Hi everyone-
I'm skating in my first freestyle competition in March to a Celtic/Rock jig - high energy, with lots of fiddle and drum. I've been looking for a dress, and have had limited success with finding something green. I was wondering if another color would also suit this type of music? Any thoughts? Or should I stick with green?
Thanks much in advance!

Where have you been looking? Most of the dressmakers (Sharene, GK, etc.) usually have a wide variety of colors for each dress. Also, have you looked on eBay? They have some good dresses.

Other colors you could look for might be black/gold (more gold than black), white and green, possibly a blue or purple. As long as the style and crystalling match the type of music, the color doesn't have to be absolutely perfect (try finding a plain dress and crystal yourself if you know how, that will save you some money and you could do some Celtic designs with the crystals, maybe, if you can't find the green you want).

Good luck!

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

My problem is that I'm looking for something with sleeves (my adult arms aren't as tight as they used to be!) and something already beaded/crystalled since I've never done it before. I've found a few greens, but I was wondering if a deep wine color or maybe even black with green crystals would be appropriate.
I think I'm just hitting a blank with what a 'celtic' dress should look like, without looking like a leprechaun.

Del Arbour definitely has a couple of dress styles that would work for what you are wanting. Check under "custom" for C8, C13, C14. They will even stone the dress for you for added cost (above the cost of the basic dress).

The other possibility is to get a plain dress and see if there's a rink mom at your rink who can stone the dress to be "Celtic" for a small fee. Usually there's at least one rink mom at every rink who has a Bejeweler and a stash of hot-fix Swarovski stones.

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A dark jewel green or black sounds good to me, but I'm not partial to reds myself. I remember that the Riverdance show on Broadway had a lot of black costumes. What about attaching a sequined green scarf/sash to a black dress if you wanted color? Just make sure it can't come loose or get in your way - dress rehearsals are mandatory.

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Have you tried looking at some of the irish dancing dresses that there are on the web to get an idea of what colours they use? They're very intricate and brightly coloured from what I remember (I found them whilst looking for dance dresses), that might give you some ideas as to what would go with the music. And Irish doesn't have to be green. Orange is a very Irish colour as well (think flag colours).

I'm definitely leaning towards dark green or black with green. It's slimming as well, and with my curvy top half that's important! (along with the ability to wear a decent bra underneath - hence my bit of difficulty in finding a dress, period)

Thanks for the Del Arbour site advice, as well - I hadn't realized that I could customize designs like that. I'll play around with some combinations.

I will also ask some of my rink moms about beading. I have such a pretty black velvet dress already, but it's completely plain and would really wash out on the ice. I wish I knew how to do it myself!

Ahhh, I've been skipping the 'dance dress' sections. I will absolutely take a look - thank you!

ETA - I think I misunderstood your post. Did you mean dresses for irish dancing? Not ice dance dresses with irish theme? I think I typed back too fast!

I second the recommendation of Del Arbour. I got a customized dress, based on a specific style but with a color that wasn't available in stock. It came pretty quickly (3-4 weeks, I think) and fit fine. The only problem was that the elastic around the neckline was a bit tight, but I talked to them and they said they could put a looser piece in, so I sent it back and they did it in about 3 days. And they didn't charge shipping to mail it back to me.

You might want to order a stock dress in the style you want to try on for size, though, since skating dress sizing is usually a bit different than clothing sizing. And (as I found out) lycra is a bit tighter than velvet (it doesn't have as much stretch) - so if you try on a dress for size that's in velvet and you're ordering one in lycra, keep that in mind.

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I sent you a private message. I tend to forget to check them so i just thouhght i would post so you could check

got them - thanks!

If you live on Long Island I'll bead it for you. I l-o-v-e doing it!! I would just ask you to buy the crystals. ejoyce.com has many and in wonderful colors. If you don't live on Long Island... well.. it's very easy. ejoyce.com also has the tool to apply the hot fix crystals. I think it's called a bejeweler? I have one. First I would practice on maybe a practice dress in case you make a mistake. The bejewler is about $20 bucks I think.

herniated - only one? One of my friends has 3 bejewelers....

I thought it was called a "bedazzler" and LizNY has a contraband one.

Much easier today - I had to hand-sew 150 rhinestones on my first skating dress. It was gorgeous, though. The dress disintegrated after 20 years, but I saved every stone in a tupperware container.

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Depends on which company you buy it from!

Since you asked for input, I'll throw something out there. Please don't wear black!! That just screams, "I'm an adult skater, and I'm trying to look slimmer!" It's kind of a cliche.

If you're not handy at stoning, perhaps you could buy a cheap piece of costume jewelry and attach that to a plain-looking costume to dress it up a tad. A large celtic looking pin at the neckline. Or a necklace or earring sewn to the neckline.

I'd buy a white one I like and dip dye it green going to black at the hem, or the other way.

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Yeah! I only have one. I should have another in case mine breaks while I'm working on a dress!

Hi,

The Bedazzler sets the stones in a regular prong setting while the Bejeweler uses the hotfix stones with the glue on the back. I think the Bejeweler is way easier to use. It's really fun to stone your own dresses.

Lwalsh

Thank you - I had no idea there were two different tools.

I love the idea of a green-fade-to-black dress. Any particular material, Fl o?

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A couple of years ago I had a dress custom made for me through Riversedge Dancewear. They offer Watercolors custom-dyed dresses, skirts and leotards, and you just send them a color sample of the exact shade(s) you want and they match them exactly. And their prices are really reasonable! For example, you could get this skating dress dyed in black-to-green (any shade of green you like). http://www.riversedgedancewear.com/watadrdr.html

You could also get a custom dyed black-to-green chiffon skating skirt (and "wings' on the shoulders if you like) attached to a black velvet leotard. That's what I did and it turned out great. Just make sure you talk to a real person when you order because the leotard sizing charts are off sometimes.

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Hi,
Lots of different fabrics will take the dye, depending on what type you use. I've painted and dyed velvet, silk, polyester and lycra cotton. The miliskin really takes dye well. I painted some fabric for Raye for a costume - blues.

You could also get a green dress and dip the hem in black dye. I did that with a blue one and made a shirt to match for my coach when we did a show together.

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What do you guys think of this one? This got my husband's vote...
http://www.figureskatingdeals.com/tr...0Dresses&id=66

I also really like the idea of that watercolor look - fade-dying from green to black.

And I will take the advice of NOT wearing all black - I like color, anyway!

Pretty dress - I like the sleeves. I think that green is too light to do the black dip-dye thing, though - maybe to a darker green instead of black? I agree with the comments regarding color - my last freestyle dress was purple. It was still a pretty dark color, but the judges always complimented it, I think because they were so happy it wasn't black!

HEY that's ME, as my husband rolls on the floor behind me laughing ... thanks for letting me/him know that I'm one of a species instead of just a singular and obsessive individual. He just thought I was incredibly weird ...

Personal record: 250 SS20 Rhinestones in 1 hour, Bejeweller, HotFix; can do 75 in an hour with glue and flatbacks, although the smallest ones break me after about 20 minutes.