Christmas 2016 | the curious kiwi

Well it’s April now so I guess I better blog my Christmas sewing from 2016 😉

I decided I wanted to make a Christmas themed dress this year, to wear to my work Christmas party and on Christmas day. I spent way too long trying to find the perfect Christmas fabric online and suddenly it was mid-November and way too late to order anything.

While in Spotlight for something unrelated I noticed all the Christmas themed fabric was on special. There were a lot of options but nothing really jumped out at me. I eventually spotted some ridiculously “me” crazy cat themed Christmas Fabric and I decided that would do. I grabbed 2 meters which was not enough for the dress pattern I eventually decided on (another Sew Over It Betty Dress) and so I had to go back later in the week for more.

Nerdy Husband accompanied me on my second trip and I while I was frantically digging for more Christmas cats he was quietly deciding he needed a Christmas shirt and handed me a bolt of Grinch fabric. I finally found the cats and another meter came home with the Grinches.

For NH’s shirt I dug out an old Vogue pattern I’d made about 10 years ago.

Super trendy! It required many alterations.

The super huge collar is one piece so I drafted a new two-piece collar from that. After comparing the body pieces to a favourite shirt I removed 1.5cm width from both front and back pieces and added 6.5cm in length.

I didn’t buy enough fabric…again. The envelope said 2.6m of 115cm and I only bought 2.0m of 112cm so I played the hardest game of Pattern Tetris ever which included adding 3cm to the front piece so that I could self-face the button placket instead of cutting a separate piece. I also had to find room for a pocket piece reshaped to be more pointy in place of the original late-90s curvy one.

Front…

Back + first attempt at sleeve placement…

Rotated sleeve is more efficient…

Second sleeve – yay for non-directional fabric…

Last fabric scrap left! Collar…

Aaaand pocket! Phew!

I did it! And as tough as it was there is something quite satisfying about tiny scraps of expensive fabric. Now please enjoy these two obviously not-modeled finished photos.

And now for my dress and it’s much less dramatic sewing journey:

It went much easier since I’ve made a million Betty Dresses (1, 2, 3) and so to lift the excitement I also ordered a new red frou frou from my favorite swing dance store in Napier, Let’s Jive, a mere 2 days before the party…spoiler: it arrived in time.

This version is fully lined in a lemon poplin and has the all important and endlessly useful pockets.

Oh and do you like my cardigan? I realised I would need one for when it got chilly later in the evening…did you think I could find a red cardi in my size in any of the 20 odd shops near my work? Nope.

So the day before it was required, with my dress still needing to be hemmed, I lunched with Nikki and Kat who told me to stop my complaining and just make one. So we cut lunch short and wandered up to The Fabric Store where I bought the perfect red merino for a cropped Muse Jenna.

I washed and dried the merino while I hemmed my dress and then I cut and overlocked my heart out! There’s nothing quite like a tight deadline…

You might have noticed the lack of closures and if not I’m pointing that out right now…I might add some hammer-on snaps sometime…or maybe not 😉

I wore my dress to our work festivities, on the last day at work for 2017, on Christmas day with my in-laws, and to my families late Christmas. The Grinchmas shirt was worn on the last day of work (I potentially have orders but good luck with that guys!) and on Christmas day as well.

But my dress wasn’t the only cat sewn up for Christmas Day – I also made a cushion for S, my cat-mad sister-in-law, from this huge cat panel I found on the Spotlight clearance table. There were three identical cat heads across the width so the cushion is double-sided and I have absolutely no idea what to do with the remaining cat…look out for it on mu table at the next Fabric-a-brac 😀