Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas, Dear Readers!

I modeled my Christmas dress this year off of a design I saw on Pinterest as well as my own imagination. 

It is a fairly simple design. 

I love sweetheart necklines! 

The sleeves are just little cap sleeves. I was messing around with a more elaborate design originally, but it drove me slightly nuts. So, back to ol' faithful!

This dress has side tabs and a corset-like "cinch" in the back for shaping (more on that later.) I made the dress loose enough to slip into so I didn't have to put a zipper in, and the cinch in the back gathers in the extra width of the dress nicely. 

Just for the record, I don't hate zippers that much. In fact, I have installed them many times with relative success. But I do find that not going with a zipper cuts a lot of time off of my dress projects. 

In case you are curious about the pattern of this dress, it is very simple. Here's a diagram of the shapes:

The front of each tab is sewn on directly in front of each dart, as you can see if you look carefully at the image below.

I began the skirt gathers underneath the tabs, and added (non-functional) buttons to the front end of the tab just for fun.

I added grommets to the other end of the tabs and laced my ribbon through, and Voila! My dress is shaped and has a lovely accent to make the back more interesting.

It's a great way to take a very simple dress design and elevate it to something special. I love this effect! 

Thank you so much for reading today!

Have a blessed Christmas!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey