Necessary Chocolate

And a doll dress to match!

Every time I sew a girl's dress, I have every intention of sewing a matching doll dress for her. I buy extra fabric; I plan for the pattern. This time - I finally managed to make one, and even sent it this week.

Isn't the little binding cute? I didn't have quite enough left of the bias trim from the dress, so I unpicked some piping I'd bought with it, and used it. The sash is just the French ribbon, folded in half.

 

I love tiny little buttons.

I especially like that I could correct my mistake on the real dress, and make this dress with the appropriately higher waistline. 

(The doll dress pattern is from one of  Hinds & Becker's books.)

Christina's dress

Christina's the last of the Arizona girls to get baptized. I've been planning this dress(from Ottobre 2/2002) for a while; I've had the materials since April. Nevertheless, it was fedexed out the Wednesday before Christmas. I'm just like that.

At least that meant that I could photograph it in my parent's yard. A nice change of venue.

When I tried a muslin on Christina over Thanksgiving, it seemed a little too high-waisted, so I lowered the waistline one inch. I shouldn't have - the proportions would have been better if left as they were. Always trust Ottobre! But she'll be growing an inch this year, at least, so she'll have lots of time to wear it.

The skirt is two layers; white poly/cotton batiste beneath and white swiss muslin on top. I love the floaty effect. The invisible zipper, though, was a bear. I ended up sewing the top layer on by hand, and it's fine (especially when the sash is on top of it!).

The bodice and sleeves are of a poly/cotton embroidered voile - really gorgeous stuff - from Britex, along with the French ribbon for the sash. Farmhouse Fabrics has silky cotton bias strips, so that made the hem and neckline so much easier. I did end up hand sewing the back of the bias hem; the bias was stiffer than the fabric, so I needed to cut down on the bulk.

I've made this pattern up more than once, so I figured I could just cut this out and sew it up in no time flat - always optimistic, that's me. Then I realized that the skirt is eight gored pieces. That's sixteen pieces total, for the two layers. Wow.

But for a dress that twirls like this? Worth it.

(Thanks to Christina's older sister for the porch shots. I asked her to take pictures, "on the porch, for the blog - you know what I need." And she did!)

I'm happy because

1. "When You Reach Me" won the Newbery!

2. Jerry Pinkney's "The Lion and the Mouse" won the Caldecott!

3. A new laptop arrived in the office while I was away last week, and now I'll have a screen that isn't wavy or fuzzy. i might, just might, post photos. Maybe add a little something to flickr. It's been a month and a half of squinting.

4. The new computer is red.

5. Did I mention that I bought and read and gifted those books before they won any awards? I'd feel smart, but I read them based on trusted recommendations. Still, I can pretend to be prescient.

Next year, when I have too much to do in December

Please don't remind me, when I'm swamped next December, that I saw this.

Because, when my class has the "hot chocolate with all of the fixings" morning, I might not be able to resist.

Gingerbread houses

I still have a few holiday activities to post - especially this one. In September, I asked a group of friends to throw a gingerbread house party for Christmas. There isn't any other way to put it, I wanted to make a gingerbread house, I didn't want to make one by myself, and knew that I wouldn't be able to host any other parties this year. So my kind friends did; thank you! At the end of the marathon week, there was a party and gingerbread waiting.

Look at the amazing results:

 

and mine:

I'm not sure why I added the bird. It just seemed necessary.

We all used graham crackers or Wilton kits and lots of hot glue that we then covered with royal frosting. Those who were convinced that glue = cheating were converted by the end of the night! There's nothing like being able to cart your house home without worrying about structural collapses.

2010 and the 2009 cookie dough

Okay - I'm at least one week behind still, but determined to record the last few holiday projects. I celebrated the new year by getting the cookie dough made, labeled, packaged, and partially delivered. Yes, once again, despite the whole premise that I can freeze cookie dough well in advance, I didn't manage to make the dough until New Years Eve.

 

I've wrapped the dough in crepe paper for the last few years, and I love the way it works - the stretchiness and the ease with which it ties. The only problem has been that the labels don't stick to crepe paper. This year, I finally smartened up and designed wrap-around labels that I could print onto normal matte paper.

 

The image is a postcard that I bought from ebay years ago, thinking that it would make a lovely Christmas card, in the days when I planned on sending Christmas cards instead of Valentine's cards. Actually, this one might have been in my New Years card phase. i love the image - the beautiful blue color and the fat little birds.

There was only one type of cookie dough this year; I'm not sure if that was a smart choice, or the lazy one. So far, no one has complained!

(For those who like that sort of thing, the labels were set up in Indesign and Photoshop, using Phaeton (love!) and Myriad Pro fonts.)