Christmas Carols in Clothing Form

Hiatus is OVER!  I've been waiting for this project for months now, and I'm so excited that I was able to get it under way! Hubby and I were all sorts of in the Christmas spirit today. We went Christmas shopping (separately) and checked off both of our shopping lists, and then we put up our tree and got our house into its entire Christmas outfit. With all this spirit going around - I knew this was my chance to break out this gorgeousness...

 



This was at Salvation Army and I had no idea why it was there, but I knew I had to have it. I mean, who could honestly pass this up? Not to mention, the $3.99 price tag on it was unbeatable. Immediately, I was thinking a fun Christmas skirt; something to wear at Christmas to get the nieces and nephews, who are forever getting older and more and more "too cool" for Christmas, into the spirit of the holidays.

First thing I did was to cut off the bottom for the skirt because it was a ridiculously awkward length. When I noticed that the whole thing, once chopped up, was a huge circle I knew that I had to add some sort of elastic to get it back into skirt form (in an A-line fashion). In result, I made a one inch seam around the top.

Then, I cut the 3/4" elastic to the size of my waist and used a safety pin to inch it through the seam. It was a slow, slow (did I mention slow?) process to get the elastic all the way around. When I got it through, I pinned it and tried it on. Now, it doesn't seem like much but I was immensely happy that I had the forethought to "try it before you sew it". I'm not sure if I measured wrong the first time or if all that time spent threading the elastic made me lose a few inches, but I had a good 4 inches of elastic that was entirely unnecessary. Had I sewn it without trying it on it would have never been on my waist and forever at my feet. Not quite the "family friendly" holiday most have in mind.

After everything up top was all nice and pretty, I moved my attention to the bottom. I wanted to keep a bit of the green on the bottom for "trim", but I certainly did not need the whole five additional inches of that damned Santa figure - seriously, what is he doing? -  so I pinned it up. As I was pinning, I was ecstatic pleased to see this:

That uneven seam right there folks, was NOT. MINE. This was done by the original seamstress of the dress. It put a little smile on my face to see that I'm not the only one that messes up. Even professionals go for the "fake it 'till you make it" attitude sometimes. (Maybe they knew no one would look so close at a Santa-laden dress - oh how they doubt me!)

Once all pinned up on the bottom, I went about sewing the bottom hem. It was around this point that I was thinking "huh, this seems to be a bit easier than I thought - maybe I'm getting better!" Around the same time this thought was forming... so was this.

*Sigh* Shit. Did I know how this happened? Not so much. Do I know what caused it? Not at all. Did I know how to fix it?... not without tearing it apart. So I got out the handy-dandy seam ripper (I seriously keep it next to me every time I do a project now. It's just inevitable, really, that I will need to rip something apart, mistake or otherwise) and went to town on it. Then I did it again. Practice makes perfect, right?... Right?

When all was said and done, I ended up with lots of things to experiment with. What top should I wear with this and, way more importantly, what shoes? So I experimented....

I look like a jacked up Christmas carol! I was actually pretty excited that it looked extremely Christmas-y and I think it is exactly what I needed to get the kids excited about Christmas as well. This may or may not be the outfit I wear while I make Christmas cookies (you're welcome, hubby). Also note the experimentation of shoes - I was dying anxious to find a reason to wear those fantastic green shoes but, alas, they are a bit too bright (ha!) for this outfit. So, I finally decided on this slightly toned down outfit:

Don't mind my lone slipper back there - it was FREEZING in my craft room!

 

So there you have it - my "Christmas Excitement-Inspiring" skirt. By no means a church-going skirt, but something to smile and laugh about on a wonderful holiday with family and friends.

And... if ever I'm invited to a Christmas spirit or Ugly Sweater Christmas party, I can just throw the top back on...

... and the prize will be mine!

Merry Christmas!

No real list of end-of-post thoughts. Maybe just that I should research a bit more on appropriate length of elastic so it's not loose (as mine was, even with taking that additional 4 inches off) or too tight. Also - I really need to stop doing the cheerleader pose. What is with that hand on my hip?! I guess there's not much you can do whilst standing in front of a mirror, but I have to think of something. We'll see!