Baubles and Christmas parties!

So ... yet again I had many ideas and plans for Christmas that I never got around to. I'm not very good at planning ahead and so by the time I had thought about making anything, it was too late to do much about it.

I did know that despite the small amount of time I had, I wanted to make my outfit for my work Christmas party again.

I made my dress last year and I loved the fact that I wore something that I had created. Last year I followed a pattern since I wasn't really comfortable with creating my own designs. The pattern I followed was the Audrey Dress crochet pattern by For The Frills. Here's the pattern if you'd like to make your own.

https://forthefrills.com/audrey-crochet-dress-free-pattern/

This year I knew exactly what I wanted so I decided I needed to just bite the bullet and create my own design.

I helped in a pattern test earlier in the year for Cactus and Lace's 'The Harlow Halter Top' and it introduced me to working the cross stitch. I loved the texture and the way it looked so I thought why not incorporate it into my design! I also had the perfect yarn for the dress, a lovely aran toasted marshmallow colour from Wildflower Yarn. I can't get enough of her yarns, her colourways are perfect!

So I set about making the top part of my dress. I knew I wanted to make it as much in the round as I could since I absolutely hate sewing up! I started with a halter type top and worked on the front and back separately.

Once I worked my panels to meet just under my arms, I joined them at the next row and then started working in the round. I love working in the round since you get to try it on as you go. It really helped me see where I needed to increase for my hips and see where I was going to add my slit.

But as I never plan ahead enough, I was still crocheting the bottom part of my dress at 5:30pm on the night of my Christmas party! I was so pleased with the final result. I would have liked a bit more length but I'll just have to make another one!

I did find a little time however to make some snowflakes for my work colleagues (another reason why I was crocheting my dress till the very last minute!) which were very well received. I used a YouTube tutorial for these by Expression Fiber Arts. I wanted them to be a bit sparkly so I paired a metallic thread with my white cotton yarn. I love the outcome!

So they were my only Christmas makes this year! I have got a ton of projects to make over the holiday period now that schools have broken up so I'm going to happily spend my Christmas crocheting away while drinking festive teas.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Anna x