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12.01.2011

Christmas Crafting {For the Little Girl}

There's something I love about adding a handmade touch to our holidays.  Rather predictably, of all of the holidays, Christmas is my very favorite for crafting.   I had big plans for sewing a Christmas dress for each of my girls this year.  The fabric is bought, the patterns purchased.  But my baby has strong opinions about spending most of her time in arms.  And those dress patterns?  They weren't exactly easy.  So, I decided to table those plans for next Christmas in favor of keeping things simple this year.

With that in mind, throughout the holiday season I plan to share some of my favorite simple handmade projects.  I find that carving out a little time each day for creating really energizes me.  I've been working on my projects in 10-15 minute increments here and there.  Little by little, they come together.  

The first project I'd like to share is the Sweet Little Dress by Leila and Ben. Oh how I love this pattern!  I've made this dress at least 7 times.  I like that it offers versatility.  It can be dressed up with leggings or tights.  It becomes more casual when worn over a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans (or, if you're Indigo, leg warmers).


The dress above is a gift for my 2 year old goddaughter, Violet.  I cut it long (one size up in length) so it can be worn for at least two years - first as a dress, later as a tunic.  Like I said, it's versatile.

For this particular dress, I added bias binding on the sleeves.

   
I finished it with a contrasting fabric hem.  Then I added a coordinating tag.  (I got the idea here).


The pattern calls for 1-1.5 yards of fabric.  I've found that 1.5 yards is enough fabric for two dresses and one set of matching sleeves.

So, I sewed another dress for Evie.


The main fabric is from (you guessed it) Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi collection.


For this dress, I used contrasting fabric for the sleeves, matching it to the contrasting fabric hem.  This fabric is from the Loulouthi line as well.


I sewed both dresses in only an hour or two (in 10 or 15 minute increments, of course!).


Which is just another reason why this sweet little dress is one of my favorite handmade gifts... for the sweet little girl.

1 comment:

  1. Oh Rachel! Just getting caught up on my blogs (sadly not my own--hee hee), and I love your new layout! And these sister pictures are TOO SWEET!

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