We all know the blindingly obvious: that figure skaters wear figure skates on the ice. But have you been wondering what you can wear inside your skates, to maximise comfort and minimise damage to your skin and feet? Whether you're a beginner on the ice, or a seasoned skater looking for some fresh insights into gaining that little bit of extra comfort this season read on for my take on what to wear on your feet during your skating session!

As you will know by now if you are a regular reader of FigureSkatingAdvice, I love to get feedback from my readers and ideas for new posts. Today's post idea came from Lauren, who asked me if I could write about the different fabrics that can be used in the construction of figure skating costumes. I've written quite extensively about skating apparel over the past year, and Lauren drew my attention to the fact that although I've covered things like making soakers for your blades, how to choose and attach rhinestones and sequins, and how to start out making your own skating costumes, I hadn't dedicated any one post to skating fabrics. Let the fun begin!

Even if you're a regular FigureSkatingAdvice reader, you probably don't know that I've been a knitting fan for a long time. Due to the hand injuries I've been suffering these past 3 years, I've not done any knitting (or other crafts, *sniff sniff*) at all, but over the past few months I've been able to pick up the needles and (slowly) enjoy making some little garments and accessories. It's so rewarding! Obviously this being me, the thought eventually crossed my mind... "what could you knit for the skater in your life?" And voilà, this post was born!

I'm sure by now you guys have heard the buzz-word "up-cycling" to describe giving a new life to an old item, and if you hadn't, well, you have now! If you're in skating then you are well aware of the financial load the sport can put on your wallet, as was I while skating competitively. I thought it would be fun to tell you lovely readers about up-cycling skating dresses, because I have done this with my own old dresses, and it worked out fabulously! Read on for all the deets my pretties!

Today I wanted to write a little something related to dresses (and men's costumes) because it's an important subject, and seems to be one that my readers and other's in the skating blogosphere have seen as a central theme on my blog. In the run up to Christmas, with everything sparkling around us, you may be inspired to start thinking about your next skating costume (or just throw copious amounts of glitter over yourself -- both are equally acceptable in my opinion!), so here's a list of 5 faux pas (that's French for "mis-step" literally, i.e. something to avoid doing, ooh la la!) for when you're either choosing or designing your next skating outfit!

If you're anything like me, you don't have enough space in your closet as it is. Adding skating costumes to this is kind of a space-consuming nightmare, so I thought I'd write a post today on a few storage options for skating costumes, to liberate your wardrobe a new!

Well I was taking a look at one of my favourite rhinestone seller's eBay page recently, and I came across beautiful rhinestone strips of all sizes, and colours! It instantly got me thinking of ways you could use this fantastic product in skating, and voila! a new post was born!

Following on from my recent post regarding the choice of sewing machines for the manufacture of skating apparel, today I want to expand on a small note that I wrote at the bottom of the aforementioned post: the matter of the tools that will greatly enhance your dress making experience.

A month or so ago, Jeff over at LA-Skate-Dad asked me if I had any tips for choosing a dress maker. As soon as he enquired on this subject, I knew a blog post should be written, at some point, to discuss this oh-so important subject. And here we are!

As previously discussed in numerous other posts (such as: Lets Go Figure Skating Dress Shopping!) one of the options open to you guys, whether you're a skater or a parent looking to kit out your little ice star, is the custom made dress. So what qualities should you be looking for in a dress maker, and how do you go about finding one? Read on my pretties!

I've written quite a few posts on the subject of skating outfits and dress design now (see below), and I've been wanting to provide you all with a template dress sketch for a while. Today I finally got around to sitting down at the table and sketching out both a ladies and a girls sketch template, so you can get dress-creative even if you can't draw anything more anatomically correct than a stick-man!

Welcome back, if you've been reading part 1 and part 2 of this series on costume design, or welcome full stop for those of you joining us today for the first time! Be sure to check out the previous posts in this mini-series on breaking down the figure skating dress design process.

Today we are going to be considering the role of shapes in dress design, and how you can use cut and shapes to relay a given message or atmosphere to your audience. So let's get cracking!

Carrying on with our 4-part series in skating costume design, this post is the second part, following up on Part 1: The Design Process Demystified.

Today we’ll be hypothesising two figure skating costumes, to suit two very different styles/music. One will be a Latin outfit, the other something soft and romantic that one might expect to see on a skater who’s music is one of the great works of Chopin or Rachmaninov.
We’re going to be using colour swatches to demonstrate how colour can influence your feelings and convey a certain message to the viewer.

Have you ever been in the middle of preparing for a competition or test, and realised your dresses are no longer smelling of roses? Do your tights have water stains from falls or spray, or worse, splatters of black rink-rubber gunk up the legs? Needless to say skating outfits are generally quite fragile little things, especially when adorned with crystals or hand-sewn beading! Even competition tights, which are usually worn thinner than training tights, can be delicate to wash if ladders and holes are to be avoided.

A few simple tips will help you avoid having to spend the night before your big performance re-gluing Swarovskis back onto your bodice. So read on to learn the secrets of successfully rinsed rink-wear!

Ok, this is going to be a short post. It's more like a list of things to consider during costume conception. It's intended as an aid to designing your costume (whether you'll be making it or not), in the form of a list of styles per element of the costume (piccies included!).