of 2-way stretch lycra, certain half-seethrough skirts, cotton, linen, silk, satin) then you'll need to trim and lock the hem as well.

or you could wear a leotard the same or similar color underneath!! That way if the skirt of the dress does happen to fly up too much it really wouldn't matter.

As it happens I just did this! A gal we know entered a local skating competition and did not have an appropriate dress for the ice dance event. Another friend got hold of an older full-length evening dress with a black velvet princess-seamed top and a long green skirt of something which was not quite taffeta and talked me into redoing the dress so that the competitor, who really could not afford another dress, could wear it for the dance event. It was just like Project Runway or something! I pinned the dress up on the woman at the rink and then cut it to dance length at home and serged the bottom with decorative threads in a contrast color, then cut sequined chiffon panels the same length as the skirt, two for the front and two for the back, and hand-tacked hem on. It had to be totally finished and ready to wear in four days so I didn't get to redo the sleeves but it looked pretty good! I suggested high-waisted black panties of some kind or the other but didn't have time to make them.
I think you could do something similar with a lot of cocktail dresses, although you probably don't need the chiffon for a figures dress. Some of the Jalie patterns come with panty patterns or you could just use the panty portion of a skating dress pattern.
When I checked Google images of skaters doing compulsory figures, though, it looks like they mostly wore short skirts with a sweater or a long-sleeved plain skating dress, sometimes with white collar and cuffs. Kind of a neat look.

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I've remade on-sale formals into skating costumes for my daughter. Usually I build a leotard and attach it underneath the dress instead of using separate dance pants. Often that means only the bottom part of the leotard, attached under the bust or at the waist depending where the seam is - we're usually trying to get a particular strappy top when we do these alterations. Sometimes I do the top part of the leotard, too, out of illusion fabric, so I can tack the strappy top of the dress in place. Depending on the cut of the dress, the skirt may be too narrow when you cut off the length. This happened with one floor-length dress we cut off. I opened up the back seam from the hem almost up to the waist and inserted a triangular gusset so that the skirt would have more flow. It ended up working qute well, and was actually cheaper than making the dress from scratch would have been (it was a heck of a clearance sale!).

I use cheap disco dresses with a flesh-coloured leotard underneath. But I have been known to use ordinary dresses/skirts - I probably will for our current free dance; haven't quite thought about the costume yet.

What I wear to keep my tights up is black Sloggi magic knickers! Works a treat, and dark underneath (I do have a white pair for when that is more appropriate) is usually good. I would post a link, but they have one of those wretched sites that's all flash and doesn't link properly!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Most of the kids at the rink do this now for their interpretives. They wear black booty shorts mostly all the time to skate with, so it's no big deal to put a semi-formal dress on top.

Just watch the proportions, sometimes the dress looks funny when the skirt is too short.

I've seen some beautiful skating costumes from dresses.
Have fun.

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So long as you can move in the dress - so long as the dress has enough stretch or otherwise allows enough movement in the back, arms, legs, etc., I see no reason why you can't do this. Obviously, do a "technical dress rehearsal" before the real test - wear the dress on the ice in advance of the event, and run through your dances and etc. to make sure it works.

As others said, the easiest thing is to wear a leotard underneath, or else some sort of dance or gymnastics panties.

Press ctrl + alt + print screen (PrtSc) to make a picture of what's on screen, then paste (ctrl + V) it into any image editor such as Paint, save it, upload it to www.imageshack.us and post the picture here

Yeah, i just purchased recently a smashing seafoam halter sequined dress. The sequins were a part of the fabric so it will not pose a problem. I am having my seamstress lady cut it off, and put slits in the sided b/c it is a slim fit, and she will attach panties into the lining somehow. The very expensive original dress only cost me about $4 and maybe $15 for altering.

I will skate to "These Boots are Made for Walking" - saved a bundle!

You just gave me such a great idea, I have the perfect one! AND I got it at a thrift store in the first place...wow!

*runs to closet*

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

A lot of skaters are buying cheap cocktail dresses and wearing them for dance tests with swimsuit bottoms or whatnot underneath.

I was actually just contemplating this idea today. I bought this awesome royal purple Calvin Klein cocktail dress for my law school ball next weekend. I'm probably going to wear it when I test the Starlight. I might have my mom just whip up a sleeveless bodysuit with purple lycra on the bottom and nude mesh from the bust up to give a little more back/clevage coverage (dress is a halter and might get drafty ) That way I can wear this under the dress, but if I'm not destroying the dress from the sense I can't wear it to another formal event off the ice.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

If your dress is open enough on top to fit into through the top of the dress (instead of through the bottom) then you can attach panties on hand with a blind/invisible stitch, slightly zig-zagged to allow for stretch when you pull the dress on. The essence of a blind stitch is to grab only two or three threads from the fabric and then dive back under the fabric where it won't be seen, only to re-appear a finger's width away or half of that, again grab 2 or 3 threads from the fabric and then dive back under again.

Sessy--

Is there ANYTHING you don't know something about?(computers, sewing, stretching for skating, how many languages...???)

Both of my dresses for solo dance at ANs were purchased from a regular dress manufacturer, and I'm going to wear a matching leotard underneath. It is insanely inexpensive this way - roughly $30 for each dress and $12 for each matching leo, both of which I can wear to practice later.

Thanks. I'm good at many things, but I'm not REALLY good at anything, really.
Not to mention I'm socially inept at times Especially when it comes to little children.