It's mid December and upon collecting my daughter from nursery, I find out that my little girl is going to be an angel in the nursery nativity and that she would need a costume for the event taking place in 6 days time. Well, it's just under 2 week before Christmas and I have over booked massively on the activities. With multiple Santa visits, Christmas light shows, a festive train ride, work christmas parties and the obligatory visits with friends and family, like most of you, my calender was looking rather full so creating an angel costume, off the cuff, was not something I had anticipated adding to my to do list.
Now, a 'normal' person would of popped to their local supermarket and picked up a premade, run of the mill standard angel costume. Handed to their thrilled child and poured themselves a nice big glass of wine knowing they deserved it for a job well done. And so they should. I however am not a 'normal' person, for I am a sewer or sewist or whatever we're callig ourselves now. It would have been far easier to pop to the shops to retrieve a suitable costume, however, given the excuse to make a cute little Angel outfit sparked the inner seamstress in me and which of us can deny our inner seamstress, especially at Christmas. Plus, I'm a glutton for punishment so why wouldn't I make an angel costume when I'm really busy and have other things I should be doing.
Therefore, I looked through my collection of little girl dress patterns and decided on a favourite. The Geranium Dress by Made By Rae is a lovely little dress that's easy and quick to make which given my lack of time is exactly what I'm looking for.
Now, I know I've shown you this one before but the pattern does offer some variations to the design. The two dresses I've made from this pattern use different versions.
For the latest version of the dress I decided to do a gathered skirt rather than a pleated one. I also attempted to do the flutter sleeves, however, the white Linen fabric i wanted to use (same as the skirt) was very light and I found it to difficult to finish the edges well enough that it looked good enough to use. I, therefore, replaced the flutter sleeves with a ribbon trim that I had in my stash. I was actually really pleased with how this turned out. The antique cream worked really well with the gold metallic bodice fabric.
Previously, I had made this dress using one fabric for both the bodice and skirt, Paper Plane Hopes. However, this time I decided to use two different fabric. As the outfit had to be fit for an angel I chose the Hatchmarks fabric in cream metallic by Cotton and Steel for the bodice and White Linen by AGF for the skirt.
Hatchmarks is a really stunning, beautiful quality fabric that gives off a real shimmery shine of gold. This version is on a cream background but it is also available in navy. It's perfect for outfits where you want to standout and impress. Great for evening wear, a wedding outfit or if you need to play an angel in your nursery nativity.
I'm always curious when using sparkly fabrics or when buying clothes that have metallic, sparkly detail as to how good they are going to look after you've washed them a couple of times. I've had some lovely tops that have lost all their glitter after only a couple of washes and then look like you've had them a decade. Being a childs costume the angel outfit has since been washed several times due to chocolate and ice lolly related soilage and the gold still looks as good as it does on the bolt.
My final piece de resistance with the angel costume and one I'm rather pleased with myself about, was my button choice.
I have had these gorgeous little buttons in my stash for donkey's years (I know, I'm sorry). Anyway, I've been waiting for something appropriate to use these for and what could be more appropriate than a nativity costume.
Apart from changing the flutter sleeves to the ribbon trim, I had no real problems making the dress and as I had most of the paper pattern pieces ready to go (from my previous rendition of the dress), I completed the dress in an afternoon, including tea breaks. I'm really pleased with the final result. I was able to find some gold wings and a golden halo from a local shop and Persephone looked the perfect little angel in her costume.
I would like to be able to tell you that the play was a roaring success, that my little angel performed her role to Oscar winning standards and sung with angelic perfection. However, that woud be a lie. Unfortunately, upon entering the performance area our little angle was overwhelmed with stage fright and refused to even stand with her class mates. When I eventually persuaded her to let me and her grandfather sit in the extremely over crowded and very warm audience, she made a break for the door. After clambering over several of the other parents to catch the fleeing angel, I found her hiding in the toilets and managed to persuaded her to return only on the condition that she be allowed to sit in the audience with her grandfather and me.
Therefore, the three of us sat in the classroom pack far beyond all realistic capacity levels, on tiny chairs, along with several hundred (it felt like that at least) adoring and very hot, sweaty parents while we watched Persephones classmates perform a wonderful rendition of the nativity story. I will be honest that watching 3 and 4 year olds perform in such warm and cramped conditions, thighs and arm pressed distubingly tightly against neighbouring strangers, whilst stradling the tinyiest of nursery class chairs, does lose its appeal very quickly especially when your child isn't even in it. The sting in the tail, being the effort I'd put into the costume but ho hum, as a parent to a three year old you soon learn to take the highs with the lows and the once angel costume has now, with the removal of a halo and the addition of a ribbon wand, become a much worn and well loved fairy outfit.
Should you fancy making a fairy or angel outfit of your own, the dress pattern and fabrics are all available in our online store.
Thanks for reading
Anna
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