Category Archives: clothing

Early Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2010 | 2 comments

Saturday was a day of treasured memories.  Norman Rockwell himself never had it so good.  With their families, both of our children  gathered around the dining room table in the home where they grew up.  Bob and I were again grateful beyond words for all of our blessings.

The menu was traditional, with turkey, dressing, pumpkin and mincemeat pies and all the trimmings. A few years ago, we added a new item to the table and due to popular demand, it has become a regular.  Cranberry-orange relish is easy-peasy, can be made in advance and keeps for one week. The recipe is posted below.

 

The day began with everyone watching football as our beloved Gators tried to improve their performance in a disappointing season. At half time, the crowd moved outside for some action in the front yard.  Alastair surprised us with his strong 20 month old arm and both Robert and Laurel ran some pretty good routes.

 

our own sweet Sugar Plum Fairy

Half time also gave me the opportunity to pin up the hem in Laurel’s Christmas dress.  I think she will be prettier than the Sugar Plum Fairy herself when we attend The Nutcracker next month.

All three children clowned around, but as always, Alastair dodged the camera like a wide receiver outrunning a tackle.  Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, brother-sister, clothing, embroidery blanks, girls, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, Nana fun

Gobble Monogram Shirts

Posted on November 20, 2010 | 3 comments

UPDATE:  Some new photos of all three in their turkey shirts…….

My grandsons’ Christmas outfits are on the back burner. This past week, I was tied up taking care of Alastair across the state.  His mother has been called into work at her job as a computer engineer for a full week, rather than her regularly scheduled two days, so I did daycare instead of holiday outfits.

I returned home Thurs. night, fully intending to plow full steam ahead on Christmas clothes, but now we are having an impromptu early Thanksgiving Saturday.

Ryan and Shelly were already on board because it is a regular football Saturday. We called Rebecca and Harvey Friday at dinner time to ask them to come.  They piled into the car and arrived late that evening with sweet Alastair sound asleep.  Having a baby tucked in the nursery crib is just one more thing to be thankful for.

It will be just like the real thing, though on a slightly smaller scale, as I have just begun cooking.  But with turkey, dressing, lots of trimmings, pumpkin and mincemeat pies and a day rife with college football games, the only difference will be that we are not celebrating on the 4th Thursday of November. Continue reading →

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Posted in brother-sister, clothing, embroidery blanks, girls, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, serger

Boys’ Christmas Outfits

Posted on November 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Now that Laurel’s Christmas dress is finished, I am ready to begin  outfits for her brother, Robert, 5, and cousin Alastair, 20 months.  Black velveteen and embroidery designs from The Nutcracker are the common components that will coordinate these garments.

Robert was to have had black knickers but his mother wisely suggested otherwise.  It’s likely that none of the homeschooled boys  attending The Nutcracker matinee have even seen a pair of knickers, let alone worn them.   So I’ve changed the plan and Robert will wear black dress pants. 

His shirt, however, will be as planned–ivory linen with an embroidered nutcracker.  Black lace tape will run vertically along  either side of the embroidery and perhaps some  twin needle pintucks.  I’m not sure just how much width there will be to work with.  I do plan to make him some velveteen shorts for Christmas day.   That’s a photo op that I won’t miss! Now, if I can just keep him out of the tree house until picture time. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, brother-sister, clothing, Holiday Projects

Christmas Dress ’10

Posted on November 15, 2010 | 14 comments

black velveteen

Laurel’s black velveteen dress and pinafore bib are finished, complete except for the hem. It was such a pleasure to plan and stitch this holiday outfit for her. Handling and stitching the goods for heirloom sewing just makes me say ahhhhhh.

Christmas outfits for Laurel and her brother need to be finished in time for family Christmas card photos. Then, they will be worn to The Nutcracker performance in early December. So the rush is on to complete Robert’s clothing. His shirt will be embroidered with a nutcracker.

pinafore bib

The champagne Swiss batiste pinafore bib features the Sugar Plum Fairy design from A Bit of Stitch’s Mini Nutcracker Motifs collection. This is a really lovely design, very delicate. The motif below the dancer is stitched with 80 wt. Madeira Cotona, which makes the design very light.

I was almost finished with the bib when I noticed that the ballerina was not centered. How did that happen? I measured ever so carefully, I thought. But I’ll have to live with it now.

Ecru beading threaded with pink satin ribbon runs on either side of a delicate antique lace insertion. Wide pink satin ribbon ties the bib front and back at the side. Continue reading →

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Posted in brother-sister, clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, serger

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Back to the Drawing Board~Christmas Dress ’10

Posted on October 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

 

It’s back to the drawing board for Laurel’s Christmas dress.  The day after it was ordered, the luscious black velveteen arrived from The Sewing Studio.  I was already working, full steam ahead, on the ivory Swiss batiste pinafore bib to slip over the black dress (see previous post), when it arrived.  Then disaster struck.

But let me back up a minute.  I like to stitch the shoulder seams before inserting laces, so  the lace is a continuous piece, from bottom of the front yoke to the bottom of the back yoke.  By doing so, there is no break in the lace pattern and no fudging to get the laces to match up absolutely perfectly at the shoulder.

So after inserting one row of  Swiss beading from front to back, nearly 20″, I discovered it was defective.

www.oh no.com

 

There was a gap between the fabric and one of the eyelets for the ribbon.  It had never occurred to me to check for flaws.  Imported trims are expensive and thus, perfect, I foolishly thought. WRONG!   I stand corrected. Okay, so nothing is perfect, right?  Well, except for my grandchildren, of course.

Enlarge to see the defects/gaps beside ribbon carrier eyelets.

Ever so carefully, I removed the tiny zig zag stitches, removed the beading and pulled out another length of this lovely stuff.  Half way through that application, I was heartsick to see not just one but several such defects.  I unrolled the entire 10 yard bold and saw defects no less frequently than every 10″.  I cannot even remember where, several years ago,  I purchased this and the matching insertion.   So I’ve put it away and will have to use it in short lengths.  The partially finished pinafore bib goes in the scrap bag.  Maybe I will make a doll dress to match. But for now,  I was back to square one for Laurel’s pinafore bib. Continue reading →

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Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Ingredients~Christmas Dress ’10

Posted on October 29, 2010 | 2 comments

For almost three weeks now I have wrestled with designs and plans for Christmas outfits for all three grandchildren.  I desperately wanted them coordinated, as it seems that my opportunities for brother-sister-cousin holiday clothes are diminishing.  Sweet and cooperative as 5 1/2 year old Robert is, I think the era of easy compliance with “sweet” clothes  is drawing near an end.

But time flies and the outfits need to be finished for Christmas pictures as well as for The Nutcracker Ballet, which Robert and Laurel will be attending mid-December.  So I have finally settled on basic  black velveteen as the unifying factor.

While awaiting the arrival of my mail order shipment of velveteen from The Sewing Studio in Maitland (Florida), I have started a pinafore bib for Laurel.  This will be worn over her black yoke dress. Continue reading →

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Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Thanksgiving Suit in Progress

Posted on October 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  We have so much to be thankful for and our precious grandchildren are near the top of the list.  My passion for sewing is another blessing that enriches my life.  Grandchildren and sewing are major factors of my happiness that go hand in hand.

Of course, I love making holiday garments for them.  This little suit is a work in progress for 19 month old Alastair to wear Thanksgiving Day when we all gather for thanks and dinner at  the home of his paternal grandmother.  Of course, he is the apple of everyone’s eye and will get more attention than the turkey and pumpkin pies.

Once again, I have chosen one of my favorite patterns, the John-John included in the Martha Pullen book, Applique’, Martha’s Favorites.  I use this so often that I have traced off all sizes of both the John-John and the girl’s jumper.  Each pattern is kept  paper clipped together and stored in an envelope tucked into the book.  It probably took less time to trace off all sizes at one time than it would have taken to assemble the newsprint paper, ruler, marker, etc.,   haul it to the glass topped table on the breakfast porch and trace off  even two patterns.

With the help of an edge stitch foot, a black straight stitch has been worked around the perimeter, top and bottom.  This keeps the white lining from peeking around the black houndstooth check body of the suit.

Rather than embroider on the suit itself, I made a patch that will button onto the front of the John-John.  The turkey is from Designs by JuJu’s Autumn Harvest collection. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, clothing, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery, techniques

Boo Bouh

Posted on October 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Making Halloween shirts is just plain fun.  I have little enthusiasm  for  costume making, but a quickie shirt makes the grandchildren as happy as if I had whipped up Spiderman or Cinderella.

Amy Spriggs made the little white cutie on the left, along with the spooky hair bow.   She used the Bouh Bouh font in BabyLock’s Masterworks, CustomWorks and LetterWorks.

I’ve used the same font on a onesie for 18 month old Alastair.  His name is longer than Ashlyn’s and his shirt is smaller, so the ghosts were flocked together more closely. The Happy Halloween text is from Babylock’s Halloween collection.  It comes with a sassy little spider hanging off the bottom of the “y” in Happy, but with all those ghost it just seemed like overkill.  So I left it out. Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, embroidery blanks, girls, Holiday Projects, machine embroidery

Knicker Suit

Posted on October 13, 2010 | 2 comments

knickersuitwholeBrite

 

I’m really on a roll with classic children’s clothing. This 2-piece suit is quintessential heirloom for boys, with knee length Viyella pants and a buttoned on ivory linen shirt.  Sadly, Viyella is no longer available.  The wool blend is as fine and soft as Swiss flannel, but warmer with a similar hand.

My shortcomings as a photographer are obvious here, as I managed to cut off the neat little cuff at the bottom of the knee length pants.  The suit is also crooked on the hanger.  But after trying to find a flat spot to hang the suit on the 12″ deep Confederate jasmine that climbs up a palm tree, I neglected to straighten the suit on the hanger.

 

knickershirtfrontBrite

 

Linen is a joy to sew.  Every heirloom technique works wonderfully well on this natural fabric.  The front features hemstitching, tucks and inserted lace tape.

Continue reading →

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Posted in boys, clothing, heirloom sewing, lace tape

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Peach Bishop

Posted on October 11, 2010 | 17 comments

PeachBishopwholeBriteX

This is one of my all-time favorite smocked dresses.  I made it for Rebecca when she was just 4 years old and now, 30 years later, still enjoy seeing it hang in the nursery closet.

There are several interesting features to this peach Imperial batiste bishop dress.  The  extra deep smocking front and back, white sleeve overlay, and original smocking design made it a pleasure to design and stitch. The bottom rows of the smocking design were drafted to mimic the sleeve overlay fancyband.

EXTRA DEEP SMOCKING: The number of rows smocked front and back on this dress greatly exceeds the recommended amount for this size.  You can see that the smocking goes far below the beginning of the armhole curve, normally the absolute last row of stitching.  Smocking rarely goes beyond this point because 1) it would exceed the width of the child’s shoulder and 2) it is impossible to pleat through that curve.

 

peachbishopshoulderX

 

The first restriction is eliminated by smocking only a few rows at the neckline, well before the edge of the shoulder.  Secondly, the pleating is done before construction, allowing pleats to go to any depth.

 

PeachBishoptopX

 

This is most easily done by working with a block of fabric, rather than a cut out front and back.  The armhole curve is traced with a washaway marker onto the fabric block before pleating front, back and sleeves from a straight edge to a straight edge.  Later, the pleating threads are pulled out up to the seamline of the armhole and knotted off.  Then the armhole curve is cut out and the front and back pieces are joined to the sleeves.

SLEEVE OVERLAY:  The white sleeve cap overlay includes a Swiss embroidery from Capitol Imports, entredeux and French Val lace edging.  This detail alone elevates the easy care bishop to a more elegant level.  Continue reading →

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Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, smocking, techniques

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