Christmas Outfit No. 1 - The Poinsettia Dress

I made this first dress out of some lovely stripy poinsettia patterned vintage fabric I purchased.  I found it on Etsy and there was 7m of it, so I have plenty left over.

Its a very VERY light cotton and its a bit on the sheer side, but it definitely makes a lovely light summer dress.  And we all know what happens when I get a striped fabric...

I go a little mad running stripes every which way and have lots of fun matching seam lines!  And even though I was trying to sew four dresses in one weekend I wasn't going to let this opportunity escape me!

I made the dress using the bodice from my tropical print dress pattern that I drafted, just without the shirred back panels, cause honestly I just didn't have time.  I also adjusted it a little so the fit was a bit better around the bust

So it fits like a glove now!  Instead of the gathered skirt that I used on the tropical print dress, I used the full circle skirt pattern that made Renee's cherry skirt.  I really love the way that the stripes on the skirt are horizontal on the front and back, where the bodice is in a chevron pattern, and vertical on the sides where the bodice is horizontal.  It just all worked out so well!!

I also boned the bodice (6 bones in all - two in front, two in the sides, and two in the back) so it would support itself.  I just HATE hitching things up all day.  And instead of hemming the skirt, I finished it with matching green bias tape - 5 metres of it to be exact!

To follow with the poinsettia theme, I stole two off my tree and, with a little bit of help from my hot glue gun, I turned them into matchy-matchy hair clips!  Oh - and the earrings!!!  They are a vintage find and are actually painted shells.  There is also a matching sweater clip, but its too warm to be wearing a sweater here today :)

Anyway, I hope you love my first Christmas Dress!  This one is very conservative compared to the others.  As I said to someone this morning, we will be accelerating into crazy territory by the end of the week!

Beccie
xxx