Other bits of tips:

• Sewing on feathers is a big huge timesink. In fact, I have only put feathers on a gown I made once. So if I'm dying for feathers I'll buy a gown from a professional designer, I figure I'm paying for the labor and heartache of obtaining, dying, and sewing the darn things on.

• Putting on rhinestones takes forever, but I much prefer doing that myself than sewing feathers. If you're just starting out and don't know what to do, get 20ss (that's a size) rhinestones, about 4 gross worth. That will give you decent sparkle without taking a zillion hours to glue on. There's many many different adhesives you can use, I'm partial to E-6000. E-6000 is an industrial adhesive you can buy at hardware stores (and at craft shops for about twice the price). It will stick ANYTHING to ANYTHING. It's easiest to work with E-6000 if you get a plastic syringe. Squeeze the E-6000 into the syringe and then use that to put dots of glue on the dress where you want the stones. Then press the stones into the glue. The glue dries slowly enough that you can put 5-10 dots on the dress and the press the stones in.

• For stones, you can either buy top-quality Swarovski stones or lesser-quality Czech stones. Swarovski makes so many stones that if a rhinestone packet says "made in Austria" you can bet that it came from Swarovski. The Czech stones are cheaper if you're on a budget, and some people say you can't tell the difference from two feet away, but I like the Swarovski colors better. If you buy in bulk you'll do infinitely better on the price. My favorite place to buy rhinestones is Chrisanne. Yes, it seems silly to order rhinestones all the way from England, but their bulk price for a 10 gross pack is much cheaper than the wholesale price I can get locally, even including international shipping!!

I keep a list of Costuming Supplies on another web site that I maintain. I have made mail-order purchases from everyone I list, so if you have questions about a vendor feel free to ask.

Past Projects

silvery grey velvet with pearl stars
Another princess seamed dress, from the same pattern as the royal blue one. The back is cut-out as a result of a major sewing error! I could not get the back seams to stop puckering, even though I had no problems with the royal blue dress. So I just took scissors to it and cut away the worst of the puckery parts. Good lord my posture is bad in these pictures.... I cut the front a little too baggy below the breasts, so the gown has a rather nightgown-ish look to it. Another learning experience. [for sale, size 14-16]

purple velvet make-over
The dress started out professionally made by To the Nines. It was fully boned and underlined with heavy satin, and had 13 princess-seamed panels. It weighed a ton. I have lost a lot of weight since it was made and so took this dress apart and remade it from a size 16 down to a 12. When I remade it I removed the sleeves, took out the heavy underlining, and removed two of the panels to get rid of some extra fullness. I recut the neckline and added three asymetrical shoulder straps. It's now very light and extremely comfortable. [for sale, size 12-14]

purple and hologram glitter slinky
Based on Butterick #9360, but without the sleeves. I added a center front seam (below the yoke only) and a center back seam, and flared out each of the resulting four panels to 48 inches wide. I cut a moderate V into the back. I had to add the silver chiffon ruffle to the bottom because I made a big mistake when hemming it the first time! There's also a matching silver chiffon neck scarf and wrist float. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have right now. Since it's been taken I re-fitted the bodice so it was snugger through the waist to the hips. [for sale, size 12]

navy and silver glitter jersey
I needed a dress to wear for costume-restricted events that I could also dress up enough to wear in Open events. Doug doesn't have a tailsuit yet, so I didn't want to upstage him by wearing a full-on ballgown. This is the perfect compromise. The top of the dress is Simplicity #9218. I cut the dress to be above-the-knee length. Then, using a dressmaker's curve, I cut the hem line of the bodice into a curve that is higher on the left hip than the right. I then made a full circle skirt and attached it to the curved bodice. The gloves are Kwik-Sew #2326. I adore this dress, especially the way the skirt is attached to the bodice, and will copy the skirt into the next dress that I'm working on.

Current Projects

baby pink
Butterick #9360. This is a shirt pattern that I turned into a dress. I added a center front seam (below the yoke only) and a center back seam, and flared out each of the four panels to 48 inches wide. I cut a moderate V into the back. I should get a picture of this online soon. [for sale, size 10-12]