Monday Makes: Tuesday Edition. Snowflakes, stars, and wresting with velvet, or Christmas Dresses, Part I

I sat in the middle of my fabric stash for three hours this morning trying to find a vision for Christmas dresses this year. Fabric stores are so much easier. You pick, you choose, you have the alluring novelty of fresh fabric you've never seen to spark your imagination. I have boxes and boxes of fabric. I have a huge box filled with velvet and leather. Another large box filled with silk. Another two with cotton, one and a half of corduroy, and a large one of knits. Every time I sew something, I have a tendency to buy twice as much fabric. I'm afraid that some day I'll run out. I must.

Anyway. I was trying to pick between this gorgeous maroon print on tan of sworls and curlicues with large birds, maybe peacocks on it, with coordinating red felt, red lace, red hachi print of deer, vs. the green stash, white tulle with large green polka dots(I love this. Will do something amazing with it some day) green plaid, green silk, green wool, and nothing was working for me until I accidentally draped some gold silk over the blue silk. One daughter is gold, the other blue, and together... And that's when the trouble really started. I dug though my velvet stash, and voila! cobalt, gold, cream velvets. I had a tentative plan, something involving snowflakes, or something on each bodice. Now, six hours later of wrestling with velvet, I have a beginning. Or two beginnings. AGH! I love it. I must love it because I do it every year. But AGHHH! Quilting velvet is for fools.

These are tiny. Four inches on each side. All those pieces are triangles. AGH!

I made up the pattern from something I saw on Pinterest. I'm going with the 'authentic' homespun look. As in, my corners are not crisp. Nope. Velvet does not do crisp corners. At all. Even straight sides are slightly wavy.

It really is this shimmery and glistening. It's high quality velvet. And I actually used it. Ha! My hoarding ways are completely validated.