The Holiday Dress

If you're friends with me on facebook you'll know that a few weeks ago I was ranting about the lack of weather appropriate holiday dresses for girls (and women too).  I suppose it is the penny pinching of my husband and my dislike of covering up such a pretty dress with a huge sweater (not that I'm opposed to sweaters mind you) that makes me feel this way.  I guess, what galls me the most is that because I don't live somewhere that is actually warm in December (we're supposed to get snow soon) I'm supposed to buy a dress and a nice sweater or buy a long sleeved t-shirt to go under the dress.  Holiday dress patterns are no better.  They are just as sleeveless as what you can buy.

However, Shannon from luvinthemommyhood reminded me of her adorable Delaney dress and that it would be easy to modify the sleeves to 3/4 length or longer.  So I took a stab at it.  Shannon's patterns and tutorials are always easy and usually fast (you might remember my MODify dresses).  It did take me a little while to make, but that had nothing to do with the pattern but all the extras I added to the pattern.

I love this picture...reminds me of Little House on the Prarie

As you can see it turned out lovely!

Here is what I added to the pattern:

-I lined it, with our cold winters I knew I couldn't skip this.

-I lengthened the sleeves, I had hoped to make long sleeves but I mistakenly used a knit top to base my width measurements.  Instead of cutting out new sleeves (because I didn't discover my mistake until I sewed the sleeve in) I just did a split sleeve just below the elbow.  Personally I love the look more now than if I had just had full, connected long sleeves.

-I added a red fabric tie...love the bow in the back.

-I lined the skirt as well, but cut the lining shorter than the skirt then added some gather netting to it to give it a bit more of a pouf in the skirt.

Because the pattern is for a size 2, I enlarged the pattern pieces by 40% to increase it to a size 4.  I must confess I figured that with the enlarging I would have to fiddle with the sleeve to fit it into the dress but I didn't!  The sleeve was so easy to put in.  Since Shannon only gives the measurements for the skirt (it's a rectangle, no need to print of a pattern piece) I simply multiplied the measurements by 1.4 and rounded to the next whole number.

This is a great pattern and you should definitely check it out.  I know that more are in the future :)

{{hugs}}

Buffy

So what do you think?  Adorable right?  What are your feelings about holiday dress styles?  Have some fabulous dress patterns you know of that are perfect for cold weather?  Link them up, I love to chat fashion :)