I finished all (...or most) of the final details of my kitschy Christmas dress yesterday, just in time to wear it on Christmas Eve! My family has a tradition of eating finger foods and watching White Christmas every Christmas Eve, and I thought it would be so fun to match the era of the movie.
I used a Vintage Vogue pattern from 1954, which I have used before. The front has candy cane buttons, there is a cherry red side zipper, and the skirt is hemmed up with matching red ribbon and hem lace to stiffen it and add a fun detail when the skirt flips up.
The fabric is from a fantastic small town quilt store nearby that we picked up on sale this summer. I looked for a few months to find a nice, retro looking holiday print, and I love the one that I picked! It is nice and busy, since I wanted this to be more of a fun dress.
The skirt has seams in the center front and back with 3 tiers of gathering at the side to make it nice and full (which made the hemming take about a week of evenings to complete). The bodice has a gathering at the bust with bias binding to finish the neck and arms. The back has darts at the waist and shoulder, and the sleeves are built into the bodice.
This is the second time that I've made a dress out of this pattern, and I love the shape of it! I think that this pattern is so flattering, although if I make it a third time I will take out the side zipper. The first time that I made it, I altered the pattern so that the front buttoned up down to the hip and I found that is so much easier to get in and out of that dress than this one. However, since this is a themed dress, it won't be worn nearly as often as the other version.
Overall, I took about 3 weeks to make this dress (with an extra day to cut it out this summer). I am really happy with how it turned out, and I am glad that I managed to sneak lots of hand sewing in it! I did the bias binding, zipper, hem, and other finishing details by hand which made the process so much more enjoyable for me. It also meant that I got to watch lots of movies while making it:)
Thank you so much for reading, I wish you happy holidays! If you don't celebrate any holidays around this time of year, I hope you get a nice few days of break to recuperate.
~Katherine
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