A while back, Ann Donahue and I worked on some boys vests. They both made their major debut at the North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. Ann and I both hope that the vests made the dancers feel their best, and that they danced to their full ability on the day of the competition.
Gannon and his family had an idea for the design of this vest. We all worked very closely to achieve just the look they were going for. His excellent dancing on the day earned him 3rd place in boys U15! Congrats to him and his family and Clann Na Cara.
Peter from the Power Academy had the idea for the flames and basic color of his vest. He and his teacher worked with an artist to give Ann Donahue and I an excellent graphic for his design. I think that when the work was completed Peter has just the costume he was hoping for. He looks great in it, and we wish him much success in his future dancing career!
Both of the patterns for the vests were custom. Making the boys costumes involves as much work as making a bodice for a girls dress. The embroidery is very intense, and as in Peter’s can cover a very large area. Ann worked diligently to make the flame vest embroidery with just the right amount of density so that it would be firm but not inflexible. The boys costumes have really been evolving over the last few years. It’s nice for them to have this avenue to express their personality and enhance their dancing.
Trying out the orange cape with the black button. I really like the proportion of the button. Plus it can easily be changed in the future should something else be a better choice.
Back a year or two ago when I made the reproduction dress (along with Ann Donahue) of the woman who was on the podium at world’s 25 or so years ago…..I had the pleasure of having her actual dress in my hands. It was as if she took it off just the day before. It was in such good condition. The cape was still attached to the dress by the most beautiful brooches. They were pewter with Connemara marble…or at least that is how they appeared to me. This school dress reminds me of the beautiful traditional hand embroidered dress in it’s coloring and style. I can only imagine the pride that the owner of that older dress had when she pinned that cape on her shoulder with those beautiful jewels. I imagine some kind of tradition like that for these school dresses….because I feel like they represent all of the good things about Irish Dance and the pride of wearing a costume that represents one’s school.
Below is a photo I took of that earlier dress and in the upper right hand corner you can just see one of the beautiful cape pins.
Trying out some of the yellow fabric for the cape with a black velvet covered button. This was a great idea by the TC’s. This is really just a mock up of how it could look. The fabric is not sewn or in a “perfect” cape shape. It is enough to give an idea of the overall look though!
Almost made it. While trying to sew down the faux center piece my machine broke. Nothing terrible, I’m sure when I take it to OSMG it will be good as new in a few days. They can work wonders ya know!
Don’t mind the pins or clips you might see in the pictures. I just use those to get the dress to hang right for the pictures.
This kind of gives you and idea of what I am sewing through. That shows the backside of the faux front point. This piece has 1 layer of velvet, vilene, interfacing, and charmeuse. Put that on top of 2 layers of velvet, timtex (not really that but nearly as thick) charmeuse, and various interfacings…..and you get an idea of why the machine died. Mind you that was only after about breaking 10 needles. Now breaking a needle does not scare ma at all. I’ve broken more than I can count, and in the irish dance dress world….it is expected! Needles are gonna break…but why when it happens I still jump out of my chair and shriek I just don’t know! I think it is the optimist in me that is sure I’ve got just the right combination of needles, thread, silicon, tension, presser foot pressure and anxiety….that I’m gonna be lucky this time and not break any this time! Ah….that day has not come yet…but I’ll keep trying.
This is just the skirt with that faux point panel laid out. I have not trimmed the excess off the top of the skirt yet. In the first picture on this post, the skirt is actually hanging a little lower than it will be after the final construction. That is due to the excess ….it makes it hard to pin the skirt on the dress form and be able to put the bodice on.
This shows the soft cape and the patch for attaching it. The back panels are not on there yet. Once I get that front behaving I can attach the back.
Those are the back panels. They will have a diamond shaped applique on top with the same embroidery as the front skirt panels. That is still to come. The embroidery is done, just need to whip up the panels. You can see the underside of the front of the skirt in the photo with the cape. The girls usually like to have a fun underside. Gotta love the kids!
I’m sorry and disappointed in not getting the dress down the the school this weekend. It’s tough to not meet a deadline…I am the one who is always on time or early. I can’t just “make this work” though, because I have to be able to do this over and over for the next dresses. I have a plan of action. I’m going to redo the point, and take out the stiffener. I am going to wrap it into the side seam. I’ll keep posted!
I am going as fast as I can to try and get this dress in the mail in the next day or two. I am binding each of the panels with velvet that I am making myself. I’m not in love with the whole process. I’ll write more about that in a future post….
I do think the colors really pop and the black velvet frames everything in a perfect manner. Always a silver lining. I have to put the whole thing together, then make a few accessories. Just finished creating the patch that will attach the cape. Have to get the size right so it does not completely obscure the beautiful yoke on the back.
Here are a few of the in progress pics I took and just have not had the time to put up here.
All of the interfacing and stabilizer had to be cut away on these pieces or they made unattractive bumps and lines on the panel.
Each panel is individually numbered. They are not identical due to the angle they must be attached to the skirt. So they must be kept track of….thus my little stickers with their numbers!! Same for the underpanels. Each one is unique in the shape of it’s point at the bottom.
Sorry I can’t say more….just need the time to work. I’ll come back and fill in some details once the dress is in the mail!!!
Decisions, Decisions!!! Lots of choices to make when making something for the first time! How amazing to see something on paper come to life…..I think that is the case here!!!
Here is a great photo that shows the yoke on the bodice. Ann Donahue has done a great job of taking the Duffy design and bringing it to reality! This photo does a good job with the colors. It is sometimes hard to get a nice picture with a close representation of the colors (and I am notorious for taking bad pictures!!) but this one is pretty close.
Here is the full back. This is pinned on the dress form, so it’s not all neat and tidy. But it does give a good idea of how it all comes together. The neckline is not trimmed to size. That will be done when I bind the neck seams.
Close view of the back. Just so pretty! How nice it all comes together, and looks just like the TCRG’s design! No zipper in there yet of course! Thats last!!!
Thats a longer view. The cape is going to be a flowing soft cape of the same orange fabric as the yoke. It will attach with an embroidered patch.
A peek at the lining. Here is a closer peak….
More soon! Going to be using a velvet binding for the skirt panels, as just seaming from top to bottom was all wonky. The front would not stay still, it kept slipping to the back and made everything look bumpy and uneven. Thanks to some dressmaker help, I think I am on the right track for the finishing touches.
After some adjustments to the digitizing, our second test stitch (on the right) was a nice success. There is great coverage of the yellow, and the border really makes it stand out from the base fabric. This is how we want them to look on the real dresses. On to doing this 24 times for the first batch of dresses. It takes about 2-3 hrs for each piece to be completed. That includes fabric cutting, ironing, stabilizing, hooping, thread changes, and finishing. Lots to do!
We have all been waiting as patiently as possible for our fabric to come in for the Duffy School costumes. I was so happy when my doorbell rang and it finally arrived.
This is how the fabric comes to me. I travel down to the NYC Garment district with my color swatches from the customer and then select the fabric we are looking for. This time the order was a high yardage for the orange satin which was not a huge seller this year. The store had to order more from the mill….wherever that may have been. We had to wait an extra 4-6 weeks. The great thing is that we know that in the future we will always be able to get this particular color and fabric again!
I had already received the velvets several weeks earlier and had gotten them cut and prepped. I am keeping them stored in some bins until I send the bodice pieces off to Ann D. for embroidery.
The blue turquoise is prepped with 100% cotton fusible interfacing. These particular pieces are for two sets of sleeves. The turquoise for the skirt is interfaced with the same cotton but in black. The bins keep the fabric away from curious visitors! The embroidery for these costumes will go on the orange fabric which is then layered over either the black or turquoise velvet depending on whether is for the bodice or skirt. I think you can see some of the black in the bin that Lyra is sitting on.
The first batch of dresses will be a group of four. The second is a group of five. I’ll keep posting as the work progresses!
New dance school! Growing up brings lots of changes. There have been some pretty big ones with both of my kids recently. For Tara Middle School has been a constant challenge with her classes. Certain aspects are wonderful, and others a struggle. She has a very long list of things that she is great at and really enjoys doing…dance being way up at the top! Her decision this year to really explore some new forms of dance has opened her horizons to things she’s never tried before. She is also exploring some new mediums for Art and her photography skills have really taken off. We welcome all of these exciting new developments…but it can sometimes mean that change has to happen. In order to put some more focus on the difficult areas of school we felt it necessary to make a change in Irish Dance schools. Thats a pretty big deal for her, and she was not too thrilled with Mom and Dad forcing this change. But as you grow up sometimes things do have to be sacrificed….and we could no longer continue the weekly drive to her class. We did have a great carpool, but getting home very late on a school night had to stop.
So she recently started at a new school, Clann Na Cara right here in town. It’s a pretty new school to our area and she is really happy that many of her friends that she had started dancing with back when they were six are dancing here. One of the first things she did was attend this Masterclass by one of the dance captains from Riverdance! The show was in town this week which made this possible. 
She enjoyed the class. They did both hardshoe and softshoe and Tara was really impressed with Maeve’s dancing and teaching skills.
More on the changes happening with my guy Trevor soon. We are still in the middle of working out some things for him, and when it is all in place I will have lots to share.
I had lovely Maggie stop by to model her dress! She looks great. There were a few final adjustments done, and they were just the needed thing. After having a chance to dance a bit in the dress we could see that some things needed to be done. Once taken care of….voila! She looks awesome. I hope she dances up a storm!
I did take a few pics before it was picked up….and Tara had her hand with a few photos as well. These are the ones that she took….
You can see how she and I just see things differently! It’s usually handy to have her around!
Duffy School Update….We had a fabric snafu! The store had to reorder some of our key fabric. It felt like it took forever for it to come in. It finally came in on Friday and they should have it sent up to me by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. It’s the orange of course because all of our embroidery is on that fabric! I am hoping that I can still get the first four of the dresses done for them by the end of May. It will be tight, if I can do it…but I am going to give it every possible minute I can. It’s tough when there are delays that you can’t control….but sometimes they happen.
Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!
alt="Duffy 009" width="500" height="375" />
