Seven years ago, Nancy brought me a wonderful silk georgette skirt.  She wanted it used to create and ballroom costume and we decided that costume could be both a rhythm gown and a smooth dress, by making the skirt removable.  It was her first ballroom costume collaboration and the results were good!  This is the rhythm dress we created, and the skirt pulled on underneath the dress to convert it to a ballgown.I wish I had taken a photo of the skirt alone, before I incorporated it into Nancy's new ball gown, but I did not manage to do that.  I did take a quick shot of the embellished leotard with the skirt before it was assembled into the new gown, so you can see the relationship in the graphics.AND I can show you the skirt in its new configuration!In both cases, the embellishment details for the gowns were suggested ...

I made this rhythm gown just over a year ago, but never got around to writing about it.  I thought I would wait until I saw Cathy wear it, so I could include photos of her dancing, but somehow, I never made it to an event of hers, and did not get the photos I had imagined.There is another opportunity coming up, (which I would have missed again, given I will be at the MN Star Ball on that day) but Cathy broke her foot and is not able to dance in the Arthur Murray Showcase on the 19th, and I know she is SAD about that.  So hopefully, this little post will lift her couch-bound spirits! We began with words from her teachers, and each had the word "precise" in their lists.  Also, we considered "legs" "fast" "light" and "sassy."  We also wanted a little tummy disguise, and amplification for ...

This is not a post about ballroom dance costumes, but about the loss of the official Made for Movement Greeter and Sergeant-at-Arms, Gingerbread.Some of you might remember when we got Gingerbread as a puppy, from a rescue shelter in Buffalo Minnesota.  It was during our year in Rogers.  She was a sweet and very energetic ball of fuzz, athletic and wicked smart on her first day with us.  She was always ready for a good game, a ride in the car, or walk to anywhere.We got her in September, and by December, she had begun to look like a grown up dog, but there was still plenty of puppy mischief.  I will share one story with you.  A few days before Christmas, Zak and I left the house early to run some errands.  We were gone for several hours and the lonely little puppy got bored and decided to have ...

 The design meeting for this gown for petite and trim Christy was an easy one.  Christy wanted something with substantial sparkle.  She wanted thick white fringe, and she wanted white and nude, or as we talked, white and gold. I showed her nude fabrics and she decided on a metallic gold mesh instead, and we embellished that, rhythmically, in Light Topaz AB, in contrast to the random application of the Crystal AB on the opposite side of the gown.  We discussed color blocking as a trend in Latin gowns, and then created soft body-sensitive blocks to help define her curves and rhythmic action.  The fringe is thick as requested, accomplished through the application of three layers of long white tactel.  We finished the back with a triple diagonal strap detail, and echoed the combination of the three delicate straps against the chunky, jewel encrusted gown, with a cuff and three bangle ...