I bought a used skating dress that has non-stretchy straps. The person who sold it to me (it was not hers, she was selling on consignment) told me that the sequin straps would have to be re-done because someone had sewed the sequin trim onto non-stretch ribbon for straps. I sew, and recognized the sequin trim from JoAnn Fabrics and didn't think anything of it. The trim itself is stretchy, maybe 3/4 - 1" wide. If I do remove the non-stretch ribbon, I will have to replace it with something as a base for the trim, I guess some soft elastic.
Once I had the dress at home and had detached one end of each strap, I realized why someone might have used non-stretch ribbon as the base. The dress itself is very stretchy but the style is such that you need fairly secure straps to ensure the dress won't slide down.
Now I am thinking I should keep the non-stretch straps to guard against a major wardrobe malfunction.
Has anyone skated in a dress with non-stretch straps before? I will of course try it out but I am thinking the stretch of the dress itself will be sufficient for skating movements.
The dress is not handmade but I think the sequin trim and sequin straps were added by someone after they bought the dress. No idea what the original straps might have looked like.