Three Christmas dresses

December 09, 2014

Today I am sharing three sweet dresses I made my girls to wear on Christmas day. Do you remember that Laura (from Craftstorming) and I hosted The 12 Days of Christmas last year? You can revisit the round up post here (you can see the dresses I made the girls last year there too). We were both a bit in need of a break so decided not to host this year but we are both sharing some festive sewing today. You will see a sneak peek to Laura's post with link at the end of this post.

Anyway, on to my dresses!! I spotted this stunning dress by Diorella through An (StraightGrain's) Sew and Show the other week (stunning yes??) and saw that the dress design was an upcoming dress pattern by Farrah from Mingo and Grace. When I saw that "Blake" was released, I bought it right away. (I have just noticed that Farrah is having a sale on her patterns too!)

I love this pattern! It features a fitted bodice with cut away armholes at the back (I think this is referred to as racer back?). It has large box pleats and sits above the knee. The dress is fully lined and the underskirt is gathered which gives the dress a lovely fullness and structure. The dress closes with an invisible zip. The dress also has a large hem (2-3 inches depending on your preference). I hand stitched mine just because. I do love myself a big hem. Below you can see the lining.

"Blake" is Farrah's second pattern. She also released "Charlie" a few months ago. She has done a superb job on this pattern. All the instructions are digitally drawn and the whole pattern is very 'pleasing' to view and to work with. I was a little confused with the placement of the pleats at the side seams - they are designed not to line up with the side seam so that the hidden pockets are even more hidden! But checking Farrah's amazing drawings I realised that I hadn't made a mistake and the mismatching of the pleats with the side seams is intentional (I forgot to get the hand in pocket shot!) I can imagine this pattern made up in satin, sateen or taffeta as a flowergirl dress. I can also imagine it looking gorgeous in pinwale corduroy with tights! I know I will be making more Blakes for my girls.

Here are the girls in front of our pine forest - just the spot for Christmas photos!! We have sent some of these pics to Stefan's family in England. We do it every year.

Juliette pointing at the cow in our neighbour's paddock that she exclaimed had escaped and was walking up our road...it hadn't.

We have painted some of these pinecones silver and will put them on the table for Christmas. We are looking forward to hosting my family in our house for the first time this year. Stefan actually cut one of our small pines at it is now beside me as I write this post with lights and tinsel on!! Perfect!

The fabrics I used were all purchased from the lovely Frances from Miss Matatabi. Emily's dress is Hatbox - Tiger Stripes in green by Alexia Abegg for Cotton and Steel, Isabella's (my current favourite fabric) is Japanese fabric arrows - not currently available in this colourway. But you can see another colourway here (yes blogger spell check, us Aussies spell 'colour' with a 'u'). Juliette's dress is made from Homebody - Tacks in rust by Kim Kight for Cotton and Steel.

Thankfully I managed to take some natural smiling/laughing shots of the girls as Stefan was pulling funny faces to amuse them.

I am so happy with how these dresses turned out!! Now would you like to see what Laura made? How cuuuuuute!!! I can't wait to see. Laura prints fabric like a pro!! Head over to Craftstorming to see!!