So many reasons to celebrate

Hello! After more than a year hiatus, I have a new post. I also have a new web host (probably of much less exciting news to you, but a huge relief to me) and what appears to be a much less buggy and annoying site. So here’s a new post!

For the past few years, I’ve made myself Christmas dresses to celebrate the holiday season. Occasionally, I get really carried away and make two. Yesterday, in a mad dash, I threw together this holiday dress for my friend’s Mid-Century Supper Club Holiday Potluck. The potluck deserves it’s own post — or maybe even a coffee table book — but at the very least, it deserves a special dress.

I saw this fabric back in September, but foolishly didn’t buy it then, thinking I had plenty of time and worrying that the bright orange red might be too much in a full dress on me. So by the time I bought some this week, there was only about a yard and a half left, so I have to make do. It probably was for the best in the end, as I suspect my instincts about it being overwhelming as a whole dress might have been correct.

So I bought some complementary green solid fabric and used the Santa print fabric for the bodice and trim.

I managed to finish this in around four hours, which gave me just enough time to make a cheeseball for the potluck and compose myself in a moderately festive manner.

Check out that stellar fake piping on the pockets! It’s one of my favorite cheats. I use a contrasting fabric for facing and then when I press the seams, I offset it by a wee bit and voila! Instant fake piping.

The dress turned out a little too big, but it’s nothing a little black cardigan, and bunches of my favorite people, can’t hide.

 

 

 

 

And if you’re wondering what one brings to a Mid-Century Supper Club Holiday Potluck, lots and lots of gelatin and processed foods. And bunches of canned food for the Alameda County Food Bank. Because we have to offset this reckless use of foodstuffs somehow.