It's only rock and roll

We had a few more big earthquakes yesterday. Not really what we needed two days before Christmas. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. Since there's not much you can do in these situations except keep calm and carry on, we spent Christmas eve eve eating blue cheese stuffed olives and pepperdews and watching telly (which was still sitting on the floor where it had fallen during the quake).

I'm not heavily into the whole Christmas thing (we don't even have a tree) and I hate Christmas songs but Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun pretty much sums up all my feelings about it. I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday however you celebrate, and manages to drink some white wine (or other beverage) in the sun (or snow if you live in the Northern hemisphere).

The Christmas Dress

I know Christmas was two weeks ago but I never got around to posting my finished Christmas dress. I actually finished it on Christmas morning just before we had to leave for family lunch. I was way overdressed for a barbecue but I think my family are pretty much used to my eccentricities by now.

I probably could've taken in the side seams some more but I wanted to be comfortable (and considering the amount of trifle and pavlova I ate, that was probably a good decision).
It's pretty much exactly the same dress as the muslin I posted about but I took the shoulders in a little more.

The picture above is most like the true colour of the fabric. It was kind of hard to capture with such terrible lighting and on a dull day.

A Christmas Dress Muslin

I've just returned from being away for a few days and have realised Christmas is looming ever closer. I want to make a dress to wear on Christmas day. We usually have a pretty casual Christmas (I'm pretty sure my Dad wore stubbies last year) so I will probably be ridiculously overdressed but I don't care.
I have had some poinsettia printed fabric in my stash for a while that I got off Trademe. I'm hoping it looks slightly Christmassy but not so much so that I can't wear it at other times of the year.

For once I decided to do a muslin. I used a weird tablecloth type thing I had in my stash as muslin fabric.
I inadvertantly cut off the top of my head in the photo (which was in fact probably for the best because I couldn't be bothered putting makeup on this morning).
The details aren't very clear in the picture but the bodice is really basic with kimono sleeves and a slight scoop neck. In the poinsettia version I'm going to take in the shoulder seams and the side seams slightly.

The skirt front has four pleats on each side which face the centre front. The back has two box pleats. The skirt is based on a vintage dress I saw on Etsy.

Now I've completed a muslin hopefully I'll be able to make the final dress before Christmas.