Pleated Plaid Holiday Dresses

Is it too late to share the girls’ pleated plaid holiday dresses?  Let’s pretend no.  After all, Christmas may be over, but plaid isn’t going out of style anytime soon.  I used a nice, thick plaid flannel for all three dresses and they turned out sooo nice.

These girlies – oh, how I love them.

So, the dresses….

Inverted box pleats and darts in the front and back bodice give a really cute shape to the otherwise bulky fabric.  I used the 5 & 10 basic dress pattern and adjusted to add the darts and pleats.  I’ve always loved math, but even so, I was quite proud of my calculating work for these adjustments – three times!

I also added collars to the dresses and will give a tutorial soon so that it’s clear how to do that with the 5 & 10 pattern pieces.  This is the same thing I did on the Gold Hearts Dress a while back and I know some of you were asking for specific instructions, so…they’re coming!

We’ve been battling colds and sickness in our house, hence, my usually easy-going Addison was not amused by my offerings of dollar bills and milkshakes in exchange for photos.

 It took some coaxing, but she turned it on for just enough sister pictures.  She chose to keep her jacket on, though, so you can’t see the little puff sleeves on her dress – they look especially cute in this fabric and style.  I also put in invisible zippers in the back – I just think it looks nicer for holiday dresses – here’s my tutorial for INSERTING A ZIPPER IN A LINED DRESS – definitely give it a go – the finish is SO nice.

I have to be honest, friends. The only time that the all three girls wore their dresses at once was for these very pictures.  But, I’m so glad I took the time to make them.  In fact, they were about the only thing I sewed for the holidays.  Priceless Pictures for my efforts!  Not bad!