A Christmas New Look 6223 in Winter Cardinals Fabric

Happy holidays, readers! 

Over Black Friday, I shopped a bit online, including at Modcloth, which so helpfully let me know it was having a sale.

Now, we all know that nearly all 100 percent cotton dresses at Modcloth are made from easily attainable quilting cotton, right?

I saw a dress made from this winter cardinals fabric and just had to have it. I found the fabric online at Hancock's of Paducah (which had the best price -- $5! -- but did trigger a fraud warning on my credit card since it's apparently a local store in another state!) The fabric is Timeless Treasures Season's Greetings Winter Cardinals in ivory.

It's a lovely drapey quilting cotton.

The bodice is lined in plain white lawn, which I buy at least 5 yards at a time. I line nearly everything with white cotton lawn!

All in all, the fabrics were perfect for a structured dress like New Look 6223.

New Look 6223 is a favorite basic pattern of mine -- though I may need to buy a second copy the next time New Look patterns are on sale, because I seem to have misplaced the sleeve piece. Originally I wanted to do this dress up with cap sleeves, similar to my Oscar de la Renta dress, but I went without after I couldn't find the sleeve piece. (I know, I know, Frankenpattern, etc., but as I've said before, homegirl ain't got time for all that! it's just not fun for me.)

The pattern is exceedingly simple. It's a six-dart bodice with a pleated skirt. In this case, I gathered the skirt instead of pleating. I also forgot to put in the pockets (I now have two white lining-fabric pockets on my cutting table). Woops. 

I cut an 8 at the bust and graded to a 10-12 at the waist. I left a bit of extra ease in the waist since I wanted to wear this dress dancing. 

I didn't bother pattern-matching in the back or at the waist (I am of the opinion that matching a pattern like this across the waist just looks wrong and I just didn't feel like matching on the back seam and wasting fabric). The only pattern adjustment I made was to be sure I wouldn't have two red cardinals placed in, shall we say, compromising positions on my chest. 

This dress was an easy make -- I spent my afternoon in my sewing room on Saturday and worked on it while watching "Rehab Addict" on Netflix and I was finished in no time. 

In fact, I wore this dress for the first time Saturday night to a ballroom dance. We have monthly social ballroom dances at the place we take classes. With my small cotton crinoline underneath, it was perfect for an evening of dancing. (I know it probably seems strange to wear a sleeveless dress with no stockings in the middle of winter, but trust me when I say that after a couple hours of dancing in a well-lit art gallery, you'll be sweating!)

I plan to wear this again with black tights and a cardigan for a Christmas Eve showing of The Nutcracker as well.

When I wear it, with the red, green and gold colors, I feel festive!

Even when it's cold outside!

Do you have Christmas sewing plans? I'd love to hear about them!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all. <3

Christmas Stockings

This year, Greg and I decided to do Christmas stockings for each other. Of course, instead of buying stockings, I decided to make some. Joann's, as always, was having a sale. So I bought a yard each of red plaid and green fabric and a yard of fusible fleece to make the stockings a little puffier.

Fusible fleece, just in case you're wondering, is about $8 a yard. But I had a 50 percent off coupon, because I'm awesome (I highly recommend the Joann's app if you're a big JoAnn's fan.) The ladies at my JoAnn's crack me up. At the cutting counter, I presented the fusible fleece and requested a yard and the lady looked at the fleece and leaned over the counter to whisper, "This is not on sale. You have coupon?" I told her that I did, and she smiled big and cut the fabric for me. She was genuinely worried that I might overspend on fusible fleece. Cute, right?

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the second stocking. The first one I made after work one night, meaning that I didn't finish until about 2:45 a.m. since I work until 1 a.m. Which is to say that there aren't pictures from the first stocking.

First, I made a "pattern" out of muslin. I had to make the stocking HUGE to account for all the seams and quilt. I just used a charcoal pencil to sketch a rough outline -- and then I realized how much would be taken up by seam allowance and made it about half again as large.

I cut just about everything with a rotary cutter because I'm lazy and I think the finished cut looks more neat. And I'm lazy.

Do you like my pattern weights? They're my mom's. She gave me a bunch of her old stuff. She has fancy new pattern weights. But these have character -- I remember her using them when I was a kid.   

So first I cut out two stockings and two cuffs from the red plaid. 

Then I cut two stockings and two cuffs from green. 

Then I ironed one stocking and one cuff to the fusible fleece (again with the laziness -- I could have used normal quilt batting.) I wanted the stockings to be different on each side, so I sandwiched the opposite fabric onto the other side of the fusible fleece and sewed a seam around the outside.

I did this for both sides of the stocking and then sandwiched the two sides together and sewed around the outside. Except the top, obviously -- you want your stocking to open. (Fun fact: The first stocking, I sewed the top shut by mistake. I got in a groove of sewing all the way around. Don't be like me.) 

Then I trimmed the seam allowance with pinking shears, sewed the cuffs (also sandwiched with fusible fleece) to the top and flipped the whole thing right side out. 

Finally, I sewed a little loop on the back of the cuff so that we'd be able to hang the stockings over the fire. 

Here's an inside shot. Please excuse my scrap fabric pile in the background. 

These made pretty small stockings, as you can see with my hand there. (Although, for the record, my hands are huge -- larger than most men's hands.) But they're just big enough for a good bunch of small stocking stuffers, which is exactly what I wanted. I haven't decided yet if I want to embroider the solid green cuffs with our names. So far I'm thinking no. Maybe next year. :)

Hope you all have a merry Christmas!