I had no plans to make a Christmas dress this year, however as soon as I saw this adorable gingerbread man fabric on Minerva Crafts website a couple of weeks ago I knew it had to happen. At a mere £2.99 per metre it would have been rude *not* to buy it.
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The dress bodice is a surprisingly successful franken-pattern comprising of New Look 6723 (view B) and By Hand London Elisalex. The skirt is just a basic, gathered rectangle with in seams pockets from Christine Haynes' Emery dress.
The dress bodice is a surprisingly successful franken-pattern comprising of New Look 6723 (view B) and By Hand London Elisalex. The skirt is just a basic, gathered rectangle with in seams pockets from Christine Haynes' Emery dress.
I don't know what kind of mysterious magic happened during this process, but this is the best fit I've ever achieved across my shoulders/upper back on a cotton dress with a high back. Usually the whole bodice wants to pull backwards off my shoulders, but this one is sitting pretty. It's a Christmas miracle!!
Here's the breakdown of my festive franken-dress:
- New Look 6723 view B, size 12 shoulder height
- Deepened the neckline by at least 2 inches
- Cut size 14 at the armpit and graded out to 5/8 inch wider at the top of each shoulder.
- Blended the New Look pattern into BHL Elisalex from the armpit downwards for the princess seams and bodice length (my previous alterations for size 12 Elisalex include a 1 1/2 inch (overall) full bust adjustment, deepening the armhole by 1/2 inch and lengthening the bodice by 5/8 inch.)
- added 1/2" extra waist ease in total at the side seams (to allow me to eat more pudding, hehe)
- sewed the skirt to the bodice with a 1/2 inch seam allowance as I wanted a bit more bodice length.
Initially I planned to just try out the New Look pattern, as I wanted a princess seam bodice with a high back neckline so I could use this red, lace exposed zip. Usually I am not a fan of exposed zips, but I think these lace ones are rather pretty.
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However after a quick toile I could see that the fit of the princess seams were way off, sitting about an inch too wide to the side of my bust (?!?) and going down a size didn't help much. The neckline also sat stranglingly high so the whole thing would have taken a lot of altering to work for me. I didn't have the time to faff around so I blended the pattern with By Hand London's Elisalex as I've already altered the princess seams on Elisalex to fit me really well.
I still can't believe how well my combination worked out. I could probably scoop out the front armhole a tiny bit considering this is sleeveless, but other than that I love it and felt very comfortable wearing it on Christmas day. I'll have to make another version out of non festive fabric... and maybe try adding sleeves! Honestly, this is so exciting for me!
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The fabric isn't the best quality - there were a couple of flaws and the grainline was very wonky in relation to the selvedge - but it's cheap and cheerful and the resulting dress makes me smile. I chose an alternate colourway for the lining and pocket bags for a bit of fun and it actually feels softer than the main fabric. I'm guessing because it contains less fabric dye?
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However after a quick toile I could see that the fit of the princess seams were way off, sitting about an inch too wide to the side of my bust (?!?) and going down a size didn't help much. The neckline also sat stranglingly high so the whole thing would have taken a lot of altering to work for me. I didn't have the time to faff around so I blended the pattern with By Hand London's Elisalex as I've already altered the princess seams on Elisalex to fit me really well.
I still can't believe how well my combination worked out. I could probably scoop out the front armhole a tiny bit considering this is sleeveless, but other than that I love it and felt very comfortable wearing it on Christmas day. I'll have to make another version out of non festive fabric... and maybe try adding sleeves! Honestly, this is so exciting for me!
The fabric isn't the best quality - there were a couple of flaws and the grainline was very wonky in relation to the selvedge - but it's cheap and cheerful and the resulting dress makes me smile. I chose an alternate colourway for the lining and pocket bags for a bit of fun and it actually feels softer than the main fabric. I'm guessing because it contains less fabric dye?
So many happy gingerbread men!
I'm hoping to get a couple of more wears out of this dress before it gets packed away for next Christmas. The print is just too cute to only wear once this year.
Hope everybody had an enjoyable Christmas!