Lola The Elf

On the Eve-Eve of Christmas I watched one of our favorite holiday movies, The Family Stone. I know the dinner scene is painful. I think I got up and went to the kitchen to refill my hot cocoa mug at the opportune moment and just happened to miss it. I don’t know why I love that flick though. I think it’s the combination of some of my favorite actors/actresses… and I laugh and stress and cry. It hones in on all my Christmas emotions.
Well, as we watched this year, I sewed tiny bells into Lola’s handmade elf costume.
When I was a little girl my mom made the majority of my dresses… A couple years ago she brought me some of them. I remember one dress from photos of my third birthday party. As I held up a Cookie Monster cake in the white dress with red, blue and yellow balloons on it. The style of the dress reminds me of this elf one actually. But I heard something and shook the dress then looked inside and found clusters of tiny bells. How adorable is that? I don’t remember the bells when I was little but I must’ve loved dancing around hearing them.

I knew my friend Annie, who loves crazy creative ideas like me, would be up for making an elf dress during the hectic week before Christmas for her daughter too. And when I texted her that we should sew bells inside like my mom did for my dresses she responded, “That is happening.” Then she searched Hobby Lobby for an hour to find such tiny, magical bells. She is good at everything. She can sing, teach Zumba, craft, take photos, do professional makeup plus sew like a freaking pro. And all at once I’m sure, if you asked her. But she helped me sew this costume for Lola. And by “help” I mean, I sewed and surged a couple pieces and made the hat, but she did the rest. I was there to hand her a Diet Coke.
Lola had “elf costume” at the top of her wish list. She is the queen of dress up! So she was pretty excited to open it on Christmas eve and prance around… with magical bells jingling all the way.

FREE PIXIE HAT PATTERN:
I used this free pixie hat pattern and instructions to make the hat. I did cut Lola’s piece a bit longer at the point. I used a thick, knit shirt that didn’t fit me anymore. You can also use old sweaters, which is something I have been wanting to do for a couple years now. So I was excited to find this tutorial. I am not that great at sewing so honestly anyone could make it. (The dress pattern was found on Etsy.)