Fall Season Activities

For the past five years I have spent Thanksgiving weekend in Philadelphia at the Oireachtas. This year my daughter decided to take the year off! No competition for irish dance probably until the late Spring or Summer. It was a good decision for so many reasons. She will be competing in her Modern Dance for Amber Perkins School of the Arts, which has brought her so much happiness, and new challenges this year. We are looking forward to it, and after this year of dancing six days a week Tara believes that when she returns to irish competition she will be much stronger and happier for having taken a break.

I have been busier than ever with the sewing end of Irish Dance activities! That has made me quite happy as I’ve had some wonderful projects to work on. I’ve had some school costumes for two of the schools I sew for. While that is a repetitive task….I appreciate the steadfastness of knowing what to expect and producing a reliable costume. I make skirts for both of these schools, so it is also nice knowing that these costumes don’t require a full out wrestling match while trying to assemble all of their parts!!

I’ve also completed a darling AG solo dress for the cutest little dancer in the U9 age group!! With the expert help and workmanship of Ann Donahue we were really able to make a brilliant reproduction of this dancer’s dress.

Below is a lovely photo of the dancer. Although my photos don’t show the colors of the doll dress very accurately, they indeed are a very bright neon pink, white and black! Ann did the digitizing and stitching out of the bodice and sleeves! What a great job she did too. I was speechless when they came in the mail. I did the sewing of the skirt, back of bodice, cape, bloomers, and headbands. This was a lot of fun because it was so different than anything I had done before. I could visualize the puffball skirt in my mind, and then the construction went just as I expected. I do hope the family has been pleased with the outcome!