Hopefully I can get some help with this. I'm trying to decide if I should tackle making a dress by myself, or if I can get a good one made at a decent cost. So I'm hoping people can give me some names of reputable, known DMs that are smaller and can work with my rather limited budget. This will be a dress I am hoping to wear at Oireachtas, and my TC wants me to "look the part", so I don't want someone who is just starting out and doesn't have any ID dresses under their belts yet. I know we have some good dressmakers here, so if anyone sees this and may be interested, feel free to PM me and I can go further into what I'm looking for. Otherwise, if people have names of good, lesser known DMs I would love to have them.

Kirations is a good US DM (she made my dd's current dress). I gave her the budget I was comfortable with, and she stayed within it.

Jennifer Blackerby made my dress. She's great to work with! I thought I'd signed on for a dressmaker, and I ended up getting a close friend too. She's great working with a budget while still keeping the design modern and cutting edge.

If you have never made a solo before DON'T DO IT! Unless an expierianced solo maker is healping you. My feriends mom is a very expierianced seamstress and has made a few before but after she just finished another she declared never again! She sais its extreamily frustrating evern for someone who is as expierianced as sewing and making clothing as her. Though all the dresses she has made are georgus its alot of hard work and is frustrating even if you know what your doing and have made a solo before.

Jennifer Blackerby is good, she has a FB page now too. She has pretty work, and I've competed with her and she's nice.

My two solo dresses (one I bought second hand from the dressmaker and the second was custom made) was by Kara Designed in either Maryland or Virginia. If you just google Kara Designed she should be the first result.

Try PMing Realtreble. She makes really good dresses, and I know she's worked with people who are on budgets for a few of them.

I have worked with dancers on budgets before with no problems. I'm happy to work to find a combination of fabrics, style and design that make the most of your money. It just depends on how tight the budget is as to what's possible! If you'd like more info feel free to PM me.

Jess Knight

Sue Breen.

My advice would be to contact a few different DMs and ask what they would be able to do with your budget. Look at pictures of dresses they have made, get some feedback from other customers and then make your choice.

Either that or get something second hand.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, its great to have some names to get started with. I wish I could go second hand, but I have larger measurements, and to find something in my size (which I've yet to see, ever), in my price range AND current enough to please my TC is pretty much impossible.

We've used Angela Healy for our last two dress purchases. She often has off-the-rack dresses listed on Dance-Again and occasionally she lists on dance.net. We had two custom dresses made, two very different shaped daughters. Both dresses were very well made, up-to-date, and extremely well fit. Our second dress was my daughter's design. She translated the drawings perfectly and sent us a dress that was beautiful. Very easy to work with. Both dresses were in the $1000 range. One dress had embroidery, one applique. I did all crystal work myself. She lives in London. Send me a PM and I will give you her email. Good luck.

Jess Knight made my dress. My budget wasn't too low, but as a college student I did try to keep it simple and the dress I got was so well made and beautiful, and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it from dancers and non-dancers alike.

We are willing to work with budgets, it all depends what you want really, my company is vale of Avoca designs, we have a website that you can search if you are interested. Good luck in your search i would definitely suggest looking around because making a dress is not an easy task especially if your not 100% sure what your doing

We used Blackthorn Tailors out of of Syracuse, NY. I'm certain she would work within a budget. Here is a link to their website.

www.blackthorntailors.com

What size are you looking for? I have a few unadvertised otr's that are for sale. I don't have them on my website yet, but you can see samples of my work on my site. My custom dresses run between $1250 and $1500. My otr's are $999. My website is sewtto.webs.com
Thanks for looking. Good Luck with your hunt!

I've sent you a pm but I start around £450 plus stones but I can do something for cheaper too, just depends on what you would like.

vickyandersondresses.co.uk

I got my dress back in November from KDSF. She was fantastic to work with & I know she does budget dresses. She also has an account on here, I believe, under the same name.

Here's her flickr page: www.flickr.com . . .

What's your budget look like? Emerald key tops at 1250, but can be much less if you stone it yourself. Most people I have heard from say they are great with working with budgets.

califeisgirl wrote:

What's your budget look like? Emerald key tops at 1250, but can be much less if you stone it yourself. Most people I have heard from say they are great with working with budgets.

I think their prices have gone up, because I was just looking at their off-the-rack dresses the other day and they were up to $1500.

I just had a dress made by realTreble here on DDN. she is a great DM located in northern OH. I highly recommend and my TC loved my dress. She was able to work within my restricted budget too and still make a gorgeous dress

Stacy Farley has made 4 of my solos. She's absolutely fantastic and great to work with on a budget. She's located in Crown Point, Indiana and her website is byauntstacy.com. I hope this helps:)