Is Christmas Over?

Not hardly for me! Our granddaughter doesn't show up with her Mom and Dad until Thursday, so that's when we will have Christmas Dinner II.

But I did finish the red Christmas Dress on the day after Christmas.

I like the way the crocheted edging came out. It's just the right weight for the fabric. I will try very hard to get a nice picture of her in it standing in front of the Christmas tree.

So, for the likes and dislikes:

The pattern is Maggie from Children's Corner, one of their fairly old ones. In fact, it is labeled as #1 Maggie Daydress, so maybe it's their first pattern? While I like the look of the dress, I didn't care for the pattern itself. The directions are a bit spotty, with extremely long sleeves that had to be shortened. The dress itself is quite short, so I lengthened it a good three inches. The pattern has you smocking only a short block, then gathering the fabric above the smocking to sew into the shoulder seams and collar in the back. I thought that was a bit odd so I smocked all the way to the top of the fabric pieces. The trouble is, the smocking in the back makes the collar seam sit straight up, and not fold down as it should. The front placket directions were very hard to follow, so I had to wing it. As a result, my buttons are a bit off center, bit I think I can adjust them a bit. I probably will not make this pattern again.

Since Christmas isn't over for me, I still have to wrap presents. Last year I came across an article about making fabric Christmas bags to use instead of wrapping paper.

I won't show a tutorial, as it is really too easy to do. All you have to do is fold a long piece of fabric, right sides together, sew the side seams, then turn right side out and hem the top. Add a length of ribbon to the side and you have a Christmas gift bag.

A nice present all wrapped and ready to give! You can loop a gift tag through the ribbon or use a stick-on label on the fabric itself - but they tend to fall off easily. What I would like to do is figure out how to make reusable gift tags, but as it is, we have enough for several more years. Best of all, there is practically no trash on Christmas morning. The men in my family love this as they all hate to wrap! Christmas fabric is on sale right now, so make up some bags for next year! You'll love them.