Grace's Red Christmas Dress

When I was a little girl, my grandmother loved to dress me in red.  She lived with us for a period of several years, and in that time, sewed our dresses for school and special holidays.  She used to call out, as I left to go to school, "There goes my little red bird!"  Well, you can imagine how embarrassing this was, but all the same, if you think about it, it was endearing.  

My mother used to say, "I love red no matter what color it is!"  She loved the red cardinals although living in California, you'd never see one.  She was a dreamer like myself and Christmas was a favorite time of year in our home as children.  Spots of red would show up everywhere.  Little red felt elves in the tree, holly berries, red stockings she somehow hung from that brick fireplace.  Red cheeked Santas in red coats - cardboard die cuts that were taped in our front room window.

I love red, too, and there is no better time of year for the color to shine, than at Christmas.

Back in late November, as Rachel Hoffman was gearing us up for the Virtual Doll Convention Christmas Pageant, she put some of Diana Vining's original artwork in her gift shop, for sale.  When I saw the painting of Grace in this red gown, I popped it into my cart and purchased it.  This image just sang to me!  And, somewhere along the line, either by my dreamful imagination, or osmosis, I thought Robert Tonner was going to offer a Grace doll wearing this dress.  I was excited.  She was definitely going in my cart!  But, it wasn't meant to be.

The funny thing is that prior to this pipe dream, I'd purchased fabrics and roses to make the dress.  Then of course I didn't, because I thought Robert was coming to the rescue.  Nope.  Didn't happen.  Of course, we weren't even sure what he was going to offer us through the VDC until the Christmas Pageant began, and I made Grace the Partridge in a Pear tree gown.  At least she had an "official" Christmas gown and a memento from the Christmas Pageant.

Pageant over, doll not offered, Peggy Sue needed her red coat and bonnet, so I worked on getting her dressed for Christmas.  There sat the fabric, in a plastic bag for posterity.  I suppose I'd always intended to make it anyway, but did I really want to?  Well, that's the very reason I started sewing in the first place.  Right?  To be able to have something no one made and couldn't be purchased.

I'd bought two different kinds of red glitter tulle.  One from the U.S. and one from the U.K.  Both were the fine netting tulle.  Pretty as can be.  I bought miniature artificial roses.  You couldn't purchase just one, so I have lots left over.  And, a yard of red jersey knit, hoping it would all match nicely.  It did.  The jersey knit was nice, too, which surprised me.

So a few days ago, I caved, and started "Grace's Christmas Dress", as Diana called it.  I used the pattern I made for her Halloween Venus gown and altered it with Tamara Casey's t-shirt pattern.  Drawing them up together to get the bodice wasn't too difficult.  The sleeves needed to be taken in quite a bit for a snug fit, and the under bust to hips portion was already designed in the Venus pattern.  As with everything I do, this was a go-for-it moment, and I surely did not expect it to come out well - even come out at all.

The jersey bodice ends below her fanny where the ruffles begin.  Looking back on this, I probably could have shortened the length of the bodice some, but I was focused on designing the ruffled skirting at the time.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do this.  I haven't done layered ruffles in ages, and really had to give this some thought.  And, also, was it going to work for this gown?

One thing I noticed and was glad I caught, was the the middle ruffle is longer than the others.  These ruffles are not sewn on top of the fabric, but sewn into pieces.  The way I created the fullness was to lengthen each layer, then gather that once the tulle ruffle was attached to the top edge.  

Again with paper doll clothing, for me its all a matter of how to create something to look like the image.  In the painting, I envisioned tulle.  Sparkly tulle.  But, it could have been opaque fabric with sparkles.  That would have done the trick, but where does one find something like that?  I had the fabrics I'd purchased, and used them.

The layers that attach to the jersey bodice are red Shantung silk.  Its what I had on hand.  I fussed and fussed over the skirting, and even gave up a snow day skiing yesterday to have a whole day to concentrate and get this done.  Which is alright.  There will be more snow, and both my husband and I needed some alone time.  He looked so disappointed when I said I wanted to go.  He wanted to do a hard cross-country climb, and some exploring.  So I stayed home and tore my hair out trying to create this gown.

Grace is wearing the red shoes with bows from Marcia Friend's website.  Perfect match.  I fashioned her a wreath of mini roses since I could not locate my miniature holly garland.  I attached pearls and glass bead leaves to the wired wreath.  Her wig is the new one I purchased from the Christmas Pageant, and I pinned it up for the occasion.  She's wearing the red earrings from Robert's Holiday Wishes sequined outfit.

Grace, or my other Grace, is now ready for the fireside holiday festivities with her friend, Dolly Dingle.  I am done sewing for the remainder of the days to Christmas.  I have at least twenty must-see Christmas movies to watch, and will catch The Nutcracker on a Youtube.  The 1993 NYC Ballet Nutcracker is a treat.  There's one from the Royal Ballet coming, but you have to buy a ticket and stream it.  I'm not sure we can do that on my computer.  I'll ask.  Now that we have TMobile, maybe it can be watched on our television!  

Its been a lovely Christmas season, and Rachel and Diana played a huge part in making it special.  Six days to go!  And, they go so quickly.  I love red no matter what color it is, too, so I'll share some Christmas Red with you below.  

Wishing you a lovely Christmastime!  The joy is in the little things that sparkle!

Love, Melissa

Maybe I'll make this for next year!