The Christmas Dress

A few months ago  I saw this dress  pattern on etsy  and  I  had to have it.  Luckily, I have a size 8 child to fit it!  I probably would have bought it even if I didn't have a size 8 child because it is just so sweet!  I love 60's patterns.  I love the black dress & white shirt version. How classic!  I wanted to make her one exactly like it. 

I searched and searched around town for a lightweight white cotton for the shirt. I knew what I wanted but could not find it anywhere.  I finally found it at Joann's.  It is so lightweight it is almost see through. Eden had a HUGE problem with the idea that it was see through but once I got it through to her that the velvet would cover everything up, she relaxed :). 

The velvet I found at Joann's too, after I had ordered some velvet from Fabric.com.  The velvet that came from Fabric.com was not what I had in mind. It was very thin. It was described as thick but what showed up wasn't.  I  stopped into in Joann's for some  cording for Stephanie's kitchen valances that I thought I had bought already and couldn't find and HOORAY! they had  a brand new bolt of nice thick black velvet . 

Here she is before school on the day of her class christmas party.  

The dress is lined in cheery red lining. The pattern did not call for the dress to be lined but I really  feel that lining clothing makes them sooo much more comfy to wear. 

I used a book on linings for assistance on creating a lining - The Easy Guide to Sewing Linings  by Connie Long.    I used info in the chapter on dress linings, sewing the un-interfaced lining directly onto the lining, then attaching that to the dress.                            Here is  a photo of the book. ( I have been sitting here forever trying to turn the photo into a link with no luck- :(  I'm being outsmarted by blogger.  ) 

 This pattern  itself could not be more beautifully simple.  There are four pieces - front, back, neck and arm facings, that's it!  And small too, as it is for a 9 year old.  However, sewing the velvet could have been more fun.  It slid around like crazy! I had to pin and pin and pin.   Also, I  could not press the seams down as the velvet would crush and look shiny on spots.  I ended up top stitching around the neck and arms to get them to stay down as without pressing them, they just wouldn't lay right. 

The hem is done with lace hem tape attached  by zig zag and then hand sewn up. 

Here is E in the dress sitting on Santa's lap with her cousin Molly. 

The shirt was pretty easy to make too. I think it took a total of three hours to complete.  I used french seams at the shoulders and all other seams are clipped very close and zig zagged. 

The neckline has  bias tape over the raw edges of the seams instead of a facing. This worked very well for such a sheer material. 

The collar and cuffs is edged  in a tiny  lace.  I had a terrible terrible moment with this lace!!  I was giving the shirt a last press with a super hot iron and the iron slid off the press cloth and went over the lace- which I did not realize is polyester and IT MELTED!! Into a glob of ick on the edge of the collar!

 (Luckily, I was raised by a sailor and so I have the proper vocabulary for these moments. I said every word I knew and then I made up some!)

After I calmed down, I looked at the collar and realized there was no way I could take apart the collar section  of the shirt to remove that section of lace.  I had inserted the lace back at step one when I sewed the collar together.  I ended up clipping the melted plastic off and hand sewing in a small section of lace to the edge of underneath on that section of collar. - when she is wearing it, you cannot tell at all where I fixed it. 

 This picture Eden is wearing the 'muslin'  aka the practice version of the shirt. Sometimes I don't make a muslin out of muslin fabric- if I am going to be spending a lot of time on it, I might as well make it out of a fabric that she can wear.  This farbic was $1 a yard so if I blew it out of the water, there was no loss.  When  I made the muslin,  we found the shirt was very short, so I added a ruffle onto the bottom to lengthen it. When I made the white cotton version, I just added about 4 inches onto the bottom of the pattern  when cutting out.

I made a muslin for the dress as well out of actual muslin and found we only needed to take in an inch on the front and back.

 Eden is sitting on her Grampa's lap,
who is also wearing his Father Christmas coat that I made.
 Pretty cool, eh?

E learning the trick to multiplying nines from Aunt Stef. 

The pattern was pristine and  untouched when I received it in the mail. I felt a little guilty cutting into a perfect untouched 1960's pattern  for notches and  using the dressmakers tracing wheel on the darts. But I really didn't want to take the time to trace it.  The pattern is still totally usable and anyhoo-  the pattern is mine now forever, mwahaha.:) :)  I will just pass it down to E to make a dress for her baby  when she is  older ! :) :)

Father Christmas has come to town

It's December! How on earth did this happen??  I swear it was October just 2 minutes ago...

 A couple of  weeks ago I finally finished up a  Father Christmas coat for my dad.  He dresses as Santa each year and wanted a bit of a change.  He asked for a long coat in a different red than his regular Santa suit.

Here he is  in the coat with Honey, Lynchburg TN's prettiest blond girl.   Check out her hooves! What a lady :)

Honey is  the sweetest horse ever!  

It is this pattern, lower right view, with a few decorative changes. McCalls 5550

I tissue fitted him this summer so I could get a general idea of how it was going to fit him- was it going to be long enough to cover the tops of his boots?   How long were the sleeves on him?
I took measurements of him to use but tissue fitting  worked better for me. This is my dad, covered in pattern paper :)

I have never made a father Christmas coat before.  I also do not generally make things for men so I covered all the fitting bases by tissue fitting, measuring and making a muslin.


We tissue fitted this summer .
I made a muslin of the coat out of drapery lining and sent it to him in TN.
He then took it to a friend down the road a ways and she marked up the muslin to fit, added markings where he wanted pockets,  and then he sent it back.
Last, I made the coat and sent it back!

• I added a lining as the velveteen is HEAVY and it would be very hard to pull that heavy coat on without lining.  The lining , I think,  makes the coat comfortable . As Dad does parades and outdoor festivals, he might be wearing a coat or at least long sleeves under the coat. The lining enables that he will be able to move .
• The faux fur  on the sleeve ends is  on the inside of the coat as well. Dad does parades and there is waving going on. I needed to be sure that the coat sleeves were  waving friendly: meaning you couldn't see any construction on the inside.  It was pretty tricky to figure out how I was going to do that and not have all of the stitching show. I had to sit down and use all of my brain cells.  I ended up sewing both fur pieces  in the seam and then stitching the inside faux fur and then the outside- that hid all of the construction.
• I added a hood. When looking up father Christmas images, about half had a hood. I think it looks more traditional with the hood. I am still making  two hats for dad to go with the suit, one with the holly ribbon and one without so he can wear it with the suit. The hood is a bit big and it doesn't stay up too well. Those hats should happen this week. 
• I added a wide ribbon around the edges of the fur. I thought the coat needed an extra somethin' somethin'.  It adds in an extra bit of color. I searched  everywhere for the right ribbon.  I thought I wanted something with a gold in it, but when I found this ribbon , I knew this one was perfect. It has a very painterly holly image on it that fits with the father Christmas theme better than gold would. 
• Dad requested pockets   and those are built into the coat on the side seams.  I also made a belt. 
• We will be adding red velvet buttons down the center fur when he brings it  to VA at Christmas.  They will be decorative, not functioning. The coat closes with big Velcro pieces inside  as button holes in that faux fur would be impossible. 

Cutting the faux fur was an adventure. I had learned from making Eden's Scooby Doo costume a couple of years ago that the faux fur gets everywhere.
I cut the fabric  up in the living room instead of my sewing room because I could easier cut and vacuum  after. I would cut the faux fur piece with the rotary cutter, shake it out on the carpet, vacuum the carpet and pieces  and table - then immediately sew it on.  Even doing that , our living room had a film of shiny white dust for a week or so.
I covered our bookcases with big sheets to I didn't have to dust them after. Faux fur when cut gets EVERYWHERE. It flies through the air and gets in your nose and is generally a pain. Once it gets sewn  onto the clothing , and the ends are tucked in, it won't do it anymore.  I used a great faux fur that looks like poodle fur up close.


Before I sent it   to Dad my family  took "Fun with the  Father Christmas coat" pictures in the dining room. (It was empty because we were redoing the floors. :) Which are done now and look so good! )

First up was my sweet hubby.

Father Christmas boxing.
I think this look suits him.  :) :) 

Eden is her  Disney wicky wicky fresh word move. 

(If you have to ask what the  wicky wicky fresh word move is then  you have not been subjected to untold numbers of Hannah Montana episodes and should consider yourself lucky. If you did not have to ask  and knew right away what I was talking about, I am so sorry.  )

All hail the 8 year old!

All hail me!

I am a kung fu bunny in a father Christmas coat. 

Sing it with me...."Every bunny was kung fu fighting."

 Father Christmas and Honey the Belgian Reindeer. 

Wicky wicky fresh. Word.