Molly's Party Dress

This is an original American Girl pattern, made up in white polycotton. 

Evidently, the company used to release the patterns to sew at home. Obviously, Mattel no longer do so, but I found these on the internet. The dress is part of a collection of patterns for the Molly doll, whose era is the 1940s. This dress was actually for sale up until the dolls were retired at the end of 2013, so my daughter was excited that I could make it for her Emily doll.

American Girl 2013

The pattern fitting and instructions are actually not that great. The bodice fit is quite large, and the finishing is terrible. The pattern calls for finishing both the neckline and armholes by clipping and hemming. The waistband is also left with raw edges and there are no instructions for attaching the waist ties. I drafted a bodice lining to enclose all the bodice seams and edges and it gives a much nicer finish. Plus, as I used a polycotton, and not a quilting weight cotton, the thicker bodice works better.

Applying all that ric rack along all those ruffles was very time consuming. I do wonder at the historical accuracy of such opulent sleeves. By comparison, the skirt is quite skimpy. I will cut it slightly longer if I make it again. I will also leave a small gap at the waist tie so that I can have the back enclosure overlap at the tie.

Overall, it was really nice to make something from an actual pattern, not just devise my own knock-off. I'm due to make a second one for a friend, but first I have to get motivated to make all those ruffles a second time.

Cost:

Pattern: free

Fabric: £1.72

Ric rac: £2.40

Total: £4.12

Christmas Pudding Canapes

These pudding canapés are so easy and so effective. A perfect addition to a Christmas cocktail party, or to serve instead of a traditional pudding.

To make, I just bought an ordinary ready-to-heat pudding. It shouldn't be deluxe. In fact, the cheaper ones work better for forming into balls. I broke it up into chunks in a mixing bowl, added a few generous splashes of brandy (ok, and a few more), chopped glacé cherries. Chopped walnuts would be great too. Mix together with hands and then squish chunks of the mixture together, and roll into balls. Drizzle with melted white chocolate and top with a tiny chunk of glacé cherry.

Serve to your guests, smug in the knowledge that the wow factor is high and the effort is low!

Christmas Cards

This was incredibly difficult to photograph. The background is mirror-like shiny gold paper and it reflected all the flash, plus the photographer!

The letters are individually cut out of glitter paper and glued over a length of twine. I didn't have a scalpel to cut out the centre holes of the A and the Rs. The stars are punched from a novelty punch that I bought in Canada this summer.

Doll Christmas Aprons

I just had to try my hand at these Christmas Baking Aprons.

I even had some furry fabric on hand, from which to construct them. I was fortunate to have this because both the red and the white are knits so I didn’t have to worry about hems and seam finishing. I treated the red as I would a felt fabric.

From the red I cut two rectangles, one 24cm x 14cm, the other 7cm x 10cm. I joined them with a zig zag stitch by just butting them up against each other, no seam allowance.

Then I added the waist tie. This could be any strip of fabric, about 75cm long: a roulade, bias tape, ribbon, whatever. In this case, I used a shoelace! I made sure it covered the zig zag join and ran over the skirt part to the ends and tied at the back.

Next, the white furry hem. This is attached to the front, right sides together, then I turned it to the back and stitched it down to the back.

I used a red ribbon for the neck tie. I ran it across the top of the apron, in hindsight, I should have run it down each side of the bodice piece. It would sit flat if I had, plus it would finish those side seams nicely.

Finally, I used a yarn darning needle and a scrap of white acrylic yarn to embroider a snowflake and a star to the front of each apron.

Time for the dollies to get making some Christmas cookies!

Christmas Booties

A novelty knit from the yarn attached to a magazine.

I almost didn't bother but there is always a baby in the tummy in my family and including them in the Christmas gift giving is fun, so I went ahead and knitted these up.

Bonus: I've never tried socks before so these were a great sock-trial. I quite enjoyed it, the little heel was fun and I even used the proper Kitchener stitch for binding off the second one.

The pattern is actually very poor. The cuff is knitted separately and then seamed on to the sock. Really, it should be incorporated into the design. Perhaps they were trying to make it easy for beginners. The cuffs curled up completely and because they are acrylic, blocking made no difference. Once they were sewn on, the curl flattened slightly, but not much. I don't know of a satisfactory fix for that, other than knitting with wool.

Regardless, the baby is being included in our Christmas celebrations. 

Merry Christmas!