After the practice last night, I had the girls try on their costumes without the skirts. They all fit! Since the fabric doesn't have all that much stretch and I had to measure most of them on a cold day at the semi-enclosed rink when they were wearing snow suits, I was a bit nervous.
Last year, the learn-to-skate show group was less organized and I was only able to measure them at the rink 7 days before the show. There were no practices during the week and I had to wait until the afternoon of the show to see if they fit.
Somehow, while trying to measure the girls at the cold rink while holding a fussy 6 week old, I only had a chest measurement for 1 girl. Since I didn't really have other options, I gambled and made a dress based on just the 1 measurement.
Everyone else's dress fit. I had a hard time convincing this girl's mother to have her try on the dress but she finally did, at a little more than an hour before we needed to be back for the show. It was 2" too short to get on, and 2" too narrow across the shoulders.
I packed 4 kids in the car and rushed home. It was lucky that I had some extra skirt fabric. First I picked off the skirt and made a new longer one. Next, I sliced horizontally just above the leg holes and added a 2" band to extend the length, then sewed on the new skirt above the band. For the shoulders, I sliced down perpendicularly from the middle of the shoulder seam, and inserted gores. It looked great on the ice, but I really didn't want another last minute panic like that this year.
--Betsy