A Bouquet of Roses for Tracy

This gown was actually begun in 2011, when our client Tracy was headed for the Ohio Star Ball.  Unfortunately, life intervened, and Tracy put the gown on hold for several months while finding a new job.  When she phoned to let us know we could begin again, we were thrilled, both for Tracy, and because this was a gown we were excited to make!

Tracy is a super-organized woman, and when she brings me her inspiration images, they are always in page protectors and  she usually has clear ideas about what she wants.  See???

When I look a this array, I see, shades of pink, floral imagery, and prints, but my eye keeps returning to the upper left image of the cut-metal bowl.  I loved how the graphic repeated and how it referenced "rose" without being specifically detailed.  I also really liked the visual importance of the negative space in recognizing the image.  Tracy is is feminine woman, and although she liked the floral imagery, she did not want silk flowers or anything three-dimensional, or even a print.  She was also interested in clean lines, simple shapes and lots of sparkle  I think there was also a buckled leather cuff with chain that she brought in.  So all these ideas poured into the creative hopper, and out came rhinestoned belts and buckles and a figure-ground reversal floral pattern imagery, to be created in rhinestones on the gown bodice.

I experimented with the graphic in the bowl, but didn't like how it expanded and contracted, so I found another using Google images from Sweet Clip Art that I thought was perfect.  I got permission from the artist who created it, who was very charming and wanted to see what I did with her image when I was finished.

I  blew it up.  I contracted it.  And then I designed vines to go with it, and a rose bud.  The darn bud reminded me of the Hallmark logo a bit, but I found, turned sideways, it was less offensive and so used it careful only on angles.

I find the back very pleasing with it's pretty drape to balance the gentleman's hand on the dancer's left side and provide a bit of softness and movement.  I also like the placement of buckles, two at the front opposite sides, and the one center back.

We also had lots of fun creating the bangle bracelets for this gown, using many different patterns and ideas.

I'm pleased with the end result and I hope Tracy will be too.  She wore it at Minnesota Madness last weekend and I was thrilled to see it (and Tracy!) in action.  It's sophisticated and beautiful, as is she!

New Listings for August!

I am back at work and anxious to show you what we made last spring at Made for Movement.  I'm collecting images and stories, and if you have anything to share with me from Twin Cities Open 2012, please do! 

We are happy to show you two new Gently Used listings in the harder to come by size range of 14-18.  If you or someone you know is interested in either of these beauties, fair warning, larger sizes sell fast!

First we have a beautiful sheath style Rhythm gown in slimming Sapphire blue, with lots of lush detailing.  Swirly leaves slash diagonally across the neckline and beneath the bust of this sleek gown, and continue onto sleeve and shoulder.
The leaves are outlined in  Swarovski Crystal AB and filled with Chrysolite, Olivene, Emerald, Peridot, Aquamarine, Sapphire and Blue Zircon.  The supple dance crepe body is covered with Cobalt, and as with all Made for Movement gowns, a lycra body suit provides support and structure underneath. Delicate flesh mesh left sleeve supports your arm and glimmers with ss16 Topaz AB. The gown is finished with two layers of rayon fringe for lots of great movement and nicely displayed leg action.

This gown includes a simple pair of leaf motif earrings.

Asking price is $1600.

Also just listed is this Monet print ballgown, currently configured with a diagonal georgette sash and substantial left side float.  It features a slim, dropped waist bodice of print stretch mesh over soft and stretchy angelskin, embellished with matching Swarovski ss20 crystals.

A soft georgette two layer skirt, with a double circle volume, is the same print over solid soft turquoise, and provides rich, full movement.

The back has a delicate cowl and the shoulders and hip are embellished with organza leaves, edged in Crystal AB.  This gown comes with three georgette flower hair clips, and a pair of delicate rosette earrings.

The gown originally had a banner of crystal AB dew kissed fabric roses, and these could replace the front drape, if a sleeker look if desired.

Visit us at our website, www.made4movement.com to check out these and more Gently Used listings!

Karen's Magical Hologram Sequin Cloth

Karen visited my studio with her friend Jeannie, at the design meeting for Jeannie's velvet Tropical Paradise gown.

While Jeannie and I worked, Karen fell in love with a swatch of fabric. Not just any piece of fabric, and I wish, wish, WISH!, I could show you this fabric in person, because no photograph will ever do it justice.

Karen's fabric is a stretch mesh, covered with hologram effect turquoise sequins. The holographic diffraction on these tiny sequins works in the same way as the miniscule spiraling ridges on a CD.  So image thousands of teensy turquoise CD's, about 1/4 inch in diameter, sewn onto cloth and you have the general idea of the amazing magic of Karen's fabric.

This is not a fabric for all body types. It magnifies and amplifies body shape. Fortunately, Karen is trim and
fit, and can afford to have her lovely curves highlighted. This fabric must also be cut and fit carefully to lie smoothly on the body with the fewest possible seams.

Karen is a past Mrs. Minnesota, who created her own pageant gown and is a capable seamstress herself.  She had looked at silhouettes and knew approximately what shape she wanted her gown to take.  I agreed that her idea was a good one, and refined it a bit for her.  She chose a asymmetrical bodice, with a soft (and shiny!) full skirt, to enable it to hold it's own against the dazzle of the sequin cloth.  Since there was no prefect matching color for the turquoise of the sequin cloth, especially given that it changed colors itself, Karen found an electric green georgette, and we layered the two fabrics to get an nice match, as well as providing visual interest for the skirt in movement. 

Given the all-over glimmer of the fabric, we decided to define and embellish the edge of the bodice with texure and color, rather than more sparkle, and chose two colors of acrylic cabochons that again, blended to make a perfect hue.  Karen agreed to do the embellishment of her gown, once it was finished, and did a great job of applying the acrylic cabs.

Karen wanted co-ordinating jewelry, and we wanted it to stand out as different from the border embellishments, so we chose to use both some of the large cabochons and Crystal AB Swarovski as an accent, and again, Karen did her own embellishment application. 

 And finally, here are a few shots of Karen from her performance, with teacher James Woods, at the Snowball, January 2012.

Ember's Icy Skyline

Ember is an accomplished woman, with a busy life as the Chief Advancement Officer with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. Known for her work as a broadcast political analyst, she is also an attorney, former Minnesota state senator, former radio personality, and enjoys acting in local community theatre productions. 

After some years away from competitive ballroom dance, she visited my studio last fall to ask my professional opinion of several gently used gowns she was considering buying for use in a local "Dancing with the Celebrities" charitable event. I gave her my thoughts and we artfully adjusted her choice (a Made for Movement gown) to fit. She looked great in the gown. and dazzled the crowd at her event with her winning performance.  Here you see her with her Dancer's Studio teacher Chris Kempainen, (also wearing a Made for Movement ballroom suit) holding their trophies.

She must also have been having a good time, because she decided to return to competitive dance and asked me to design a custom rhythm gown for her for the Snow Ball, which I was glad to do. 

As her career would suggest, Ember is a conservative woman, at home in tailored suits and not really interested in ruffles or overly-feminine details on her clothing.  As a dancer, she has both good performance skills, and long, attractive lines to display.  Ember wanted a gown that would be reflective of her stately elegance, and also her joyfulness at her return to dancing.

We wanted her gown to have simple, sleek lines, and be all one color.  Ember chose fuchsia, (a very popular choice in the last year) and it certainly is a joyful color.  We wanted her rhythm look to flatter her body and be tasteful and appropriate to her age.  We chose a longer, soft skirt with nice movement, but not fussy frills or ruffles, and sleeves to connect her slim arms to her body and emphasize her long lines. 

Ember is dancing here with her dance professional and teacher, the wonderful Scott Anderson, who is also the organizer of the Twin Cites Open. Ever an aware guy on the floor, he noticed me with my camera, and moved closer, so my photos are a little better than usual here!  Ember has a lovely hourglass figure with a very small waist and we planned to reveal her waist while de-emphasizing her bust and hip with diagonal design lines, meticulously placed in fittings to flatter and define.

Although her skirt is long, we used a diagonal hemline to allow us to see her legs and knees in action.

When it came to embellishment, in keeping with Ember's dislike of the overdone and fussy, I let her look through a collection of prom dresses. She found one with details she liked, and I used those details as inspiration for the rhinestone application, as you can see here.

I applied the stoning to the top of the bodice, and my partner Michele did the hip line.  I thought (perhaps influenced maybe by working on this gown in January) that the detail looked like icicles on a roof.  Like the story of the blind men and the elephant, Michele thought it was a lovely representation of a winter night time city skyline.  I'm fond of the cuff detail as well.

Ember was a joy to work with, and we look forward to seeing her again, when she is ready for her next custom gown.

Celebrating 25 Years!

Made for Movement was born 25 years ago this month, in 1987, and a little celebrating is in order.


We have had 4 different locations, and by my estimate, created nearly 1000 costumes for Twin Cities competitive ballroom dancers in those years.  I believe I have managed to make the things I love the most; 3 dimensional design, beautiful fabrics, all things sparkly, and dance, into a perfect career.


As I finish the last of three new gowns for the Snowball this weekend, I wanted to look back a little, and look ahead as well.

First, let's look ahead.  Of greatest importance, I want you to know that we are raising our rates this year.  Each year, the cost of rhinestones, fabric and notions goes up, but Made for Movement has charged the same hourly rate for our labor since 2005!  After seven years of holding the line, it's time for an increase.  But for all of you who book with us by the 15th of January, for any project for any time this year,  we will honor our 2005 rate.  So stop by our display at the Snowball and make sure your projects for this year are on our schedule to take advantage of this offer.  To give you an example of the savings you can get by scheduling NOW,  I just finished a new gown at a cost of $2050.  At our new rate, this same gown will cost $2300, so book your costume needs for 2012 by the 15th of January, and save!

Now for a quick look back!  In 2011, we made 22 new gowns, dressed 15 men in either Latin, Smooth or Standard attire, and sold 12 Gently Used gowns, plus did several "renewal" projects, (a new skirt, a new sleeve, a new look for an older gown) working at our usual project-a-week pace.




The average new, custom-designed Latin or Rhythm Gown cost about $2000 and the average ballgown cost was $2450, which makes us a huge bargain by industry standards, and this will still be true when our new rate is in place.

For those of you looking for an exceptional price on a beautifully made gown, I just got a couple of new Gently Used listings, and they are being cleaned and readied for the rack on Friday, so, VISIT US AT THE SNOWBALL!










OH!  And here's a little sneak peek at a detail on a new gown that I am loving.  I can't wait to see it (and it's lovely and talented owner) dance!

Patty's Quest for Emerald

Sometimes, a color is all important.  Patty came to my studio in search of the perfect emerald green for a new Rhythm gown.  Ballroom fabric suppliers provide a beautiful vibrantly pure (and sometimes neon) array of colors in a variety of fabrics, but greens for the last several years have been more on the yellow side of the color wheel than on the blue.  And Patty's dream color was on the blue side.  She had seen Oscar gowns in this magical but elusive color and nothing else would work. I think she was especially interested because her red hair is a new adventure for this octogenarian(!), and she really wanted to feature and flatter her spicy auburn.  Doesn't she look fantastic?


Her friend Randee came to her design meeting and helped work out our design.  Digging through my sources and scraps, we found a piece of silk in the perfect color to order for the skirt, and a scrap of satin lycra in my studio for a sash, but the stretch lace she wanted for her bodice did not exist in that particular emerald color.

So, off to superb dyer Marliss at Iris Color Studio I went, with a sample of white lace in the pattern Patty had chosen, to see if it could be made the perfect color.  Marliss did MANY tests.  The netting and portions of the flowers were nylon and other parts of the flowers were rayon, and the two fibers require different dyes.  Marliss struggled to get a deep, rich, vibrant enough color in either fiber.

Marliss's first samples, close, but not achieving the dream.

 When she mentioned the greatest challenge was getting the green to be both blue and vibrant enough, I mentioned the lace also came in bright, pure turquoise.  She was thrilled with the turquoise sample I took her and assured me that we could go ahead with the gown and she could get the color, particularly since the colored version of the lace was all nylon.

But I had to convince Patty that Marliss would come through.  Patty mentioned that having a  gown custom-made is a scary thing for her.  Trying to calm her fears, I suggested that even buying dancing lessons was potentially scary.  Teachers can demonstrate what steps and styling go with an Associate Bronze syllabus, and you can see how the dance looks on the teachers.  But what will you look like, doing those things?  You just have to trust the professionals to do their job, with your best interest at heart.  The same is true with custom dance wear design, but the difference is, when you are finished with the process, you have a valuable, re-sellable product.  What you learn in a dance lesson program is with you for your life and beneficial in a multitude of ways, but you cannot recoup any of the money you have spent, whereas, most gowns are good for a minimum of 75% of what you paid for them when you are ready for a new one, and that is a better value than buying a new car.  Fortunately, Patty gave me the go-ahead!

The turquoise lace Marliss over-dyed, and the final, perfect result.

Marliss came through brilliantly, and we cut, basted, assembled and fit Patty's gown.  I am especially proud of the lovely cuff detail on the sleeve.

Cuff Detail

I am also proud of the beautiful pattern match I achieved at the center back of the gown.  Lace yardage motifs can be very different sizes depending on where the pattern occurs on the piece, and blocking two pieces to exactly match each other is a tricky proposition.  Adding a zipper into the mix increases the challenge, but this worked out beautifully!

I am also happy with the beautiful edge I created with the lace selvedge.  And the rhinestone pattern works nicely with the lace pattern to emphasize shapes and edges, as well as providing all-over sparkle, while still allowing the vibrant emerald color to shine through.

I'll add one final shot of Patty dancing from the Dancer's Studio Showcase event last night.  I was not able to attend, but Patty had many family members and friends there to cheer her on and kindly shared these images with me.  Congratulations, Patty on your beautiful new gown, and on your performance!  I look forward to our next collaboration.

Cathy's First Gown

Cathy is a confident and lovely young dancer at Arthur Murray St. Paul, and her teacher Nate suggested she visit me when she was ready to have her first ballgown created.  Both Nate and his wife Rachel, also an Arthur Murray instructor and counselor, offered their ideas about what the general impression of Cathy's gown should be.   Nate said, "poised, regal and elegant" and Rachel offered "demure, lighthearted, and clean."  Cathy brought me lots of mages all of which featured cool, peacock colors and most of which also had floral motifs.  We decided that purple was the right royal touch, and used jeweled floral lace to ensure the gown had a youthful and lighthearted quality.



I see what Nate meant by "poised."

Cathy did lots of rhinestone application on her gown to help keep costs reasonable.  I finished her necklace and earrings for her, to show her what I had in mind for the lace.

 Then, using the lace as a guide and doing a sort of "paint by number" process, she spent about 20 hours, over a 10 day period, adding stones to the lace on the front...

...and the back of the bodice...

... the cuffs,

... and the barette.

  Because Cathy's hair is dark, we backed the barette with black ultrasuede, so the jeweled flowers could appear to sit neatly in her hair, which I think worked out nicely!

Then Cathy returned the gown to me, after a practice session to assure that everything worked as expected and to give her time to get used to the idea of wearing the gown.  She was so sweet, telling me how hard it had been to dance in it the first time without trying to watch the dress move in the mirror instead of concentrating on her dancing, and how exhilirating it was to feel fabric swirling around her legs and seeing the cuffs sparkle as she extended  her arms.  I can remember those feelings well, and some of my professional clients intentionally get new costumes for big competitions, specifically for the added sense of excitement and discovery they provide.

 I finished the gown by placing the less-fun-to-apply, but equally important, amethyst stones on the gown bodice, and then, I installed a delightful detail.  The electric blue pearl chiffon underskirt provides flashes of color in movement and adds a great deal of depth to the layers of skirt.  I was fortunate to see her dance at her showcase event on Sunday, and take a few photos. 

And that is Made for Movement menswear on Nate as well.  Don't they look wonderful?

I love working with first-time clients and Cathy did an wonderful job of both the rhinestone application, and with trusting me and the Made for Movement process.  I look forward to working with her again!

In the mean time, as Rachel suggested to Cathy when she called after wearing the gown for the first time and was sad to have to take it off, "It would not be entirely wrong to watch TV in it some night..."