Dazzling Dancing Dresses

 

MaNy, many years ago I did Ballroom and Latin American Dancing.... MaNy, many years ago! I loved dancing and it was a passion that took me to place I never dreamt I would go. I saw my dancing hero's performing  live when we competed in the World Ballroom Dancing Championships  in Tokyo, Japan and  wept as the 'god' of ballroom dancing, Bill Irwin announced "Let battle begin..."  a bit dramatic I know, but he said it every year as the annual Blackpool Championships began - it was what every competitor waited to hear!

 

Sadly life moves on, I had my !5 minutes.... and one simply cannot dance forever.... I lost contact with the dancing world when I had my Little Madame, and a few years have passed by since I had seen or heard anything from the dancing world...... Yes.... Yes .... I am getting to the point!

 

A few weeks ago I bumped into a very old friend(Sorry Les, I don't mean old, old, just long time old... digging a deep grave here!) We chatted and she asked me if I was still making dancing costumes - "No Time" , I said, I was really busy - I said .... cooking, baking, crocheting, wifeing, and mothering! But my friend Les is persistent, very persistent, she needed dresses and so for the last few weeks I have been up to my eyeballs in leotards, sequins, fringing, rhinestones, frills and lots and lots of organza!!! And Boy-Oh-Boy am I enjoying myself!   

 

So here are the three B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L Dazzling Dance Dresses I have made for my dear friend AND might I add.... World Line Dance Champion!!! 

  

The first dress was supposed to just be a 'trail-run' dress but it turned out so well that she wore it at the very next competition. It is a Waltz dress, It took 15 meters of organza and literally thousands of rhinestones! She brought me little lace flowers and I stoned them... now stoning is a very time consuming thing, its not quick and you have to build up a kind of rhythm, you need a pointed object, a bottle of gloopy glue and patience. You dip the end of said pointy object in to the glue, a minute amount is needed and then you touch the tip to a  stone pick it up and place it onto the spot where you want it( that spot has been dotted with glue already) It is a frustrating job, if you don't get it just right you drop the stones, or it gets stuck and you end up with gloopy glue all over the place!  

 

 

A Fairy Dance Dress

Lacey Flowers

Shoulder Flowers

The Back

The Front and A Neck Piece

This dress is beautiful, almost magical( Actually all it needs is a pair of Fairy wings) and if you vaguely can hear the beautiful 1...2...3 beat... of waltz music in your head you will be able to picture the dress floating and twirling  beautifully, it also sparkles as the skirt fabric has a beautiful shimmer to it, it is as though a fairy landed on it and  sprinkled magical fairy dust all over it!

The Making

 Dress number two , is sexy and when it is on it looks like she is half naked!  A flesh coloured leotard was the base and then I literally draped the acid green  fabric around until it sort of fell perfectly into place, pinned it, and then sewed it onto the leotard!(Hope no one looks inside this costume... eeekkk)

The Front

 
The skirt is a circle and a half as this gives it really nice movement! Once again, lots and lots and LOTS of stones just scattered all over the bodice and heavily over the bust area and -WOW!!! it looks fabulloouuss!

The Back

 

 Dress number three just happens to be my Favourite! It is a sassy, cheeky dress and is being used for a jive number! The very apt music to which this dance is being performed is 'Proud Mary' -It is the perfect music! She decided to go with fringing which moves really well, and although this might look  like it was easy it is really very difficult to work with, it simply has a life all of its own.... 

 

 

Different Idea's

Beautiful Colours

 

 The colour are amazing and these picture do it no justice what so ever...... A very bright pink and orange and an acid yellow, now if you look at the picture above, you will see that this dress didn't just happen, I pinned, repined and started to pin all over again! The mix of colours although gorgeous, just wouldn't fit, until ...  yes, you guessed it, a midnight epiphany!.... I sewed them on top of one another so when she is standing still it looks like a plain pink fringe dress BUT when she moves .... a riot of pink, orange and yellow!

 

Fringing and Bling Bling

 I used  big stoned motives on the bodice to give the dress more texture! Then lines of stones for bling and shimmer! It weighs a ton, fringing is very heavy..... BUT It is such fun and looks really sexy on Les! (My two dress makers dummy's Dolores and Mavis - do it no justice what so ever!) 




Looks So Good

 

The Back

 

The Front

So this is what has  taken up all of my time over the last few weeks..... And what is more I have loved every single minute and am so thankful to my dear friend, she has brought dancing back into my life after a long time, so my lesson here is it is never too late to do or go back to doing what you really love! I am looking forward to many more Dazzling dancing Dresses.......But in the mean time ...... Back to that crocheted blanket that has been so very neglected ......... xxx

PS:: Just heard that Les won the South African Championships this past weekend - those dresses must have helped! Well Done my friend!!!!!