as i mentioned, ella really wanted dora to have a matching dress so that when she went to see santa, she would look christmas-y too.
to make dora’s dress, i started with the pattern i use for making her jammies. i laid it on the fabric and traced around the neck and sleeve, then i drew a skirt freehand that is a similar shape to ella’s.
dora’s dress is constructed exactly like ella’s, but since it is so small, i used the sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch instead of the serger. there is a continuous bound placket in the back neckline to make it easier to get the dress on and off. the placket closes with velcro.
the belt is some black elastic sewn in a loop, the buckle is made from a gold sparkly pipe cleaner. she has matching pants made of the same fabric as the dress.
and it just wouldn’t do unless dora had mary janes like ella. :) little bits of felt, a scrap of narrow elastic—and some serious reflection on the possibility that i am too old for this—and dora had appropriate footwear.
easy way to make a shoe pattern: trace around the foot to make the sole. then use some aluminum foil to “drape” the existing shoes and draw the desired shoe shape with a marker. cut the foil, flatten it out, trace onto paper—cut and sew.
as you can see, ella and dora are practically identical—they even managed to find the matching hair bows. we had to make sure to tell santa’s helpers that despite what they saw, ella and dora are not, in fact, elves, and that after their visit with santa they were coming hom, not going to the north pole.
*we always ask the photographer to take the picture when ella is whispering into santa’s ear. after all, that is the magic of visiting santa—telling him your secret christmas wishes.
