In recent years I have made each of the girls a special dress to wear on Christmas Day (I usually do the same thing for their birthday).  Here is Clare’s dress for this Christmas.

The pattern is Claire by Sandi Henderson, which I bought here.  The fabrics are all from Anna Maria Horner‘s Chocolate Lollipop line (now a couple of seasons old).  I made a few simple changes to the pattern as I went along.  Firstly, I used contrast bias binding casings on the outside of the dress for the neck and sleeve elastic, rather than turning the edges to make inside casings.  Have to love that bias binding maker!

I also attached the waistband and ties differently to the instructions.  Rather than sewing the band to the outside of the dress, I constructed it so that it was attached in the seam between the bodice and the skirt.  This gives Clare the option of folding the waistband up or down, which will give the dress a slightly longer lifespan as she grows (it will keep the proportions looking right).

The skirt was fractionally short – I didn’t use the skirt pattern piece, as I had a limited amount of fabric and just cut the entire amount into two for the front and back skirt – so I added another contrast band to the bottom of the skirt, then bound the hem in more of that bias binding.  The attached apron was only cut one layer thick (rather than double as suggested) and then bound in bias binding.

The twirlability factor is fairly high!  I had a small amount of bias binding left over so tied it in a bow on a hair elastic.  And have you realised that the dress matches the hat I made last month?

She likes it so much I don’t quite know how I’m going to stop her wearing it before Christmas day!