A Very Un-Holidayish Holiday Dress

11.21.2011

With a sister with two little girls living fairy close by, O has been the fortunate recipients of hand-me-down holiday dresses from her cousins for the past two years.  Seriously - we've have velvet and satin dresses galore.  But this year we seem to be missing one in her size and while we don't plan on doing formal Santa pictures, I was thinking that it would be nice to have a special dress for the holidays.

Unfortunately, after reading this post I was a bit scared off of velvet (if Sascha - who obviously kicks much sewing butt - thinks that velvet is the devil, then I'm pretty sure that it would kill me) and when I went to a local fabric store no other holiday-ish or Christmas-ish fabrics were really working for me.  So in the end I just went with a cotton print which probably does not fall into the holiday category, but we're going to make it work people.


The pattern is the Oliver and S bubble dress (that I got for 40 percent off several months ago - woot, woot!) and I ended up sewing a size 2T.  I was contemplating sewing a size 3T as she's kind of in the middle of sizes right now and I was thinking that it would fit her for longer, but now that I know that another little girl will be wearing her hand-me-down handmade clothes someday I feel a little less obsessive about making them last for as long as possible.

For the record - yes, I do brush my child's hair.  Occasionally.

The fabric is Floral Tile Orchid by Robert Kauffman and the lining is just a lovely, lightweight batiste.


But my favorite part about this dress - the piping.  Is anybody else obsessed with piping?  My piping skills certainly leave something to be desired but Oh My Gosh, I want piping on everything!


The good news about this dress?  The second I finished it, O asked if it was her for and did the cutest little happy dance when I told her that it was.

The not-so-good new about this dress?  When I told her that she was going to wear it today, she threw a total tantrum.  Apparently, she is so over this dress.  Awesome.

14 comments:

  1. I love this dress! Great job! And piping! It intimidates me bc it's hard to sew in just right but it is soooo cute. I might have to overcome that fear.

    I feel ya on the inexplicable clothing-related tantrums. It hurts, right? Independence, yada yada yada. It's hard to see your beautiful handmades rejected.

    She is SASS-AY. My goodness.

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  2. Yay, so another little girl it will be??? :-)

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  4. first of all, nice work getting your holiday dress done before thanksgiving! i'm a big fan of holiday stuff made in fabrics that don't assault you with their holiday-ness - this is such a great choice. i'm with you on the piping thing, too. and dang, she is so cute.

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  5. So so so cute! I love that it isn't screaming holiday! And you made this, lived through the tantrum, plus all the clearing and cleaning youve been up to, and the fact that you are growing a human, I think I'm the one with energy envy!

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  6. her cheese face is totally hilarious! i love her hair also, looks just like my little ones hair! bed head is terrible... love the dress carolyn! it is soooooo cute!

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  7. Ah look if you brush the hair, you kind of lose all those adorable curls, don't you? Save it for when dreadlocks actually start to form. Or of course, if the nits come & get ya, ha. Love the frock. I reckon it's a 'frock'. Love the piping. I've never tried it but am having piping envy. But mostly I love O's faces :)

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  8. I love that grin! so cute! Plus the dress is adorable! I go with cotton prints for my girls holiday dresses, too. I don't like them too fancy looking I guess. Gotta slum it up for the holidays. ;)

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  9. Oh that's adorable! It's probably one of the nicest versions I've seen of this dress. I'm at a complete sewing standstill and I wish it was because I'm feeling lazy, but it's worse... The person I sew the most for has taken to hating everything I make for him. It's worse than tantruming. He acts like I want to wrap him in a straight jacket. Oh and don't get me started about jackets. He will not wear one. At all. OMG it's cold out there. End of story.

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  10. It's so cute! You make me want to pipe. It's such a lovely detail that I seem to be too lazy to learn how to do. Isn't it funny how one minute they can love what you made and the next REFUSE to be near it? So bizarre. And for my son, it's just the handmade clothes, not the hand-me-downs.

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  11. SO CUTE carolyn! what a great print and i love that bubble dress pattern. i made it for easter and i think it's coming out again for christmas. and yeah, totes jealous that you got it done before thanksgiving. see, you've got it together! ;)

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  12. Oh, this is such an adorable dress. I love that she has a more mod holiday dress. Tulle and sequins abound right now, and just seeing them is sort of making me cringe.

    Hooray for another girl, Mama! Wonderful news- though I would say the same if it was a little boy. : )

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  13. Your little comment about hair brushing made me chuckle - my litte girl has exactly the same hair, just lighter. Oh my goodness is she a nightmare ... I just dont bother half the time, its not worth the screaming. I do wander what my neighbours think :-s!!

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