Christmas outfits

Okay, it's already March but here is the last of my December sewing bee - I can't remember what I actually made in December but there were dresses, hats, bags, Christmas stockings . . . And it's taken me this long to finish getting photos. 

Emma was reluctant to model her outfit: "I don't wear it every day, you know. It's only for Christmas and special parties". However, after some high-level negotiations involving chocolate frogs, she really got into the spirit of it. I used Simplicity pattern 5540 for the hat, dress and matching purple shorts (not visible in this photo) and scaled down the reversible bucket bag pattern from Lisa Lam's The Bag Making Bible for the matching bag - which is lined with the dotted fabric I used for the dress.

And here is Olivia looking very cheeky in her Christmas dress (Simplicity 7189):

Olivia wasn't very happy when they opened their presents on Christmas Eve. She acted as if there had been a gross miscarriage of justice - or someone had switched the gift tags around. Why? Because she didn't get a bag! So the next day (yes, Christmas Day), I made a bag for her to match her birthday outfit.

Here are the two girls with their hats and bags, posing with Daddy before heading off to the coast:

Both bags are reversible - this is the reverse of Olivia's bag:

Christmas stockings

A few years ago, I made Christmas stockings for my family - panne velvet with fake fur around the top. I wanted to make something a bit more special but, as usual, I had only thought of them a few days before Christmas and didn't have time for anything more elaborate.

But this year, with an uncharacteristic burst of organisation, I realised a few months ago that Olivia didn't have a Christmas stocking. This seemed the perfect opportunity to do something a bit fancier for both granddaughters.

And here are the crazy patchwork Christmas stockings I made:

Christmas dresses

Here's Emma in her Christmas dress (the photo was taken at Christmas time but it's taken a while for me to get around to posting it).

And here is Emma's baby sister, Olivia, in her Christmas outfit. Olivia arrived just a few days before Christmas, so she had to wait a while for her outfit. As for the slightly large hat, she outgrew the small size before I finished it, so I skipped the medium size and made a large one. It's still a bit too big but she will probably grow into it very soon.

Season's greetings

Season's greetings to all. I spent the lead-up to Christmas trying to do some sewing and having everything imaginable go wrong - including sewing two fronts and two backs together, realising I didn't have the required elastic at 5.30pm and, the last straw, discovering on Christmas Eve that my machine wouldn't zigzag. So I now have several unfinished items, including the outfit that I was making Emma as a Christmas present.

However, she arrived yesterday wearing the dress and hat, which I had made for her birthday in September but hadn't gotten around to photographing previously.