Hi I am wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of somewhere to look to purchase age appropriate skating competition dresses for my daughter who is 4, almost 5.
Everything I have seen on eBay is too 'old' for a 4 year old. I cant seem to find anything that's suited to this sort of age group, rather than say more the young girls around 10 - teen.
Any suggestions gratefully received because we have our first comp in a month!

It is hard to find skting dresses that aren't too revealing for ANY age. I'm guessing the pro shop at your rink doesn't have any dresses in her size. Still, it doesn't hurt to browse the racks.

Take a look at the ISI or USFSA events website - if there's a competition going on near you, there are usually vendors selling a variety of dresses.

If you (or a friend/family member) sew, a lot of people recommend the Quiksew patterns. Vogue used to have a good pattern for a skating dress, but I haven't seen it in their books for a while.

Mondor and Capezio sell skating dresses that are modest, although they're not cheap. You can check out the styles online. Many people have said that the sizes run small, so order appropriately if you can't try the clothes on before purchasing.

Finally, dance clothing stores occasionally have skating dresses as well. If you don't see what you want, ask if they can order something for you.

Also, keep an eye on Ebay - things turn up all the time.

Good luck!

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Hi, my daughter had her first competition when she was 5 and I did find a simple velvet (velour?) dress at ebay. I think I spent about 35 with shipping, a great deal. If you look at ebay try to also look at the "ebay stores" sometimes they offer better stuff but they are "buy now" options only (not bidding). Another place that I like and sells dresses less than 50$ is the http://www.tidewaterice.com/custom_connection.htm
My daughters favorite is the baby blue dress towards the end of the page. For these young competitions I prefer long sleeve, simple dresses. My daughter's teacher also said that you can buy a dance leotard and just add a skirt but I thought that would look too "thin". I kind of like the velvet on ice. If you are set in crystal you could buy the simplest velvet dress you find and then buy crystal from your local craft store and sew them in. That way you save lots of money...I also bought her dress one size bigger and she wore it for 2 seasons. If you find a sleeveless dress you like you can always add a wool shrug (sp?) for warmth. The market is full of the cuttest (beads and all) shrugs for girls these days. The rings that my daughter competes are usually cold so we have to be cautious....

There is an ebay store named tardsandtights which usually has nice ducks crossing dresses. I would also suggest the Jerry's skate line, you can find their dresses on most online skate stores.

The other ebay stores that I have used are Valo456 and dance essentials.
I have never had a problem with either of theses sellers.

Good Luck.

If you are interested I have several dresses that my daughter has grown out of. If you PM me with your email address I can send you some pictures if you like.

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Luckey

Thanks for your suggestions I will go off and check them all out now.

Isk8NYC - the 'pro shop' at our rink can hardly be called that at all - it's a tiny dingey room with a couple of pairs of skates, some soakers and laces - no dresses. In fact the chair they have you sit on to try on your skates is all ripped and horrid ... nothing like what a 'pro shop' should be!

Unfortunately that's one of the perils of living in Australia - nothing is as good as in the States!

luckeylasvegas, I will send you a pm with my email just to check it out anyway!

Thanks

We have pro shops like that, and rinks without pro shops at all. There's an opportunity! You have my sympathy. Good luck with your daughter's dress and competition.

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I agree with ebay, you really can find some nice things for small kids. Most of the stuff we have has come from ebay.
http://www.customskatewear.com/gallery.php
Check out pics 50, 52,53,54,58,62,
This is some costume things, but the prices are just like stock dresses.

I like tidewaterice.com and valo456 on Ebay... not sure whether they ship to Australia but would be worth a try. I had one of my competition dresses shipped from Hong Kong...

Wow, I want 55 for myself!!! Thanks for the link.

Look at www.skatingdress.com. She does lots of darling dresses for little girls. She also makes reasonably priced custom dresses. The designer is in Canada, but we are in the US and have worked with her successfully long-distance a couple of times on custom dresses. We have also bought a few of her stock dresses.

We have used her for more than a year and are VERY happy, both with price and how the dresses look.They are perfect fit too !!!

The Jerry's catalog (which you can also find at skate-mart.com) has a lot of little girl dresses, mostly long sleeve velvet

I have also purchased dresses from "tardsandtights" on ebay for my daughter who is now 5. The prices are very reasonable and my daughter also wears them for "dressup" around the house. Although the seller is from Oregon and I live in Canada, the shipping charges are very low and as long as I only order one dress at a time, I don't get charged any duty by the canadian government. Most of the dresses start at size 6X, but occasionally you can find dresses size 3-5.

I tried searching for tardsandtights last night while I was browsing eBay but it said that it wasn't a valid name and no similar names came up? Are there any underscores or anything else in the name at all?

I sent the page to your email address. Let me know if you didn't get it.

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Luckey

Thanks Luckey - had the name wrong way about! It's tightsandtards, not tardsandtights

I did the same thing before so the next time I found them I made sure to bookmark them. I'll send you one more that I just got for my daughter.

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Luckey

I had a quick look through and to be perfectly frank, none of their stuff really takes my fancy. I mean some of the stuff is nice but I wouldn't put her into a competition in it. Since this is her first comp I want her to have a beautiful dress! You know, one that everyone says "oh how adorable!" LOL

I just checked and I thought there were some cute dresses in TheCostumefairy's Ebay store.

http://www.skate-mart.com/catalog/jerrys1.shtml