Finished Object: 2012 Figure Skating Dress

Ok, I figure it is about time to post my finished skating costumes from this year - I started working on these at the end of March, and finished everything at the end of July.  I won't be posting a lot of the outfits I sewed, since a majority of them were for other people, but I can at least show off the costumes I made for me!  Since these outfits took about four months of sewing time, I figured I would milk them for as many posts as I could, so expect to see a lot of skating costumes over the next few days.

I thought I would start off with my figure dress for this year.  I wanted to go for a really classic look - the skating equivalent of a LBD - but I used a textured stretch velvet to hopefully keep it from being too boring.  While the execution is not 100% where I wanted it to be, and it took me several tries to get s dress I was happy with, I eventually ended up with a great dress.  It is super comfortable and easy to wear, and I really love it.

My figure dress at nationals.

I wore it for two of my events.

Here is a picture of the back.

A close-up detail of the beading.  (Photo courtesy of my sister)

I wish the texture of the fabric was easier to photograph - it is a nice textured velvet that has a silvery sheen and creates a wavy diamond pattern.  I have had it in my stash for a few years, and it finally felt like the right time to use it.  I used the velvet for the main body and the skirt, a thin lycra for lining, and illusion mesh for the neck and sleeves.  I used plain Swarovski sew-on rivoli crystals on the neckline, and glue-on Czech Preciosa stones in plain crystal (30ss and 20ss sizes) to create the bands.  I used Preciosa hematite stones to fill in the spaces between the large stones.

So, that's my figure dress!  I wanted something simple, elegant, and classic.  It ended up looking pretty much the way I wanted, and I really enjoyed wearing it.  Overall I am very pleased with this dress, and I hope to wear it a lot in the coming year.