Peanuts for Christmas

It's time for the annual holiday frock.

I actually decided what I was going to do with this fabric last December, as I was rummaging around in the holiday themed fabric bin.  My first thought when I purchased the novelty print was that it would make a great blouse (mostly because it has a very white background).  But I had a few yards, and I didn't want to end up wasting the yardage.  I was in the process of making this vintage pattern in a vintage upholstery fabric and thought that it would make a very cute and festive holiday dress with that collar and those cuffs!  At the time, I thought that contrasting ruffles might be a nice addition.

The first thing that I stitched together were the cuffs having decided that using the fabric for the ruffles would be a better choice, followed by the collar pieces, mostly because I didn't want to leave all of that gathering of the ruffles till the last minute.

I shortened the first version of the dress due to extremely limited yardage, but I do think it looks more Mod/1960s with the shorter length, so I stuck with that modified silhouette.

But the most exciting part of the project was that I found a use for this red pom-pom trim.  Which is infinitely better than a contrasting ruffle, in my opinion. 

While the trim could be stitched into place with a machine, that seemed like a real pain.  I would probably end up hand basting it into place anyway, so I just went ahead and hand stitched it.  The trim was also attached to the cuffs by hand since the hand stitching worked great on the collar.

I knew that I would be adding the ball fringe to the hemline, I just wasn't entirely sure how many rows would look best.  My initial thought was three rows (odd numbers tend to read better, design-wise) but I thought I would start with two and see how I liked it with the rest of the dress completed.  And that meant installing a center back zipper.

The collar was stitched into place, which is what initially drew me to the pattern.

I also fully lined the dress since it will be worn with a pair of tights and the cotton would 100% stick to a pair of tights.  Also, the white portions of the fabric are rather sheer, and the lining solves that problem, as well.

I essentially created a duplicate dress in rayon lining, leaving the sleeve pieces separate from the body of the dress, dropped that lining into the dress and basted the neck and armholes together.  The sleeve lining was dropped into the sleeve, basted at the top edge and treated as a single layer.

Because the cuff is added at the lower edge of the sleeve, I didn't want the sleeve lining attached to the dress lining and potentially pulling things out of place.  The armscye edge was easily finished with rayon seam binding.

The hem was hand stitched into place, and the skirt lining was trimmed to be about one-half inch shorter than the dress.  I used thread tacks at each seamline to keep the lining from shifting.

In the end, I just went with two rows of trim for the skirt.  Because of the shorter length of this dress, the third row looked just a little too cramped when I pinned it into place.

That also means that the double row matches the cuff embellishments, which I think looks intentional.

I used the distance set by the cuffs to set the distance between the skirt trim rows.

This dress is as silly and festive as I had hoped it would be.

Someone in the office used the adjective "ridiculous" as a descriptor.  This was not meant as an insult (you would have to know the personality to understand) and actually, it's probably a fitting word to describe the dress. 

For me, the dress is a complete success.  I wasn't looking to make something glamorous this year, just a fun dress made with a charming print.  And honestly, I am so happy that I didn't end up going with a blouse pattern.  This is so much better!