The Last Several Years
I am so sorry it has taken me such a long time to update Colleens' of Canberra.  I've returned to full time work and time is so precious!  My family is growing up so quickly and time is just not there to update the site as frequently as I'd like to.  My sincerest apologies.

I must say from the outset that this is the last time I shall be updating Colleens' of Canberra.
Sadly the time has come for Colleens' of Canberra to end.  Please read my over and out message on the next page.

In my last update I'd like to start by telling you about my youngest daughter's dress.   She started dancing when she was four.  After about a year she entered her first competition.  At first she wore our schools little blue dresses but they didn't fit for long and after a few upgrades of course she needed her own dress.  So we made a very simple little dress in about March 2006.  She was very happy wearing it for nearly 18 months when it just became too small.
Allison loved her dress.  It was just right for a five year old.  She picked the starry skirt lining herself.  In the end it was a very successful dress for Allison too, winning and placing highly in many of the competitions entered.  Because she was so young we kept it very simple.  We had the flowers professionally digitalised and this little dress was very quickly whipped up.  We gave an exact drawing of the flower to the digitaliser and he did the dark pink work.  Then I cut around the flower, ironed it on and  appliqued around the outside.  It looked fabulous!
2006 was a fantastic year.  For the first time I travelled overseas.  I had never strayed from Australian shores before.  Our whole family set off for daughter Jessica to attend the North American Irish Dancing Championships.  We had the most wonderful time.  I'm afraid I found the whole NANS thing very overwhelming and I was a bundle of nerves and tears the time we spent in San Diego (not me at all!).  But once the competition was finished we set off on our holiday and drove out to the Grand Canyon, then up to Yosemite via Sedonna and Oatman, San Francisco, down the Californian coast and to LA (with overnight stops along the way).  We had a fantastic time and topped it off ending our trip at Disneyland.  It had been my lifetime dream to go to the Grand Canyon and Disneyland and we did it!!!  We had the best time ever.  We are looking forward again to attending the NANS in Nashville this year (2008).  Both girls competing this time.
At the Grand Canyon with Lisa Dance-Again and her family.  We are indeed a very lucky family.  I'm sure we would never have travelled to the US if not for Irish Dancing!  Funny out of those four pairs of tanned legs two are totally natural .. and to think it took so long getting two pairs soooo tanned.
We saw the Giants Vs Padres in San Diego and had a fantastic time at the baseball.  It was truly one of our highlights and I'd like to thank the Western Region Messageboard members for all their baseball help!  Watch out for us when the Padres play the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on 18 June 2008.
After we returned 2006 was a very quiet year!  I didn't make many dresses that year but then 2007 would mean a few new dresses.  The first dress was designed by Catherine Naylor.  I hadn't worked with Catherine before and to do so was a real treat.  Catherine is a young dress designer/dress maker who in 2006 ended her dancing career with a recall at the Australian Nationals in the Senior Ladies.  It was a wonderful moment for Catherine who had always Irish danced but the National's recall had always evaded her.  To recall at her very last competition in front of her current home crowd was indeed a very special moment!

This is Catherine at the 2006 Senior Ladies Award Ceremony.  It was so exciting for us all!  Catherine designed and made her own dress too.  She has been making some lovely dresses, many of which were worn by dancers recalled and placed highly at the Nationals.
Anyway the first dress for 2007 designed by Catherine was Zoe's dress.  This is the third dress I have made for Zoe.  This time Zoe and her mum, Dee, helped me from beginning to end and it  was a real eye opener for them both.  This year I decided to move away from the Irish Thread's pattern.  Catherine is so clever!  She drafted the pattern for Zoe as well.  I was very nervous not using the Irish Thread's pattern which I loved so much simply because I new it so well.  This new  pattern used a side pleat which, in the end, I could see really did make a difference in making the skirt sit flatter.  We also made pleats for along the bottom of the skirt and in the sleeves too.  The main black fabric on Zoe's dress was fishscale from Borovicks.  The black on the sleeves
and in the skirt is silver sequin on black sheer which I think I originally purchased from Threads of Green or Whitelodge.  We backed the sheer onto cheap black polycotton which helped stablise the sheer but also provided the really black background we were after.  Dee and I were both frightened of the fabrics and how delicate they appeared.  We were very surprised to find that they were definitely not as delicate as they first seemed and even took quite a battering with the iron!   The pleats were easy once Zoe's mum Dee perfected them.  I  remember I had already sewn on the top white line and centre black piece so all I had to do was attach the pleats to the bottom
Next was Jessica's new dress.  She had her last black dress for eighteen months.  She had grown out of it and it was sold long ago.  Once again we called on Liz Davies to draw a design for us.  Liz had never failed us and once again came up with the perfect design for Jessica.  This dress is actually three panels but as you can see its quite difficult to tell.  The beautiful pink fabric was purchased from Threads of Green and has a tye-died effect and the white came from White Lodge.  Both are overlays which were fused onto cheap polycotton.  I was pulling my hair out trying to attach the bodice to the skirt.  It seems much harder to me to attach the skirt and bodice with the dropped waisted dresses.  I can't figure out why but it definitely is harder ... there were many tears in our house the night before a competition when I just couldn't get it right to be finished in time.  I thought I was going to have to throw the whole thing in the bin.  I hated it then.  But in the end it worked out and the dress has been beautiful.  Jessica was very happy and loved her new dress.  For the first time, after many years of trying, Jessica even won the state championships!!!!  We made a soft shawl for the dress and added flowers and diamantees.  Thank goodness that dress was over!!!!
I also decided to try using lycra around the bottom of the dress.  I usually finish off my dresses simply satin stitching around the bottom of each piece before sewing it together but I really wanted to try the lycra and I was so pleased with the finished look.  One hundred per cent coverage with a total white look that was very effective on stage as it really stood out.  It was quite simple to do.  I measured the panel to see how long each length of lycra needed to be and added a couple of centimetres (just in case!) at each end.  I can't remember exactly but each piece was probably appox 7 or 8 cm wide.  I then doubled it over and pinned it to the back of the panel which was already completely stiffened and lined.  I pinned with both edges lining up with the edge of the skirt and then machine sewed the lycra to the underneath of the skirt using the machine's foot as the seam allowance.  The next step was to pull the lycra over to the front and pin again and then sew again but from the front this time.  While at first I was really conscious that my sewing needed to be straight all the way around, to be honest it didn't really matter if it went off line a little.  The white cotton on the white lycra didn't show at all.  The most important thing was to make sure when pinning at the front that the lycra covered the stitching from sewing from the back initially.  Phew that sounds confusing but I think you'll be able to work it out!  I used lycra around the neck as well which was extremely comfortable for a little girl and it was much easier to clean make up off than satin stitching.
By then of course Allison had grown out of her pink dress and was needing something a little more open championship.  Catherine Naylor designed parts of this dress and also drafted a pattern for me.
This dress needed to be made in 2.5 weeks.  I'm sure plenty of dressmakers do this in half the time but sadly not me!!!!  So this dress was a real community effort.  Monica and Kathleen held my hand and pushed me along ... as always ... where would I be without them?  Kathleen Simpson helped me with the shaped neck ... I hate cutting into that neckine!!!!  Then Catherine Naylor helped me sew the front of the skirt together and then Kathryn Trenholme helped me sew the skirt and bodice together.  Lots of parents also gave me lots of encouragement.  Thanks very much  everyone!
For the first time I used velvet for a dress and I really noticed how difficult the extra thick velvet made to sewing the bodice and skirt together.  Even Kathryn Trenholm's industrial machine couldn't get through all that thickness and some parts had to be hand sewn.  My Janome 6600 had no chance!  You may recognise the flower on this dress as it is the same flower on Allison's pink dress.  It may look a little different as this time I got the embroiderer to embroider the flower directly onto the fabric as opposed to making a patch with the embroidery and then sewing it on.  We have received many compliments for this petal dress which looks fabulous on stage.  Congratulations to Allison for winning the ACT Championships and then coming 4th at the Australian Nationals.
Next ...
Over and Out
The shawl was the funniest part of this dress.  I hadn't made a soft shawl before and I really had no idea. I had no pattern.  Dee and I stood around scratching our heads.  We wanted it to fall softly, perfectly.  We tried this.  We tried that.  Nothing seemed to be just what we were wanting.  In the end I just grabbed the fabric ends and with a needle and thread and sewed big looping stitches to try and keep it in place.  And oh my!  It worked!  The shawl fell beautifully!  We laughed and laughed.  We couldn't have made it any more perfectly if we were the most sought after dressmakers in the whole world ... well so we think! 
white row.  I did that by satin stitching the bottom of the white strip to the pleats and then it was easy to position the pleats where I wanted them to line up right across the bottom.  I used vliesofix underneath and ironed them on to hold the pleats in place while I satin stitched the top of the bottom white strip to the dress.  Hmmm, that all sounds very complicated and we probably went about it a very difficult way but looking back it seemed the way to go at the time.
The new sewing machine!!!
Finally I lashed out and bought a new sewing machine.  That was a very exciting time!  I had been using my old Bernina for such a long time and my industrial was just not up to the job!  So I purchased a Janome 6600.  It's been a great machine.  To date very reliable.  I love the automatic needle threader, the lock stitch, the automatic cutter not to mention the extra lift in the foot ... I could go on!!!  Needless to say it was a great buy and I will have this machine long after Irish dancing.  It hasn't had any trouble chomping through all those thickenesses when sewing the bodice to the skirt ... although it didn't like my last velvet dress very much ... hmm could be time for a service.
This is the dress I have been working on most recently.  It's a five panel dress which if you are not confident to applique could be the ideal dress for you to make.  It was very simple but as you can see extremely effective.  I'm sure it will look stunning on stage.  This dress is currently for sale  and is looking for a new ower.  It's brand new.  The white cut-work lace is just stunning and was purchased from Rachel Franzen.  Click here to visit Rachel's site.