Review
"Gail Blanchette is the best friend every sewer has ever wanted to have around while making a dance costume!" --
Melissa Darnell, author of The Ultimate Guide to Making 7 Quick & Easy Dance Costumes
About the Author
Gail (Littlefield) Blanchette, author of The Ultimate Guide to Sewing Dance Competition Costumes, has been sewing since she was eight. Her grandmother, who was the "town dressmaker" of tiny Monroe, Maine, taught her on Mrs. Blanchette's many weekend visits. Mrs. Blanchette also took ballet, tap and jazz dance lessons for several years. She sewed costumes for school theater and Halloween, and sewed her own clothes through high school.
When in college, Mrs. Blanchette started taking on small alteration jobs for spending money. After graduation, marriage, and three children, Mrs. Blanchette's sewing business in alterations and dance costumes became a permanent fixture in the Blanchette household. When she moved to Massachusetts in 1987, she also began doing bridal wear, and one of her designs was even featured on the October 1991 cover of the New England Bride magazine along with a feature article!
In 1991, Mrs. Blanchette moved to Medway, MA, where, in addition to her sewing business, she helped make costumes for many of the high school musical productions. It was also here in Medway that she met Pat Foley, whose daughters and sons all danced competitively. Mrs. Foley, who had a flair for designing both the costumes and the rhinestone decorations, made the perfect partner to Mrs. Blanchette's sewing ability.
Together they have spent a decade making great costumes, and in January 2000, they opened DancingDesigns. Mrs. Blanchette also opened an online fabric store in August 2000, thus providing sewers worldwide the ease of ordering performance fabrics online. She has since authored her first book, The Ultimate Guide to Sewing Dance Competition Costumes, a compilation of her many years of experience in the dance costume creation business, and looks forward to authoring many more future related titles.
