[kamilia]

I second (third? fourth?) the Danskin recommendation. Any brand of professional fishnets will do, really. They are the only ones that don't snag on sequins, which can make you trip over your own skirt and that's just not graceful at all...

Wide gauge fishnets do the trick, too. I've gotten some at Victoria's Secret that don't snag too much. It's great if you really need some fast. Even if they don't snag as much as recreational fishnets, they don't last half as long as the professional kind.

I've found some wide-gauge fishnet fabric online, and I'm thinking you could make a sweet custom net with it.

Just be careful of the distinction between "toast" and "sunset" (or whatever the colors are) when ordering the professional ones. There is this reddish color that you sometimes get when trying to order nude, but it works great with warm colored costumes (like red, orange, gold, copper...)

Whenever you sew with net, I think the best seam you could use is a rolled one. I've found these feet even for conventional machines, so I guess you don't HAVE to have a serger.

The best nets I've seen have the wide elastic taken off the top, are secured most of the way around the bra with something like a whipping stitch, secured at the bottom to a pair of underwear, and have a zipper going from the top of the net going down into the underwear. I bet you could keep the legs on if you wanted to do it that way, too (they stretch like...insert simile here...)

This is the old Egyptian style, I think, but it seems worth the effort. It's always ready for you without the fuss of pins; i bet you can wash just the net and the underwear without getting the bra wet; and if you sew some sequins or rhinestones into the net from the beginning, anytime a hole appears you can just add a little more decoration to cover it up. Decorated nets are great!

I have been wearing one since I was 18, so I think it does more than just smooth out stretch marks or cinch in some "extra" flesh: I think it makes the costume look more finished, elongate short torsos (like someone said before), and for us very very pale chicks, help cut down on the "Casper" effect of white against orange, for example. I've been lazy lately with the nets, and I really regret it!

Some costumes, like the newer ones that come up closer to the waist or ones with extra belts that go around the belly, might do the job without the net, too. Those are nice...

I've heard customers and owners say very mean things behind dancers' backs about their bodies, and I can only assume that they're judging parts of my body, too (like my potato farmer legs). Actually, come to think of it, someone did make a not so nice comment about my legs once...so I cinch them up with nets! I don't like bowing down to such petty standards, but I think there are more advantages than disadvantages to wearing one.

FIN