Blue Velvet

 I'm going to be joining The Man and his brother at Lake Tahoe this Christmas. If we're lucky, we'll drive up on a clear, sunny day and snow will start softly falling once we've checked into the hotel. If we're not, someone is going to have to put chains on the car. Wish us good fortune...

As we'll be dining out on Christmas Eve and for Christmas dinner, I decided I'd try to make myself a somewhat glam but also warm and comfy holiday dress.

I recently made myself a new V-Neck Tee from a pattern by Christine Johnson and I was reminded how much I like the neckline in front and the neck-hugging collar in back. Then I saw this midnight blue stretch velvet at Hart's, and all I could think of was a knee length V-Neck Tee in midnight blue. At $12.99 a yard, it was cheap enough that I gave it a whirl, even though I've never sewn with fabric with a nap like this before.

I wouldn't call it a walk in the park, but it wasn't as gnarly as I thought it might be. The fabric crept against itself a bit, but it wasn't too bad. I didn't even need to break out the walking foot.

The front panels that make up the V-neck on this top are doubled, which means that I have 4 layers of nappy stretch velvet down at the hem in the front. I hand sewed a catch stitch hem to keep it in place. It didn't work great, but it passes the galloping horse test. As The Man pointed out, it's all the way down by my knees. Who's going to notice that?

Looks like I could use a couple darts in the back, but I plan to be seated and eating huge dinners most of the time I'm wearing this dress. What the waiters don't know won't hurt them.

Instead of just cutting the skirt straight down from the tunic length I pinned on the knit pencil skirt from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. That made the skirt a little bit pegged, which I kind of like. Everything stretches enough so I can walk without any trouble. But I won't want to be climbing into any jacked up pick up trucks.

I thought I might need a good bit of fabric because; long sleeves and knee length, so I got three yards. This fabric is 60 inches wide, though, so I had enough left over to make a Tilly and the Buttons Coco from the remnants.

And I still have a big enough piece left that I've set it aside to make a Hyacinth bra.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.