Growing into a business

Dressmaking is addictive. Once you start, you will probably not stop. The following pictures are the proof of that statement :-)


Lynne got herself a new solodress. I made a design for her according to her taste and did the embroiderywork. She chose all her own fabrics and put the dress together. I simply love the way it suits her. Very elegant and perfect for an adult beginner.
We did not want to "overdo" it with putting in a shaped hemline (a new fashion trend that was still only reserved for Intermediates and Open Champs). The purple border was an alternative to create a more interesting hemline without shaping it.






Many adults were still wearing 'Riverdance' -style costumes in stretch velvet. In mainland Europe there are a lot of adult irish dancers that also dance in competitions. Yet none of them were wearing a "real" solo dress.
Anita was the first customer to order from Lowland Design and this is her second solo dress. The base is made of a dark green taft and the applique is in copper foil and silver and mint green satin. To give her a bit of a flash, we took a gold satin for the lining.






My designing skills were growing and I have always tried to keep a balance with the 'celtic feel' . The cerise dress is a perfect example of my earlier stage in design work. I am a firm believer of using larger shapes to create an attractive dress with stage-appeal. In dresses today, there is a stunning amount of detail and although it's pretty, not everything is suitable for larger distance between the dancer and the adjudicator (JMHO). Of course, it's the dancing that is judged -not the dress.
But if we stay with the point about contrast we can clearly see I did my best to get it. All the primary colors are there, large shapes, shiny with different textures...this dress has it all! It was the first dress (except from my own solo) I got to put a holographic glitterdot on as applique. When first approving the design, the customer wasn't too sure about it. She did not want the dress to become a "Vegas" number. If we only knew then how the fashion was going to change!