by

Dressing-up My Selfie for the Holidays

Earlier this year I bought a ‘selfie’, commonly referred to as a dressmaker form. I kept her busy throughout the month of October, patterning and draping my Under-the-Sea Halloween costume. You can read more about that here and here.

When the fun was over, my selfie took a month off. She hung out in a corner of our room wearing a rarely worn velvet wrap.

Now she’s back for the holidays, all dressed up with a new purpose. She’s in charge of displaying our Christmas cards.  I found inspiration for this idea on a Pinterest board of dress forms. If you follow the link, you’ll see an antique dress form wearing a tulle skirt and a peplum sporting the word Noel. I love the simple elegance.

My Christmas Selfie

Braving the long, holiday lines at our local fabric store, I bought a few yards of tulle and a packet of blanket binding. I also bought sheets of silver tissue paper for the bodice. Safely back in my car, I vowed not to return to a fabric store before January. A week or so later, I set up my sewing machine and whipped up a fancy pretend dress.

dress form christmas

Tissue paper bodice, left. Lace shell bodice, right. Seam binding bow at the waist.

Though my dress form is modern and functional, it was fun dressing her up in a vintage vibe.

The ‘dress’ continues to evolve as projects like this often do. I wasn’t thrilled with the way the tissue bodice turned out, so I covered it instead with one of my summer lace shells. I added bits of my birthday gift wrap bling (from Boomdee) around the neck and bodice. A small hair clip adds additional sparkle.

christmas form bling

Birthday bling makes the dress zing

One big bow at the waist for some added flair and then I called it a day.

christmas dress form ribbon and card-001

Tiny clothespins hold the cards in place

Originally I planned to use safety pins to attach the cards to the skirt, but instead I found these:

Miniature silver clothespins

Miniature silver clothespins

Aren’t they cute? They are the tiniest clothespins I’ve ever seen and perfect for the job. They add a bit of shine without creating too much weight.

My teenage boys aren’t interested in Christmas this year, so I needed to find something new and different for me. Dressing up my Selfie did the trick.

christmas selfie

I received a pile of cards in the mail today. I can’t wait to add them to the skirt. I”ll post an updated photo later this month.

 

Are you trying anything new this holiday season?

35 thoughts on “Dressing-up My Selfie for the Holidays”

  2. That is brilliant! And your ability to fashion a garment out of bits and bobs still amazes me! I am pleased to hear that you continue to find a way to celebrate the season despite your children’s phase of transitioning to adulthood via the teenage ‘Disinterest’ route. It is a short road, you will see. I myself am not ‘doing’ Christmas this year – which has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I am so woefully behind on all my projects and my art course starts in two weeks……. and my art room is still not finished it’s transition either. I honestly don’t know what happened to the last three months – I hope this isn’t how life now goes. I thought retirement meant long lazy days and all the time in the world ….. I shall look forward to seeing your dress completely covered in cards 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • I just finished sending you an email and here you are.

      This ‘dress’ was great fun. A few stitches here, a bit of tape there and voila. I’m enjoying attaching each card as they arrive, though I’ve yet to send off more than one or two myself.

      Thanks for your reassurances on the teenage years. I bow to your wisdom and sage advice and appreciate knowing that this too shall change.

      You’ve had so much going on this year. I think you should list all the things you have done and you’ll see in short order that it is plenty long and full. You could simply write: adopted Siddy, the end and that alone would be enough. But I know you’ve been helping your daughters, planning a garden, planting a garden, tending to Siddy and Orlando, redoing your main room now redoing your craft room, helping with a move and oh yes, all those other things we all do like dishes, laundry, cleaning, walking, sleeping, reading and blogging!

      I’m off to dinner with my family. Be back in awhile. xoxo

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I was just talking with Danella about how much he, Siddy, slows me down. I spent three days making curtains which would normally be done in one day, simply due to the fact I have a soft toy or ball dumped in my lap at regular intervals so he can play fetch.

        I haven’t had an opportunity to write a post about the tiny garden yet – and Alys it is looking amazing! I have an abundance of foodstuffs including chard, celery, peas, lettuce, broccoli and tomatoes all in varying stages of readiness. I’ve been eating the lettuce, celery and chard for at least a month now..

        Thank you for reminding me of what has been achieved during the year – the wonders of blogging. It’s all there in black and white and colour photos 🙂

        I shall go find your email now 🙂 xoxo

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

        • He is such a playful pup, and like toddlers, non-stop and completely self centered. I’m sure little Siddy figures it’s all about him, all the time.

          Mouse wouldn’t rest today until I finally sat down. Once I did, he curled up on my legs for just two minutes, then moved over to the next chair for honest to goodness sleep. Silly!

          I’m thrilled to hear news of your garden. You’ve grown a tasty crop in a small space, proving once again that with planning and determination, it can be done.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  3. Hey Alys, this looks great! what a great idea and so pretty with white tule and the bling.
    New crafts??? well I just received from Boomdee an incredible package with a scrapbook calendar (amongst many other things, the lovely girl) that will become my first paper craft!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. What an awesome creative way to display Christmas Cards! I love it so much! I wish I had a “selfie” mold that I could use to make my own clothes! I love how you created the dress and I did notice that you had Boomie embellishments on it even before I read it! Boomies crafts always stand out from the crowd!

    I actually made something too from Pinterest for our Christmas Cards. I took a few of my unused wood tomato stakes and cut them down and made a frame, then I stapled some chicken wire behind the frame. Instant Christmas Card holder and I used small silver binder clips to hold the cards onto the chicken wire (since I did not have baby clothes pins). After the holidays, I can use this little frame for notes in my office!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you, Marlene! It was an idea that evolved. I’ve done different things over the years, most often stringing the cards along a ribbon attached to the wall. This has been fun.

      Thank you for your lovely card and note. It’s now part of the skirt!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. She’s beautiful and I love the vintage vibe. I’m wanting a dress form now more than ever. I just can’t imagine where I’d put it though, the craft room is bursting. The skirt and bodice of Selfie (or maybe Selfia today as she looks so pretty) are so magical and lacey. Thank you for repurposing the gift toppers too, you always make them look so much prettier afterwards xo I’m admiring the snowman card too, did someone make it? The whole chalkboard thing is very popular here currently and it’s showing up in a lot of projects.

    I wish I could say I’m trying something new for the holidays but since we’ve returned from CA, I haven’t had a moment to think. I normally send a nice Christmas letter out, but did postcards from San Diego instead, LOL. That was my backup plan, aka shortcut. I did get a fun thing from Julia which I’ll consider a ‘new tradition’. I’m hoping to post today 😀 xoxo

    Like

    Reply

    • Thank you! I knew you would like the vintage vibe. It just seems to fit with a dress form, even if it’s not an old one.

      I love the name Selfia. That’s much prettier than Selfie. I love your birthday bling, too, and couldn’t do a thing to improve on their beauty. It’s fun seeing them every day.

      The snowman card is not handmade but it is adorable. You’re right about the chalkboard stuff. I see it everywhere.

      Postcards from San Diego work for me! What a great idea.

      I’ll watch for your post. xoxo

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. You really are like the west coast Martha Stewart–in that you see something dull and drab and just snap your wand of creativity and art seems to bleed everywhere. It would be great to see inside your head for an hour, but likely more than that and I’d be overwhelmed with the artful visions that must dance about.
    If I had myself a dressmaker’s doll, I’d likely be begging it to edit my manuscripts, or give me any feedback on freshly written chapters. We might waltz once in a while as a break from writing.
    Happy Holidays, Alys. Keep up that Christmas spirit!
    Cheers

    Like

    Reply

    • You make me smile. Thank you, Shelley!

      I love the idea of you dancing with your dressmaker’s doll. And if she could edit your manuscripts, I’m sure she would. If I could imbue my Selfie with a few handy tricks, I would have her pick me up once a day like the old-fashioned chiropractors and snap my unhappy spine back in place.

      Happy holidays to you, too.

      Like

      Reply

  14. Pingback: A Very Blue Room and a Very Small Garden | The Contented Crafter

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment, below.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.