I spent the week working on my daughter's drum major dress. The show theme this year is the sky, so I put stars on the dress.

I had trouble getting the sparkly holographic embroidery thread to work, spent half a day on it, gave up and switched to plain silver. I spent about 12 hours embroidering 121,000 stitches. The big stars took 15 minutes machine time each, plus setup time. Fortunately the little ones were quicker. I got the dress done at 3:30 pm on Friday. Katie didn't need it until 5 pm, so I had plenty of time. :-)

Here is a picture of the dress.

http://www.agicc.com/cenpenn/KatieDress.jpg

I started with the basic bodice with some ease removed, hand drafted armhole princess lines. I cut off the bottom part of the bodice which I then attached to a gored skirt pattern, so that the skirt nips in at the waist. The sleeves are the cap sleeve, but shorter and slashed and spread to allow her room to move her arms (conduct the music) freely.

I am very pleased with the fit. The bodice is perfect, front and back, and the skirt hangs and moves so gracefully. The picture does not do the dress justice. So elegant and flattering. I told Katie that if she stays about the same size for the next few years, we have her wedding dress pattern here. The dress is fairly heavy satin, with a full lining. The concession I made to the costume aspect was putting in a narrow stitched hem, which won't tear out.

Laura Dilts

BEEEEEEautiful.girl and dress!

Great work Mom!
Kaaren

What a gorgeous dress, daughter, fit and sooooooooo creative. Congratulations on a winner!!

Elizabeth

Wow! Beautiful dress and a great fit.

DD is luck to have a mom who is willing to make something so special for her.

Carolyn

Beautifull dress and embroidery and very attractive daughter. Good job!

Fantastic dress! Mom did a great job. You put a lot of hours in and it shows.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Laura Dilts:
I spent the week working on my daughter's drum major dress. The show theme this year is the sky, so I put stars on the dress.

Laura well done. Great job!!!
Marge UK

Laura,
What an absolutely beautiful dress. I love your explanation of how you got this fit. You knew what you wanted and used this tool in conjunction with other methods to reach that goal. This is a great example of what one can achieve using DS.

The embroidery is stunning, what work! What we won't do for our children, she is glowing in that dress.

Congratulations!!!!
Linda Flint

Absolutely Gorgeous! What beautiful fit, and a creative design. Pretty daughter, too!

What a grand project with beautiful fit. My daughter was on the PomPom squad which was considered part of the band [unlike the cheerleaders who were part of the football team]. Just wondering how you were going to clean it after she marched in the mud. I got very good a scrubbing my DD white sneakers with Clorox Soft Scrub and soaking her white leggings with milk before washing. But my DD had a short little skirt. I know the drum major at our school had a white uniform with dark trim. Used to make me shudder wondering how her mother got it cleaned. Course I am still in the NE and we had snow and rain and therefore lots of mud to deal with. Maybe you don't have those problems.
Something about band girls - they sure make them pretty. Congratulations.
Duckie

Thanks to everybody for your kind comments. Katie was sure excited about the dress. I plan on just washing it to get it clean. The dress should be ok, it is polyester satin, with polyester lining. Everything including stabilizer and interfacing was prewashed. I figure gentle wash, cold, hang to dry, should do it without ruining the embroidery. Anybody can offer advice on this, of course. We are in Pennsylvania, so there is a chance of snow and mud, but she just has to walk across the field a couple of times, and the rest of the time she is up on a platform. At least the black won't show stains!

Laura Dilts