I ended up calling the toll free number eventually as the e-mail thing seemed to lack the desired response. However, this is July 4th holiday week and many people take off on vacation. Can you purchase an international calling card at the local store. She was pretty good about e-mailing me once I phoned in and left a message stating that I really needed some questions answered as well as I had already e-mailed. I thought there was a toll free number to call as well.

Thank you Days&Nights,I'll send another email, and if no reply I'll call international. I have been looking at all the beautiful gowns that are being worn this year, there seems to be loads of frills, what is in the hem, Horsehair braid? boning? and is the braid died to match the dress or is it covered? So many questions, lol, The leotard part of the dress isnt a mystery but the skirt part is. Happy 4th July to you Days, and thank you for your reply. Sue

Your welcome! I tend to use Horsehair braid (it comes in different widths) to force the dress to curl and float well at the hemline. Picture folding the hemline "over" the braid so the braid is secured within the hemline itself. Very easy to thread the braid through much like threading elastic through various garments so it's hidden yet secure. Have fun.

Hi Days, regarding your skirts, how many circles would end up putting into the top layer of the skirt? If i was making a skirt out of georgette or chiffon i would need several layers, but would i treat each layer separately or as one? The dress i have just finished had satin godets, each godet being almost a 1/2 circle so i didnt need to line them and there were 7 godets in total. The finished meterage around the hem was 14.5 mtrs. Im trying to work out how to make lined georgette godets.Have several layers joined in the seams as one or several peticoat layers attached at the hips? This if fun lol SUE

Hello kaiara. As I understood you ordered dvd ( Gown Construction Manual) from danceportballgowns.com. Are they working?? I was writing email for them three or four times but didn't get any answer... I am really interesting in this dvd and don't know what to do..

Sorry for grammar mistakes, English in not my native language...

I found the information helpful although I am still researching sergers so I have not yet tried anything off of it. I did print it out so I could keep it with my sewing books.

The dvd took some time to arrive but it came without incident.

I didn't try to communicate with them, I just went ahead and ordered the dvd.

I ordered this dvd last month, but as I see, this dvd is in Las Vegas still.... Two weeks in LAS VEGAS...

I'm unable to find Laura LaGasse or Dancesportimage. Any ideas? And any ideas where to find other patterns? Is the rhinestoneguy.com manual any good? And will I have to have a serger to have any success with this? I don't have one.

Hello,
It seems that the Lagassa site is down (the under construction page kept coming up), after about a 24 hour search I found a side site that seems to carry some of the original content from the site (never having seen the original site I can't really know for sure, sorry) It has a good explanation on how to make a standard/smooth gown.
The link is: http://mirrors.itsalwayssomethingwithher.com/stepbystep_ballroomdress/
I've also found some interesting threads on sewing.patternreview.com and danceforums.com with some content on patterns, fabric, and stones.
Hope this helps.

Also if anyone has found other useful sites for constructing ballroom costumes I would greatly appreciate it, if you could post them. Although I'm a proficient sew-ist (not a word), having only minimal access to the pretty expensive gowns which makes analyzing garment construction uber difficult, everyone is so secretive Arg.

The Rhine Stone Guy out of FL has a guidebook as well as how to convert street dress patterns into ballgowns.

http://www.rhinestoneguy.com/