Christmas Dresses 2011

Posted by: Paulette

A friend from church gave a bag full of scraps of decorator fabrics. She said it was "for my dolls."
I didn't have a  thought of how to use them for the dolls that I make, but after going through the bag, I realized that I could make dresses for my dolls! The gold dress that I made for Katie uses the fabrics from the bag. All I added was the turquoise lining on the cape. And I already had that scrap of fabric too! These kinds of fabrics can be so expensive, so I was so thankful to have  received them.

 Please excuse the grooming of my models. It's Thursday morning. Self explanatory to all you moms out there reading this. LOL!
I got my inspiration for this  from two pictures that I found on the internet. I pinned both dresses, and was able to find a tutorial on how to do the pick up skirt. The bodice is lined with the same fabric as was used in the skirt. I used a dress that was in Katie's size for the template for the bodice and changes the neckline and sleeve. There were a ton of fittings for this dress, which drove Katie crazy! And the first time I put together the bodice, I put in the sleeves upside down. Since I'm the one who made the pattern, there should be no excuses, right?!

 I cut the bodice so close that I was afraid that after putting in  the zipper, that it would be too tight. Thank goodness it fit, or I would be throwing a fit!

As I mentioned before the capelet fabric was in the bag, but the turquoise satin used to line it, came from a scrap from the girl's Christmas dresses a few years ago.













Sophia's dress is made from a piece of peach skin that was gifted to me by my mother this summer. I thought I'd might make myself a skirt, but while searching through my fabrics, I knew I wanted to make a capelet from the "dalmatian" print faux fur.

 ?I don't remember where the satin came from, but it was a PAIN to work with. It kept on fraying like crazy! I finally grabbed a lighter and singed all of the edges before trying to work with it. That did it! It was like using ribbon after that.
How do you like that peanut butter and jelly face? Adorable!

 I can tell that Sophia loves this dress. All of the ruffles and the circle skirt are just her style.
I'm pretty sure this bodice came together because of lots of praying. It was cut without a pattern, and fitted to my model.
It's a good thing that Sophia and Katie are the same size, so that I could use both of them for fittings! I'm still not very happy with the way the sleeve turned out, but I've used every bit of fabric on this one.

The double circle skirt came about because I didn't think the top one was long enough. I came across the rhinestone buttons while shopping for more thread and a zipper. Originally I was going to do a covered button with the faux fur. When I couldn't find a covered button set at Wal-mart, I decided upon these. I like this better. It adds just the right amount of glitz.

Now if I can just jeep these dresses away from the girls until Christmas...