Baby Girl's Christmas Outfit

Opening pressies

Stealing strawberries

Twas two days before Christmas when, emboldened by success,

Mom decided baby girl needed a new Christmas dress!

Something white, green, and red with a round little collar

Something vintage, with ric-rac for my little crawler.

The pattern, the fabric; twas all in the stash

But the buttons Mom had, how they all did clash

So off to the store after work Christmas Eve

She found ric rac and buttons and fabric she couldn't leave

Christmas morning found her threading elastic

Surrounded by boxes, paper, and plastic

Just in time for the presents, candy and food

The outfit was finished and it sure did look good

So excited for hot chocolate pants!

Ugh.  Sorry for the totally unnecessary thing that just happened.  I'll try not to do it again...  I will probably fail, but I will try.  The holidays put holes in my brain, I swear.  In case you need further proof, the Sunday before Christmas I became convinced that Baby Girl must have a new Christmas outfit.  You know, because The Boy got new clothes for Christmas... and that's what kids really want for Christmas: homemade clothes.  Yeah.... ok.

I happened to have this lovely little vintage pattern that is just exactly Baby Girl's size (it's size 2 years and she's pretty big for her 18 months).  I got a big package of little people patterns together at Goodwill for $2 and this is only the second one I've used....  Unfortunately I better get crackin' on the rest of these if I want to use them, for as we all know, size 2 years is not a lengthy visitor.

I picked up the fabric for the top at the thrift store on the cheap; $4 for 4 yards.  Once it was made up it just begged for matching pants.  I'd been eyeing this hot chocolate print fabric since they got it in at the fabric store and just couldn't justify buying it with no project in mind...  problem solved!  I love the way the two fabrics look together.  The print on the top is so tiny and the cups of hot chocolate are so big.  Combined with the big red buttons and teeny little ric-rac....  well, it's starting to sound a little unbalanced but I think it comes together perfectly.

The fiddliest part of this pattern is piping and attaching the collar.  The neck edge is bound in bias tape, which  (being an adamant facing-hater, I dig) but gah, them's some thick rolls to try and bind with bias tape.  I think the trick is to just clip the seam allowances close, stitch the tape down, then iron the shit out of the whole thing to keep the collar in place.  That's really all I've got.

As you can see it's already covered in food

The pattern didn't call for the piping at the bottom of the front bodice piece, but it was easy enough to add and I think it looks really cute.  It's a little weird how close it is to the huuuge collar, but I think it makes the gathering pop a little bit.  And, you know, yay piping!

Look how well the bottom and ric-rac match up.  Boo-ya!

Oddly, I never seem to have red anything so I definitely didn't have any big red buttons.  Fortunately when I went to buy big red buttons, I also found the hot chocolate fabric 30% off..  Meant to be?  I think so.  Anyway, I think that's about all there is to say about this set.  I've already made up another one of these tops and there will be more (one is already cut out!).

Dear Baby Girl: You just get cuter and more loveable every day.  Stay sweet and happy please :)