Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Perfect Christmas Party Dress

It's now that time of year. The time of year when I start thinking about Christmas (I like to get an early start) and what I'll sew to wear at the annual Christmas party. I have a tradition of always either wearing something vintage or something that I've sewn.

I like this tradition. I'm always dressed a bit more uniquely than the other ladies (who also look quite lovely themselves) and it presents the challenge of balance.

As a vintage lover and seamstress, the balance between unique and flat out DIFFERENT is always a fun line for me to walk. As much as I love vintage, I never try to replicate an era completely. I always look for that subtle blend of vintage and timeless, mixing eras, accessories and hairstyles.

Take last Christmas, for example. I wore an amazing 1950's lace dress with a pink petticoat underneath, but paired it with a modern red belt and current hairstyle:


This year I think my sewing plans will lean more towards the cocktail dress, both vintage AND handmade.
I give you, dear readers, my Christmas party cocktail dress:


I just recently finished digitizing, translating and generally improving the vintage original so that the average English-speaking seamstress could enjoy it too. I put the finishing touches on the graphics for this gem and thought... I have to wear this!
How convenient that it was Christmas inspired over 50 years ago, just so that I could rock vintage at the next party?

French Cocktail Dress Digital Pattern for Instant Download.

The pattern calls for velvet, but let's face it, the sky is the limit! What fabric do you think I should choose?

12 comments:

  1. Oh wow! So elegant! Accidentally, I do have some velvet in my stash ;)

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  2. It's beautiful! I like velvet, but it would work with a lot of other things. Maybe silk?

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  3. Oh Anna, this pattern is jut lovely and I can see you wearing it! Sadly weekends (aka, my sewing time) have been really busy lately so I don't see myself having time to sew up a holiday outfit. Though I just picked up some gorgeous cranberry wool that I think would be perfect for this dress :)

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  4. I am head over heels for brocade lately. I have three yards of some gorgeous olive green brocade that will be my Christmas party dress.

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  5. I love this! I saw the picture and thought, "oh, i wish the pattern was available.!" Then I scrolled down and saw that, indeed, it is!

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  6. This pattern is completely stunning! I think velvet or brocade would be positively stunning :) I can't wait to see what you choose!

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  7. I love this dress, it's so feminine and elegant!
    And I'm wondering: how would it be in shantung?

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  8. Velvet is a pain in the butt! I think this dress could get away with a lot of different fabrics but I like the idea of dupioni, or some kind of metallic to modernize it with all the fun metallic fabrics I've been seeing! Good luck!

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  9. Your previous Christmas party dress is so stunning, I'm sure that this one will be amazing too! The cut is gorgeous, I hope you manage to find some lovely fabric for it, I also think velvet would be nice!

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  10. Great choice for dress. It may be a huge feat but I think you should make it out of velvet. The first thing I thought when I saw the picture was, "what awesome fabric!"

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