Category: irish dance dress designs


Purchasing and using Taoknitter Arts Designs

FYI: All digitized design file sales are for single use on solo dresses to be sold, or unlimited use for personal purposes not involving re-sale. If designs are for team dresses, multiple OTR solo dresses, or other retail items, the unlimited use license is 3 times the file price.  Files cannot be re-sold; violators will be prosecuted. 

It is important that all clients, from the beginning embroiderer to the professional, are happy.  We are here to fix files, trouble-shoot stitch-outs, answer questions, etc.   All questions, problems, & comments can be sent to taoknitter@gmail.com. Please be aware that because of the digital nature of purchases made from me, there are no refunds.  However, I will do everything in my power to make sure your files work beautifully.

All of the Taoknitter Arts Irish Dance Dress Embroidery Designs are digitized and ready for you to use on your own embroidery machine.  All embroidery formats are supported.  Embroidery services are also available for those without embroidery capabilities or if your hoops are too small for a specific design.  All designs can be split, revised and/or re-sized for you needs.

You can see all of the currently available designs on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/taoknitter/).  There are some newer ones that are still in the process of being digitized, but if you want something that I have not finished yet, I will finish it for you.  The full design sets (with all of the individual pieces) are only visible to Flickr contacts that have been designated “friends,” so if you would like to see everything, create a Flickr account for yourself and then add me as a contact and friend.  I will designate you as a friend when I am either notified by Flickr or you.

Facebook

Re-sizing, Revising, Splitting 

These charges are in addition to the initial cost of the designs.

  1. Simple re-sizing: Free
  2. Design revision: $5-$50 (depends on complexity of revisions)
  3. Splitting: $7-10 per split file (depends on complexity of the splitting).

Custom Designs & Custom Digitizing

If you just do not see what you want in the Taoknitter Arts collection, we can start from scratch! We are available to discuss your dress ideas, to work with your concepts or create one for you, to answer questions about achieving great looking embroidery, to troubleshoot stitch-outs if necessary, etc. We can also do your embroidery for you.  As accomplished dressmakers and embroiderers, we are here to support the Irish Dance Dressmaker/Embroiderer whether you are a newbie or an experienced professional. Please contact Ann at taoknitter@gmail.com to get started.

Also, if you want to design your own unique dress, we can help you do that! Custom, one-off designs that you provide me can be digitized from jpeg, bmp, png, vector graphics, etc.  I do not use the auto digitize feature as it always fails to produce a neat product, especially when dealing with the complicated overs and unders of Celtic knots.  Digitizing prices range from $3/1000 stitches (if digitizing from clear, symmetrical, and proportioned graphics) to $4.50/1000 stitches (if working from hand drawn design “ideas” that require more attention).

Let me explain the pricing range: while hand-drawn designs can be clearly presented, there is usually added time to interpret and work through the whole design to ensure that correct line widths are being used consistently and that the correct symmetry applies where needed.   The only way to cut that down and reduce cost is to send me clear vector graphics with the lines already drawn to the correct widths and all elements presented symmetrically; however unless you can do that yourself, that will cost you as much or more than the stitch digitizing!  I do have several clients who send designs to me that way which means I can quickly give a more accurate estimate (which is again something hard to do with hand drawn designs), and eliminates the additional cost, but I also know they do that work themselves. I do not require vector graphics as I am experienced working with hand drawn designs, but it does cost more in terms of time and labor.

The total cost of digitizing your own design can range anywhere from $25 to $1000 depending upon the complexity of the work and the final stitch count. The final design and embroidery files belong to you after payment is made, and will not be re-used or sold by Taoknitter Arts. Please email taoknitter@gmail.com to start the process.

Embroidery

Any design can be stitched onto fabric you have interfaced, stabilized, and marked accordingly (see directions here: https://taoknitterarts.com/2011/04/21/pursuing-the-perfect-embroidery-stitch-out/)

If your dress is done, appliques are your best option (for more information, please click here: Custom Appliques), but if it is not, embroidering directly onto your pieces is more economical.  The cost for this can range from $75-700 depending on the design and total number of stitches.There is of course the cost of the designs to add to that.  Keep in mind that even if you want an element stitched onto the skirt 20 times, you only pay for that design once.

Embroidery costs are:

  1. $1.00/1000 stitches using rayon or polyester thread plus the cost of thread
  2. $1.50/1000 stitches using metallics (no super-twist) plus the cost of thread
  3. $2.00 per 1000 stitches for applique designs plus the cost of thread

These prices include extra stabilizers used with the hoops. If I cannot do your embroidery for you, I have contacts, but they have their own pricing.  Please email taoknitter@gmail.com for more information.

 

Still to come: how to prep your fabric to send to me for embroidery…for now, here is a bit of info:

 https://taoknitterarts.com/2008/10/22/interfacing-and-stabilizing-fabric-for-embroidery/  The password is taoknitter. As for the design, once I get your fabric and see the area to be embroidered, I will make it fit.  Just make sure to trace your pattern piece onto the prepped fabric.If you send me swatches of the colors you want for thread, I can match it.  If you do not have swatches, if you go to to fabric store and choose colors from the Sulky embroidery thread, I can convert to the thread I use.

If you are interested in any of these designs for your next Irish Dance dress, please contact me at taoknitter@gmail.com.

AD 43

AD 44

AD 45


             

AD 46

If you are interested in any of these designs for your next Irish Dance dress, please contact me at taoknitter@gmail.com.

Another new dress, this one made by Mary Jo Farr of Trefoil Designs.  

I did the embroidery, fooling with the design to get what MJ wanted.  This is one of my designs, a diagonal (obviously), based  on TA-AD 1.  I will get it up in the store soon, but as usual, if you want it sooner rather than later, email me.

I love doing these dress, MJ!!  This is one of the prettiest we have done yet!

Also have the first ribbon bodice digitized.  This can be either a stitch fill or an applique.  I will get it in the store, but it is available sooner if you want it.

There are currently 2 design sets from Susan available on Taoknitter Arts: Irish Dance Dress Designs & Embroidery.  Click anywhere below to get to a page of dress ideas.  Please keep in mind that I am still available to help you create your dream dress in any way I can!  More designs are on the way!

TA-SG 2

TA-SG 2 dress aaa TA-SG 2 dress a

TA-SG 1

TA-SG dress 1aaTA-SG dress 1bb

There are currently 2 design sets from Ann Donahue available on Taoknitter Arts: Irish Dance Dress Designs & Embroidery.  Click anywhere below to get to a page of dress ideas.  Please keep in mind that I am still available to help you create your dream dress in any way I can!  More designs are on the way!

TA-AD 2

TA-AD dress 2cc

TA-AD 1

TA-AD 1 dress aTA-AD 1 dress b

There is a new thread on Celtic Flame about stealing designs.  A dressmaking mom writes that another mom in her school told her she was wasting her time coming up with her own designs because there was so much to COPY on the internet.  When she first wrote, she alluded to a website that sells embroidery, so I wondered if she might be talking about Taoknitter Arts.

An answer that she just posted to another reply makes me think she is talking about my website.

Big sigh. 

Susan and I have hashed out the pitfalls of posting clear pics of the designs since I started.  She has dealt with this issue far longer than I have, and I respect her viewpoint, her advice and her experience.  I will not bore you, or myself, by re-visiting  the mental gymnastics (complete with teeth gnashing) that helped me arrive at the current presentation of the designs on my website.  If you look at it, I think you get it.

But, I do want to say that I know I take the risk of people copying things.  I have this tendency to believe that all folks are inherently honest and honorable.  I do, routinely, get blind-sided by self-serving idiots with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, and I sometimes finally get really irked by stupidity and mean-spiritedness, but I have yet to see a change in my basic trust.  I now know what it sounds like when Susan shakes her head at me over the phone.

It would make me crazy to try to police things or try to find a more complicated way of managing the designs.  But let me be clear, copying a design is stealing and I am not shy about approaching the thief and making it public if I have to.  I did, by accident, see an exact copy of a dress I made for my daughter.  Susan designed it for us.  The design was never made available, but there it was, perfectly copied on someone else’s dress.  When I contacted the overseas dressmaker, she was great about it, very sorry, and told me that the design had been given to her by the dancer. 

I get contacted rather often by dancers who send me pics of designs from other dresses, even BN dresses, wanting THAT design digitized.  Sometimes I get a design “created by the dancer” only to be led by the dressmaking gods to pics of the EXACT design on a finished dress…that blows my mind.  Once I explain that I will not copy because it is both unethical and illegal, they usually calmly explain that they did not know that and we go forward.  Only once did I not hear back after my refusal…I think that was embarrassment.

I do think most folks either do not know or really do not think about it.  One poster on CF wrote: ” I think the problem is that most people don’t equate “appropriating” someone’s design as stealing because they don’t physically take something.  It isn’t like shoplifting where you actually take something in your hand.

It’s more like cheating on a test.

Ask your friend if she encourages her dd to copy her neighbor’s answers on exams in school. Why not? It is just what she did. She used someone else’s work and passed it off as her own.

Ask her if she’s going to brag about how she aquired her designs – Wow look what I copied off of the internet and I didn’t have to pay for it! If someone asks her where the design came from, is she going to say “Oh I digitized it myself” or something equally evasive. If she’s so proud of her cleverness, why not tell all?

Ask her if she thinks the TC will be happy if she finds out the design was lifted. Is she OK with her school being known as the one where it is OK to rip off other people’s dresses?”

Interesting viewpoint.

Susan made me laugh when she pointed out that truly, the only thing I should worry about is if someone else’s poorly digitized “copy” was thought to be mine!  Now that would be a drag!

There was also a point made by someone about using designs from a site on the internet.  She wrote: “While there are a couple of sites out there that have drawn up several dress designs specifically for irish dancing use, you have to remember then, that your dress won’t be an original. Chances of running into another dancer with the same pattern are slim but just something to keep in mind.

That mind set has never occurred to me!!  Yes, yes, I know that the conversation about whether or not a BN dress is really custom when they re-use designs in part or in whole pops up routinely.  But, it has always been my assumption that each dressmaker brings a totally different perspective to making a dress and so it will be rare that 2 dressmakers will use the same design the same way let alone the same fabrics.  In fact, what I love about my clients is that they always do something I did not envision.  Very often, they ask me to modify the designs by taking something out, putting something else in, taking it apart or trying something new with a piece of something else!  I love it.

Still, I guess that is a concern for some people.  I appreciate that.  And I also thoroughly appreciate my creative dressmaking clients.  Thank you for spurring me on!

I thought that the above might have been a rant…I guess it was just a bit of mental popcorn…

There are a couple of links in this brief post about Copyright Law: Substantial Similarity.