Shellys Buttons and More: A season of Mannequins...1st chapter.

One thing is clear no matter your age, there is always a little girl inside that still wants to play dress up.

I have a few mannequins in my sewing studio that were shouting "cover me up please" so with the whispers of creativity summoning me I took on the task and dressed up a few for the holidays, I will have photos later on that will display them in a Christmas village. ( also thinking they will look great on our Christmas table) For now this is what I came up with.

You need so little to make these, mannequins of course, old barbie doll ones are fine, I have a collection that are from Hallmark collections, plastic ones I have gathered through the years and found a few on amazon just recently. They call them doll dress forms, or doll mannequins.

Supplies needed.

10 inch by 6 inches pieces of fabric for the skirts, some circle tulle, just to poof out the skirts, some small pieces of fabric for the wraps or some tops off some socks for a furry look and of course some shellys buttons to accent them as brooches.

Most of these were done all my hand stitching so you don't even need a sewing machine, just some thread and needle a bit of lace for trim or add some hand ruffles to the base of the skirts...I even had some pieces of fur to add for a very wintry christmacy look.

This a fabric that was a panel of wintery scenes of homes and snow...a perfect piece for this dress, one small piece cut 10 x 6 for the skirt, I just gathered the top with a few stitches and added a piece of lace on the bottom, all hand sewn. And for the wrap, that was only a piece that was 3 inches by 5 and wrapped it around her top

and stitched in place. Add a Shelly button of a Christmas bulb and voila, a simple Christmas piece for your table, mantle or village.

Plaids are synonymous with Christmas, my hubby was smiling as I was working on these as he noted they are duplicates of outfits I have made myself throughout the years. This one was made the same amount of fabric and I have a box of fur scraps from a friend who owns a fur business, she sends me boxes of pieces that are perfect for small projects.

And this Holiday season, cannot be complete without buffalo plaid, her top was made from the cuff of a sock, I purchased a few pairs that were a our local dollar store, looks like a knitted sweater, and all I had to do was cut off the top and secure a few stitches to the skirt, add a heart shelly button....ahhhhhhh!