Christmas 2022

Just seven days to Christmas!  Six if you don't count today since its rather late in the day anyway.  I've been going full steam ahead since Thanksgiving and it feels marvelous to sit and write once again.  I can only hope that some of you are still following me since I'm pretty sure you're not receiving these posts, but again, I'm sorry, and please follow me on Facebook under Melissa Hoover.  I will always post a link to the blog when I share new work and have written about it.

I just vacuumed half the house cleaning up everything brought in from outdoors, and tons of glitter and clippings in my studio.  In an attempt, at some point, to clean off my work surface, I must have hand swept my favorite needle card into the trash along with the above mentioned.  Dang.  I've never done that before.  You can always buy more needles!  Not a problem.  But having tidied up a bit, I feel comfortable sitting down to write a long story of December.  

One of the reasons I had not posted is that I was working on Christmas gifts for two of my closest friends.  Betsy requested a silk dress for her Iacono play doll, and I was happy to make one for her.  She loves pink, and I found this delicious plaid that seemed to fit the bill.  

I'd bought her an Esme at a rather good price earlier this fall, to turn into a doll for her doll, and that was part of the box I sent to her as well.  I used my Virgo doll as a model and that's why you see the grape leaves in her braids.  

The dress is a puffed sleeve confection with a separate collar.  The dress can therefore be worn with or without it.  Talking with Betsy last night, she told me she found a sweater that fit her doll, so for winter, the doll with wear this dress with a sweater over it.  Nice!

Here's little Esme transformed.  I removed her red mohair wig and gave her a little brunette wig and sewed the braids up in a Carl Larsson child style.  This also helps in dressing the doll because mohair styles don't hold up to lots of play.

The little doll got a pair of pink stocking and black shoes like her 16" mama.

The nice thing about this is that when I make new dresses for Betsy's doll, I'll make a matching one for Maggie's dolly.

Here's the dress with collar and large sash to tie in a bow around her waist.

It's a little luxury!

My friend, Heather, had just received her Connie Lowe Pearl doll and I went nuts for it.  I've really become enamored of these dolls and hope beyond hope that someday I'll own one.  People selling them second hand want three times the price and I simply cannot, will not, do that.

So, Heather offered to send Pearl to me to play with, and I asked her if she'd like me to make Pearl something for Christmas.  So, I made what I'm referring to as a fairytale play set.  This came about as I went along.

The dolls I saw posted on the groups on Facebook were wearing very artful creations and I wanted to do something similar.  There's a clothing company called Unlogical Poem and they carry artful clothing like this.  They were my inspiration as well.

I made the overalls with different sized offset pockets and knew something would have to go inside of them.  This is when I decided to make a little frog prince and castle tower out of felt.  I may have spent just as much 

time making them as I spent on the outfit.

The overalls are a striped linen, and the blouse is muslin with a large spotted collar.  The Connie Lowe dolls are dressed in what I'll call shabby chic, so I don't expect to see one dressed in silk.  They are extremely fun play dolls and pose incredibly well.  

Here's Pearl with her fairytale toys wearing the paper crown I made for her.

I learned a lot about making crowns from scrapbooking paper or scrapbooking card stock.  This was the third try.  I had a beautiful shiny gold, but it was mylar ironed to card stock and the gold ripped away at the edges as my scissors turned.  It also refused to bend into a crown shape and developed creases.  pft!  The second attempt was from a glittery cardstock and it just didn't look right.  

Again, more time is spent in perfecting a finished set than sometimes hoped for.

I'd love to sew for this doll again, and maybe next time, I'll have one of my own.

Mid December arrives and the Club Grace box arrives.  When Rachel previewed the box via YouTube, there were add-ons galore and one of them was this Winter Princess gown for Grace Marie Fitzpatrick.  Kate Middleton, or Catherine Princess of Wales, wore this gown to an event in South America, if I recall correctly.  Ruby Red Galleria did a phenomenal job on it, and they sold out immediately.  

These dresses also fit Tonner's new Ellowyne, so Ruby Red Galleria made them in light blue, red and lilac as well.  I loved the dress so much I bought two more.  One in the red and one in lilac.  

Of course, Dolly Dingle couldn't be left out of getting a Winter Princess outfit, so I set to the task of making her one.

Tulle is interesting.  I don't like sewing with it, but I learned a lot about working with it this time around.  I have sewn with it before, but the tulle I used was a drapey nylon mesh and easy to work with.  Sellers don't mention what kind of tulle they're selling so I know to ask next time.  

Dolly's glitter tulle was the stiff kind.  Good heavens!  There is nothing that will turn you into a Grinch faster than working with this stuff.  I managed though to create a similar look, yet unique for little Dolly.

There's a tulle layer that is trimmed into points and upon these ends I added crystals.  I also added a scattering of the crystals to her bodice.

I did, at the last moment, decide to try and make the gathered trim for the neckline.  I knew it would be good for me to try to this since what I was going to attempt for her next costume would require such patience.

I gave her silver slippers.

Side view to show the tier at the waist.

Pretty from behind as well.

Both Grace Marie and Dolly got tiaras.  The ones I'd purchased had big combs attached to them and I carefully removed the comb and added jewelry elastic to keep the tiaras on their heads.  Tonner used this technique with many of the hats he made for his creations.

I had a crown on hand, and Remmie Lou was happy to wear it, referring to herself as Her Majesty.

The Club Grace box for December was called Santa's Helper and Grace's dress was a shorter version of the kind worn by the actresses in White Christmas.  I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do for Dolly until I started looking on Pinterest.  I am continually inspired by what I find there.

As I was looking and searching for ideas, I found these children's Christmas tree costumes.  I went nuts!  I'm sure I saw them before, but what could be more perfect than a Christmas tree costume for Dolly?!

So, I bought more tulle, and this time got lucky with the soft drapey glitter tulle.  When I get a chance, I'm going to write to this seller and ask her exactly what kind this is as opposed to the stiffer, more common kind.  I don't want to make the mistake again of purchasing the stiff stuff.

I'm actually amazed that this little Christmas tree costume came out so well.  I literally agonized over making it.  How to do it puzzled me no end.

The tulle was 60" wide, and each ruffle is exactly that length.  Do those three times and sew in the gathering stitches (I use two) and that's a lot of thread.  I also added silk ribbon to the edges and that was a lot of work in itself.  I think once I got going, and got into the rhythm of it, it went along fairly nicely.  

Attaching all this to the bodice was another question.  I was referring often to the Pinterest image of the two little girls in their costumes, to figure out the construction.  If I'm correct, their costumes have a onsie beneath them.  How you'd attach this mess to a onsie without the top edge showing befuddled me, so I went back to plan A and made it into a dress.  

Adorable costumes for little girls!

Close up of tulle and the shoes I made to go with the costume, similar to the ones the little girls are wearing.

The tights were dark nude and the shoes needed to match somewhat.  I had a small piece of pigskin in this "flesh" color and used it.  The silk ribbons are part of shoe and glued beneath the body of the shoe before the sole is glued on.

And she needed her tree top hat.  

This went along rather quickly as I'm pretty confident in my ability to make conical hats.  The ruffles which resemble the top branches are machine sewn directly on.  The hat base is covered in both the silk and tulle and topped with a shiny gold star.

Yesterday I went to Michael's looking for beads for ornaments on the tree costume, and easily spotted these pearlized plastic ones and used them for the decorations.  They came in three sizes, and I used the mid-sized for the dress and the smallest for the hat.

The back view.

Let's not forget Remmie Lou!  Remmie Lou joined the Santa's Helper fun with antlers made from pipe cleaners and a jolly red Rudolph nose pom-pom.

She wears a silk ribbon with bells sewn on that ties in a bow behind her head.

Diana Vining had included a Christmas paper sheet of Rachel's two dogs and I reduced it in size and made up Christmas gifts from it.

I really had more fun than expected creating Dolly's Christmas tree costume and as I finished this costume today, I feel I can now take a deep breath and enjoy a week of more Hallmark movies and do some very necessary housework.  

There are always things I need to do, but its Christmas and I'm planning on just having fun.  There's no rain or snow in the forecast, but with recent winter storms we were able to go cross-country skiing three times, the next day after each new snowfall.  It's been a wonderful December and I'm ready to put my feet up and let the carols play.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Love, Melissa

Diana Vining's artwork for Club Grace