Dollieh Sanctuary

I know. It's a bit late for Christmas dresses. I actually started this one before Christmas and haven't quite felt good enough to finish it. Thanks to the colder weather and arthritis, the small details which need to be hand sewn aren't going to be happening soon, sadly.

This outfit is actually two dresses. The outer dress is an adaptation from Grace Fairie's Rats pattern. The dress below is a pattern that I adapted from one I found online that is actually supposed to be for an actual human woman. I wish I still had the bookmark but after a couple of hard drives crashing and a new computer upgrade, I've had the devil of a time trying to find the site where I found it.

What I've not finished :

The outer dress needs to either have grommets in the back to lace it up...or a ribbon of some sort in the back so that I can add the laces. I have some black and silver rick rack that would do quite nicely and that I will machine sew onto the back of the dress. I also want to add some small red ribbon, of which I need to buy...and tiny seed pearls to the edges of the dress in scallops. That will have to be done by hand and the way my hands feel, holding a needle and getting those tiny seed pearls strung...Well, I'll just have to wait until the pain isn't quite as bad and my hands don't shake as badly. (The shaking is from permanent nerve damage due to a car accident.) I also want to add a bit of decoration at the waist of the corset portion along the waistline, too. More seed pearls, possibly a miniature silk flower, something to dress it up just a bit more.

I just wanted to share what I've been doing lately, which hasn't been much. I've got a couple of other dresses that I've sewn but I'm not too happy with the way they turned out. I'll have to go back and make some adjustments with those.

Oooooh that is beautiful!!

It's beautiful. I would love to see the finished product.

I agree with the others, beautiful. And so much detail! I would definitely love to see this when it is finished. I couldn't imagine dealing with seed beads, so tiny. o.o

I love it, it looks great!
And I envy you your snow.

The dress looks wonderful! I can't wait to see it all finished.

Really pretty and great combination of fabrics!

That's gorgeous! And she models it so well.
I don't have half the patience necessary to do all that with seed beads, though I may have to figure it out and put all of the ones I have to use.

Everyone, thank you for the comments and glowing words! I'm hoping to try to start some more of the finishing touches this coming weekend. I'm not holding my breath, though. It just depends on how my hands are or aren't working, I think.

Cirquemom : As for the snow, I keep hoping that we'll get more. We had such a horrible drought this summer, that we really need the moisture. I know a friend on mine in Manitoba really got dumped on already. Shall I ask her to send you her spare snow?

I noticed her in this dress in one of your other pictures and really loved it! And it's still the holidays - Twelfth Night isn't until the 6th!