>The Christmas Dress- Finished!

>Horray! I finished!  I posted a while back about wanting to make a Christmas dress, and although I didn’t use the pattern I originally wanted to, I’m super happy with the results.
I used Simplicity 3363, which is actually up on my Etsy store right now.

I chose this pattern because I liked the sleek line, but I also liked how easy it looked to match the plaid- a few center seams isn’t too hard to do- a lot easier than a shirtwaist style- and I liked the longer sleeves for winter wear.  I didn’t realize how many fiddly little details it had, though, and of course I made it even more complicated by wanting covered buttons and a belt! My husband was a sweetheart- he likes doing fiddly little crafting things like that- so one night he sat with me and covered the buttons and belt buckle while I hand sewed the belt.
This fastens not on the side seam of the skirt since those are placed more towards the back, but through a dart that you face that matches with the side seam on the bodice- something I personally had never done before, but it came out really pretty! Of course, after doing all that I wasn’t going to slap a zipper in by machine so both the side and back zipper I sewed in by hand and I got to raid the old metal zipper stash where I luckily had two around the right length.  I had fun putting in a buttonhole bound with piping.  I love the way bound buttonholes look and this was my first attempt at a piped one.  Fun!
So here she is! All finished and ready for tomorrow.  I kind of made up a combination of the two views on the pattern, but I thought the buttons were just so much fun on a tailored dress that I didn’t want to tie myself down to “view a” or “view b”.  I love this picture because it shows our California citrus in the winter!

I’m not sure if I’m going to be posting tomorrow, so have a very Merry Christmas and God bless you and your family!