Handmade Christmas Present

I always have a million ideas floating  around my mind of what I could make my family near Christmas time - t-shirts for my brothers? shorts for my nephew? a shirt for Rich? an apron for my mum? But in the chaos that is Christmas I usually end up making nothing. So when I actually managed to make one Christmas present this year I was pretty impressed with myself.

I ended up making a dress for Sophiia, its another fancy party type dress and I used the same pattern as I did for the Princess Sophiia Dress. This dress is pretty much identical to the Princess Sophiia dress except for two things. First of all the fabric choice.

I don't really like making pink things for girls as whenever I'm in a store that sells clothes for kids all the little girl clothes seem to be pink and I don't like it - little girls should have variety too!

I totally opted out of pink and chose this fabric with a bunting print. I bought it from a New Zealand Fabric Destash Group on Facebook, if you're interested you can find the group here.

I also decided  this time around I wanted to add some trim to the dress, I'm trying to not always take the shortest possible route when it comes to my sewing projects and take time to add things like pockets and trim if I think it will actually make my projects better.

Your eyes do not deceive you, this is glitter ric rac - just when you thought ric rac couldn't get any better. I bought this ric rac at fabric-a-brac in its original packaging for a couple of dollars.

 

I should have perhaps given the dress a bit of a better iron before taking the photo - rookie error! I was pretty happy with how it turned out though. 

Also unlike the Princess Sophiia Dress I can actually share an action shot of this dress with a photo my brother added to Facebook on Christmas day.

The dress is a little too big for Sophiia right now, but hopefully she will grow into it soon and my Mum said she might be able to add a couple of darts to help the fit. Even if neither of those things work out its a great little dress up frock still.

Also you might notice Lukah is wearing a suit, he asked my brother to buy him a suit for Christmas so he can "dress up nice" when they go out to dinner. When I spoke to him on Christmas I told him next time he comes to visit he should bring his suit and we can have a fancy dinner, his response? "Do you think I should bring the tie or the bow tie when I come, because Dad bought me both to wear with my suit" - I love that kid, he's so cute.

Princess Sophiia Dress

My little  niece Sophiia is turning five this year and starting school (WHAT?) for her birthday I decided I'd make her a princess dress, as I'm pretty sure she thinks she is a princess.

When Rich and I were at home at Christmas last year, she told me all about a Disney Princess called "Sophia the First" who she obviously loves (she received a Sophia the First art set for Christmas).

When I saw a couple of metres of Sophia the First fabric going cheaply on a facebook fabric destash group I'm part of I thought I better snap it up for Sophiia. I guess Sophia the first isn't as popular as the likes of the "Frozen" crowd. Although I'm not sure, I've never seen Frozen, in fact I don't think I've really seen a Disney movie since "The Lion King".

When I told my brother I had this fabric he assured me that Sophiia would "go insane" if I made her a dress from it, so that kind of sealed the deal.

The next question was what pattern to use, I've picked up a few kids patterns from various op shops as they are useful things to have on hand for making presents. However, all the patterns I had were pretty much practical, day to day clothes rather than princess dresses.

However, when I was checking out the craft books at Whitcoulls I found this very sweet book - "Girls World" it has some cute dresses for girls as well as some craft projects and things like quilts and cushions. Also it was on special so cost less than a new princess dress pattern would have so I  decided to snap it up.

The dress I decided to make for Sophiia is the dress that features on the cover of the book "Mary's fancy sash dress". It's a simple fit and flare type dress (although not too much on the fit, as its for little girls after all). I mostly decided to make it because it included a big sash and that just screams princess to me.

Here' the finished dress, now Sophiia is five I can't use Kuromi as a model anymore. I'm not really sure a coat hanger shows the dress off very well though.

I just have to say, Sophiia is quite tall but this pattern called for the most extraordinarily long skirt, I took about 5cm off the bottom and then when Rich saw it he said "I hope that's not too long for her". I figure worst case scenario my mum can shorten it a bit more.

Finally, the dress with a sash - because Princess dresses  are ALL about big bows, you HAVE to have a bow!

I'm going to post this dress home later this week so fingers crossed its a winner. As for the pattern itself, apart from the length of the skirt issue it was a really great pattern to use, very clear and no issues. The patterns in the book range from 2-3 years up to 12-14 so I can see myself using this book a lot for Sophiia and also for other friends that have daughters. I just wish it was as easy to find cool things to make for little boys.

Hope you've all had a good weekend - I've been to Porirua today to buy some trims and other exciting bits for a Kawaii costume I'm working on for an event in September!