Christmas Dresses for My Granddaughters (and Other Sewing Projects)

I was so happy to hear that the box I sent to son #1 and Regina arrived on Saturday--because it contained three special Christmas frocks that I made for twins Bonny Babe and Cutie Pie and their baby sister Little Gal, who is celebrating her very first Christmas.  I was doing the work very last- minute this year, and almost talked myself out of making them at all.  It took me about two days of straight sewing (which included being up until 3:00 a.m. one of the nights!), but I got them done on time.  When my husband and I went to Fed Ex to ship them last week, we were told they would arrive today, but they actually arrived early.  It's a Christmas miracle!

For the past two Christmases, I've made jumpers for the twins out of fabric that my late mother-in-law had stashed away in her attic.  For their first Christmas, the jumpers were made of red velveteen with little green tree-shaped buttons.  For their second Christmas, they were made of green pinwale corduroy with some red ribbon accents.  This year, even though I still have some lovely hunter green velveteen that would have been perfect,  I had my heart set on a cheery cotton Christmas print.  I have several pieces of such fabric from the girls' great-grandma's attic, but not enough of any one to make three matching dresses.  So I ended up taking a trip to JoAnn's, where they were having a great sale on Christmas prints.

I love the way these dresses turned out!  There's nothing cuter to me than a little girl wearing a dress with a Peter Pan collar.  Regina commented that they had a sort of vintage look about them, and I agree.  I feel like these dresses are what you might see little lasses wearing in some ad or TV show from the 50's.  I am a sucker for anything with a vintage look about it, so the fact that these dresses evoke a bygone era makes me love them even more.  I can hardly wait to see them on my adorable trio of granddaughters.

For the twins

For Little Gal

Aren't they totes adorbs?  I added the star buttons as an afterthought, because the dresses seemed like they needed a little something more.

This iron-on tag is my favorite detail, though.

Almost every year, I make at least one new ornament for our tree, along with several others to give various and sundry loved ones as gifts.  One of my projects this year involved making use of some of the truly magnificent pieces of antique laces and embroidered fabrics that were sent to me by the sister-in-law of one of my Pearl sisters-in-law (is that confusing enough?).  Knowing I liked to sew and do craft projects, this relative-of-a-relative thought I might be able to re-purpose some of these old family heirlooms that she'd been hesitant to part with.  As a thank you for this box of treasures (which include what looks like a delicate lace-trimmed bridal veil from the Roaring 20's--someday I'll show you!), I decided to cut some of the embroidered flowers out of a disintegrating lace table runner and applique them onto stuffed heart-shaped ornaments made out of some scraps of my mother-in-law's velveteen.  I made one for my Pearl sister-in-law (since this lace is part of her husband's family history) and one for her generous sister-in-law, who totally tickled me by sending all of those goodies my way.

It just goes to show that you should never throw out a beautiful piece of antique lace or cutwork, because they just don't make that stuff like they used to.  Even if it is stained or has holes in it, you can still salvage bits of it and showcase it in new ways.

Enough sewing talk!  Merry Christmas!