Tina's Skate Ware

[nicklaszlo]

Anyone tried their semi-custom dresses?  Have a review?

http://tinaskating.com/cart/

[hopskipjump]

YES!  My dd's bestie gets her dresses there and they look beautiful.  Her mom sometimes buys them un-stoned/undecorated she she can make the dress more custom.  Tina's is also on ebay.  She did tell me to go up one size so the dress fits the entire season - the perfect size by Tina's charts is a little snug.

They aren't 500 dollar dresses, but they are made nicely and look really pretty on the ice.

If you don't mind limited choices, we love Carrie Jones.  If you are on her email list you get an extra discount on her "sale ready to wear" (actually everything but if it's not under 150 it's out of my budget).  I think her sizing is true to size.  Dd was between sizes and she said one would be too big and one wouldn't make it through a season.  We got too big and I had it altered.  It was about 129 regularly $300+ and stoned/foiled.  I check every day to see if anything has been added for next season.

[aussieskater]

Our synchro team just ordered one dress from her as a test to see if her dresses will be suitable for a synchro team dress this year.  We sent the measurements of our middle-sized skater and she's made it to fit those measurements.

She shipped it last week but I don't have it yet - will update once I get my hands on it!  Her price is certainly good...

[FigureSpins]

I bought a dress from her through eBay.  Be sure to send measurements and specify the color(s) of decorations that you want.  The dress we ordered was pictured as white with all-black beading/flowers.  When it arrived, the fit was perfect and the decorations on the body of the dress were black.  However, the beads around the neckline and back were purple.  Turns out that she makes the dresses in three different combinations so we got the black-and-purple since we didn't specify all-black. 

I didn't care for the look and DD was very disappointed.  I will say the seller was very courteous and professional about the mixup.  I sent the dress back and the replacement just arrived yesterday via Overnight delivery at no extra charge.  I'm a little nervous about the sizing because it doesn't look like the same dress, so DD will have to try it on this afternoon.

The dress itself is very well-made with a back zipper and a mixture of nice fabrics.  I was surprised that much of the beading was actually sewn-on, not glued.  The airbrushed skirt is very pretty and looks dip-dyed.  I think the black beads look fine, especially from a distance, but the purple beads were cheap-looking up close, but looked okay from a distance.   The beads are acrylic, not swarovskis, but there are a smattering of crystals on the dress to make it sparkle.  However, the flowers and arrangement of the beads are just beautiful to see. 

[lines]

I just ordered a dress from her but I was worried about exactly that - that the dress won't have any room for growth.  My daughter is a petite 8 year old and I would like the dress to fit through this time next year.  I these are her measurement, how should I ask her to make the dress?

Girth: 42.5 "
Bust: 23"
Hips: 22.5"
Waist: 22"

[FigureSpins]

I think the type of growth between 8 and 9 is different - you won't see as much of an increase in the bustline.  I'm not sure how to predict what her measurements will be next year.

My DD is 13 and I just wanted the dress to fit for this season.  We figured we could always baste a seam tighter if the dress was too big, but the stretchy material was fine.

I added an inch onto all the measurements other than girth.  For girth, I added 2" because her sister might want to borrow the dress and she's very long-waisted.  (As in "beyond the length of a normal tape measure.")  I didn't want her to ruin the dress.

The replacement dress (sent overnight at no extra charge) seemed to fit even better than the first copy, but that's probably because she joined the Track team in the interim and lost weight/slimmed down.  Everyone thought it fit beautifully and looked stunning on the ice. 

The beading along the arm openings was annoying to her while she skated, but who would know that?  The fabric turned inward and the beads were scratchy, she said.  I don't know if there's anything that can prevent that, but it's a short program, so she can tough it out.

[MadMac]

Girth is always the most important measurement.

[Skittl1321]

The beading along the arm openings was annoying to her while she skated, but who would know that?  The fabric turned inward and the beads were scratchy, she said.  I don't know if there's anything that can prevent that, but it's a short program, so she can tough it out.

Illusion arms can help this quite a bit.  Rhinestones aren't as painful as sequins, but we had a dance costume that had sequins along the edge of the armpit, and they would cut into the illusion arms, so they had to be resewn regularly- finally the manager of the team cut the arms off, most of the team developed bleeding armpits, as the sequins began cutting our skin!  Putting the arms back in, and dealing with the maintenance was a better option.  So if they really do bother her, it is a solution.

[FigureSpins]

This was the dress:



It came with a matching scrunchie but her hair was too short, so I decorated a headband.  She found some trim with black fabric flowers on a netting background.  That got hot-glued in place, sacrificing two fingers to burns, lol.  Bought a flower pin/clip that was a black-and-white pinstripe.  Clipped it on through the netting and part of a flower and it stayed nicely.

[Hanca]

Very nice dress!!! 

[1210]

I just got my dress in today from Tina's. I am thrilled beyond belief, the dress is simply breathtaking. Here it is:

[nicklaszlo]

Thanks everyone for the reviews.  We got two costumes from Tina.  I would give them good marks for appearance and fit.  However, rather bad marks for punctuality.  One costume arrived exactly as planned, but with no explanation the other missed its arrival date twice.  It managed to show up in the 24 hour window between our dress rehearsal and our performance.  Good thing we gave her a deadline of a week before the show, because it was nearly a week late!

[jjane45]

That was tight. The costumes were absolutely beautiful!! And the solo a big success!

[Hanca]

My dress arrived today. It is beautiful! The only downside is that it arrived only today (today I was doing the tests). The dress arrived after I have done my tests!  But never mind. I love the dress and there will be plenty of other tests.

[nicklaszlo]

I now have four costumes from Tina.  The price is good and they look good, but there have been issues with her reliability.

[Christy]

Having used this thread to decide to use Tina's service I thought I should update with my experience.

The dress turned up today so the delivery timing was excellent, and the dress was very well packaged. I was impressed as other people had mentioned timing issues.
However the rest of the experience was bad - the dress I ordered was shown on the website in velvet, I received an email from Tina stating that the dress was made in velvet, and I emailed her assistant specifying that I wanted the dress made in velvet. When I placed the order I asked for the dress to be made exactly as it was shown on the website, with some changes which I detailed. So imagine my horror when I opened the package and found a hideous limp lycra monstrosity instead of the beautiful velvet dress from the website. (just to say I've seen some beautiful lycra dresses - maybe it was the design or the material they were using, but it certainly didn't work for this one).

I immediately packaged the offending article up and emailed Tina to advise her of her mistake. From previous comments I had hoped for good customer service and a reasonably fast turnaround so was horrified when Tina replied that it would take 4-5 weeks and said that I should have specified velvet on the order because she gets lots of emails! I have emailed back to say this is not acceptable so will see if she takes responsibility for her mistake, however by the time I get the dress I won't have any use for it........

So if you are thinking of ordering from Tina note the fact that the buyer is responsible for problems with the product the seller pays the shipping costs (I did know this but thought I my instructions were clear and specific enough to avoid mistakes). Also note that even something as specific as 'exactly like the dress on the website' may result in a different material being used.

[Christy]

I received my replacement dress today so thumbs up to Tina's for delivery time again (much quicker than she advised), and also for good packaging.
This time the dress is closer to what I wanted in as much as it's velvet, although the skirt is the same length all round (I was very specific about lengths for front and back), but the colours are just weird - a very odd peach clashing with a deep red, and not very vibrant. The skirt is too full and there is some excess material at the seams of the skirt meaning it hangs strangely / bulges at the sides (not related to the way the body of the dress fits), plus the zipper sticks badly in at least 5 places. Also I had asked for the neckline to be copied from another dress as I didn't want a mandarin collar - the first dress was an exact match (it's one redeeming feature) however the neckline on this dress is enormous - much too large.
It will serve a purpose but I really don't like it, so I couldn't recommend Tina's to a friend.......

[Christy]

Had hoped to be able to edit previous comment but can't see an option so if the admins want to merge please go ahead.

Update: I took the dress to some knowledgeable skating friends tonight, to get their opinions on whether or not I should try to salvage it. When they took the dress out of the bag (just the plastic one it came in) about 30 stones fell off and more followed as they inspected it. They pointed out an inch long hole where the skirt wasn't actually attached to the body and quite a few patches where the paint hadn't been properly applied (gaps between pain and glitter) and a lot more where the paint colour was very uneven. They also pointed out a area larger than a quarter on the skirt which was gray / dirty (not sure what but wouldn't come off with gentle rubbing) and a streak of orange paint around 2 inches long on the skirt.

They didn't think it was salvageable and suggested I return it but I really can't be bothered with the hassle / postage costs / worry about what on earth any replacement would be like, plus the very sight of it just depresses me (it was my first ever skating dress) so I'm popping it into the charity bag in the hope some kid can use it for Halloween.....

[Loops]

Oh my goodness Christy, this is so sad!

Out of curiosity generated from this thread, I had a look at Tina's website.  It seems that she's pretty serious about this whole dress business, and personally I would at least zap her an email with photos of the spots you mentioned., or at least call her if it's easier to handle.  The product is not up to standard nor does it sound wearable.  She deserves to know this.

Hopefully she'll make good on the product (which imo at this point means a full refund).  Goodness knows you deserve some respect from her, and if she's serious about keeping clients/getting good "street creds", she'll take this situation very seriously.

Good luck.  Hopefully you can get more out of this than just a charity bin donation. 

[Christy]

Well, I knew it was a risk getting something off the internet, and also knew that the quality of a website was no guarantee of the quality of the product.
I did contact her when the first dress was made in the wrong material and provided a very detailed list of what needed to change, but she seemed reluctant and a lot of the list was ignored so I'm not sure if it would any different third time around, plus I have to pay to return the dress each time.
Maybe I'll stick it on eBay instead, and give the proceeds to charity.

[sarahspins]

Personally I'd stay away from any ombré or color fades... The way they are done is with some kind of thick paint (as opposed to being dyed) I've seen a wide range of them and none of them hold up well. Most start cracking and peeling after being worn just a few times. That said, I have two dresses from Tina's and I like them, but I would strongly suggest going with a solid color over anything obviously painted.