So it's been wild and crazy here!  Family visiting, holidays, holiday sewing, Rainbow Dash dress no. 4, teething baby... It's just starting to calm down a little now.  And ooooh I discovered instagram and am a little obsessed hahaha. But!  I promised I would blog about our Xmas Eve dresses.  My husband comes from a very south Philly Italian family where they celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fish.  So- Christmas day, we relax in our holiday jammies and gorge ourselves on snacks and watch movies, play video games, and open presents all day and drink yummy holiday beer!  But back to the dresses!

My Dress

I went with a blue theme with pops of pink here and there.The idea came from an idea I had about a year ago to make a dress that I could call my Sound and Vision dress.  It's one of my favorite songs and it's David Bowie so it's automatically cool, right! Hahaha!  Take a minute to listen... it always puts me in a good mood!

So time went by and I decided I would make a special dress for myself for my birthday, since we were staying in a hotel waiting for our house to close the year before when I turned 30.  Huzzah!  I'll make a Sound and Vision dress!!  Cut to August and the planning for Azy's birthday party (a few days before mine) and I had gotten like 4 orders in my Etsy shop that month, three of which were custom orders.  Sniff sniff..., my dress will have to wait.  :-(  It was then that I decided come hell or high water, I would make that dress for myself!  And so a holiday color theme was born.  When I made this dress, Azriella proclaimed that she wanted a Christmas tree on her dress and when I asked her what color she yelled "PINK!" So blues and pink.  Awesome!

I had high hopes for making my dress and some of the things I originally planned did not pan out.  And then I completely hated the skirt part that I made the first time around :-(  So, on top of alllll the other the things in the Appellation of Christmas Sewing, I now needed to do something completely different.  So I went with "crazy quilting" or "crazy applique" and I just couldn't be happier with it!  I love all the scraps in odd shapes and colors!  Lots of fun; lots of thread!  And this time I didn't forget my pockets!  We all have pockets!  I used the Mary Adams "The Dress" pattern for the look.  For only having one pattern, that book is pretty darn inspirational!  It's where I had gotten the idea for this dress.  Anywho, I am happy with the finished look.  

Azriella's Dress

Azriella ironically had the easiest dress amongst us!  That is not the way it usually is! 

 I did a simple dirndl look with paneled skirt and inseam pockets .  Oh!  And I just the Shwins' great color block dress pattern for the bodice for both of the girls.  I decided they both needed poofy sleeves and Peter Pan collars, so I had to tweak the pattern a little.  

Azriella's sleeves and collar are lined with a pink purple blue ombre' fabric and the top layers were made with scraps from her Rainbow Dash dress.  A pink tree with a few silver embroidered stars down the front bodice and a pink placket with bright blue buttons down the dress completed her look.  Cute look, with the neckline looking a bit like a boat neck which I like.  I used the size 5 for Azriella and it fit pretty great!  

Sephira's Dress

For Sephira's dress I wanted to use a technique I thought up a while back but hadn't gotten the chance to try out:  herringbone bias. 

Now bear with me, this was my first attempt at this look.  I will be revisiting this again in the future with the knowledge of how to achieve a better look.  But I still reallllly like it.  It looks so cute on!  Time consuming but totally worth it.  

Now the real best part of Sephira's dress isn't something you see.  It's in the hem! 

It may look like an average hem, but- IT'S GOT BELLS HIDDEN IN THE HEM!!

I tacked the side seams (which are Frenched of course ;-) so the bells didn't get all horded in one corner.  I think you all should try it.  Just leave an opening when sewing up your hem that you can slip the bells into then close up your hem!  And watch them shake their dress like a can can dancer!  Sephira was shimmyingall night!  And I always knew where she was ;-) 

I also added some inset pockets to her skirt and continued the herringbone effect on the pocket backs.  And even though I was a little off on the zipper match up (*I honestly am considering starting my next zipper installation where the bodice and skirt meet first.  We'll see.), I still am pretty smitten with her dress.  It also really brings out the blue in her eyes!  

Well there you have it:  The Sew Chibi 2012 Christmas Eve Dresses!

Christmas nightgowns moments before getting nestled all snug in the bed :-)

What do you think?  I have a LOT of fun things I am going to be doing so stay tuned for more craziness!!!  Yeay!!