In good taste

So why the long absence since my last post? I'm deep in a Christmas sewing frenzy. I'm making both Puddle, and myself, matching Christmas dresses. I'm hoping that sewing Puddle a Christmas dress will become a Christmas tradition, until she's 12 or something. I promise to not embarrass her with a homemade dress at her Grade 8 Christmas dance unless she requests one.

So here's the pattern for her dress (McCall's M5791). I'm making the pink one with black polka dots, adding the puffed sleeves and using a Christmasey fabric. 

What fabric did I choose? Well, I initially wanted to use something like red silk or taffeta. Unfortunately, I couldn't' find either that I liked and ended up wandering around Fabricana for an hour. A nice saleswoman took pity and offered help. She suggested stretch velvet, citing such reasons as it's easy to wash and wrinkle-free. I found myself nodding and agreeing that it is truly the best fabric for all occasions and ages, when she snapped me back to reality by mentioning she had just made a t-shirt and pants in dark green stretch velvet.

Wisely, I removed myself from the stretch velvet section and ended up buying wine-red, Australian Shiraz really, satin (which I had cut at the other end of the fabric store so the nice saleswoman wouldn't see me).