Vampire Writer: A Christmas Princess!

Emboldened by my sewing experiments in Pastels, I decided to make a Christmas frock for my four year old niece. Sensibly, just after Thanksgiving, as a surprise presented on December 12 for Santa Lucia Day – while wearing my Mother Christmas, of course. No pressure!

Previously in making that Mother Christmas Costume, I had cut off the fake fur from two red Halloween costume capes found at Goodwill. Now I again used the Butterick B4319 tunic pattern traced and cut from the bottom half of one cape. This left the upper portion as a new short cape, so I stitched a drawstring channel at the top and added the original fur scraps back around the collar using cumbersome but worthwhile invisible thread. The red tunic was also slightly more time consuming than the inspiring purple mock-ups thanks to using the invisible thread on the golden waist tie – ribbon left over from my Drab to Glam Lampshades with no inch to spare. This material is velvet costume cheap, too, unlined with unfinished seams. However I wanted any seen exterior thread to look somewhat nicer than the devil may care stitches on the play pretend purple frocks. Unfortunately I don't have many gold or yellow materials and notions. Lining the cape with a contrasting golden satin would have been so regal but I didn't have any!

Yellow is currently my niece's favorite color – as well as gold because as she says, “It's yellow, but better.” – and the embellished collar piece was actually a fabric Halloween crown I found clearance at Target for $1.50. Again the invisible thread was critical but by hand delicate to make sure it was secure. The back of the neckline has several pleats like the original purple mock-up adjusted for her size, but the short sleeves were gathered to be puffy for a vaguely historical silhouette. I thought of making a long sleeve with contrasting, epic medieval flair, but that can be an upgrade next year – maybe when I find some gold fabric! For me the piece de resistance was actually the impromptu head roll made with a found foam piece from my cardboard stash, leftover gold scraps from when I made a red and gold dress for my niece's mother twenty years ago, and the last of the reclaimed white fur. Dollar Store gold tubing and sparkle branches from previous projects and some random poinsettia florals with bells made for a festive hot glue finish.

When Mother Christmas finally visited this year (in my costume that is now so big the waist cincher barely held it in place but did I fix it knowing it had gotten too big last year? No.) my niece said she couldn't wear this Christmas dress because it wasn't Christmas yet. I convinced her to try it on in case I needed to fix it and then she was happy to give everyone magical holiday hugs before reading her Christmas storybook. On one hand, the costume is a little big even with the waist tie tightened in the back, which means she has room to grow into it by next Christmas when she might be interested in helping do further adjustments or more accessories and those sleeve embellishments. However, I was surprised that the dress was actually several inches short, with my niece already having grown in the few months between the earlier pretend dresses. Again, rather than cutting into the second red cape for lengthening ruffles now, I will save that until next year when I'll really need it! For a week's worth of work of holiday makes, my niece initially wore the merry ensemble for perhaps ten minutes. It also took me longer to get into my costume than for the time I actually wore it, but her hugs and smiles were worth it.

Having a holiday deadline on projects for others helped me creatively focus, but like the rest of my writing work in the past few months, these subsequent DIY articles have been slow coming. Who wants to read of silly sewing escapades in the 2025 we're facing? Come Christmas at my house, however, my niece was skipping around in her dress and cape, refusing to let go of the banana in her hand to take off the costume and go home. Maybe a basic tunic is tough to some, but anyone can make a wintry cape or holiday head roll. Such whimsy borne of the cheapest, leftover, found materials! I hope maybe we inspire you to find your own little enchanting, imaginative solstice – and to eat more bananas! You need your potassium.