Good bye playpen. Hello Pack ‘N Play!
As soon as I knew that our first grandchild was on the way, I found myself at Babies R Us in a state of shock. I had birthed, burped, breastfed and badgered two beautiful, bouncing babies into happy, successful adulthood.
And yet here, in the mall of moppets and mothers, I was a stranger in a strange land. Nothing was the same, nothing was familiar. I had less than 6 months to get up to speed, to be knowledgeable about a grandmother’s tools of the trade.
This is our set-up. We try to be at the same spot every game day.
Ah, game day at The Swamp. Kickoff might be at 7 p.m. but if you want your regular tailgating spot at Norman Field, you’d better be there by 9 a.m.
sleepy tailGator–one year later he became our son-in-law
Since it’s a 2 hour drive to Gainesville, that makes for an early start to a very long day.    And a lot of food–three full meals for as many as 75 hungry Gator fans.
We pass the day visiting with neighboring tailGators, watching football coverage on a tv that plugs into a special connection in the car and just getting ready for the game.
Laurel’s 4th birthday dress
When Laurel hit her Princess phase at four, she chose Minnie Mouse as the theme for her birthday dress and party. Of course, I made a matching outfit for Robert.
The children have needed Disney outfits since their first trip to the Magic Kingdom 2 years ago. Even though we live little more than an hour from DisneyWorld, we can’t seem to get enough of it.
Seeing the wonder in the eyes of these  two little grandchildren as we ride through It’s a Small World makes me believe in magic. And it restores me to my childhood, at least for the duration of the ride. It’s true what they say about  grandchildren keeping you young–at least at heart.
 Custom made Disney clothes for the adventure helps build their excitement. Not that it needs building!  But the attention the children get from the characters just reinterates their Nana’s message, “You are special.”
When I saw this baby boy outfit in Sew Beautiful magazine, issue 121, I knew I would make it for Alastair.  The style is so unlike any heirloom baby patterns that I have seen. He is shown here with the bib covering the unusual front, but it is shown below. Even his father noted the masculine military look.
With all its charm, it really is more old fashioned than modern. It needs to be ironed. But Rebecca is willing to do that for this sweet suit.
Usually, I change one thing or another when a project moves me to duplication.    On this set, I stitched it almost exactly as shown. However, if I recall, the magazine sample was made from linen and I chose cotton Swiss flannel.
Another small change I made was to substitute some very pretty vintage, almost brown, pearl buttons for the off white buttons as shown in the magazine.  From other articles in the same issue, I added the coordinating bib and bonnet. Continue reading
While I am willing to accept the fact that most rabid sewists are not rabid college football fans, many are. Including me. But if you are not glued to the tv or to your seat at the stadium every fall Sat. please don’t give up on this post. I do have some good sewing ideas and tips to share.
In the South and many other areas of the country, the countdown to the first game of the next season starts just after the national championship game in January. That would be the very game won by our Florida Gators for two of the past three years. But I digress.
We’ve been attending the Gator football games since 1997, the year our daughter was a freshman there.  My wonderful husband went to graduate school there a lonnnnnnng time ago so our ties to UF are strong.  Football season always means a new crop of family memories and a variety of new Gator-sewn items.
But this is a sewing blog, not my son’s football blog, www.orangeandbluehue.com Check it out. Now let’s talk sewing. Continue reading
This sweet little baby pillow was a joy to stitch and makes such a pretty and practical baby gift. With its shadow embroidery, featherstitching and Madeira applique hem, it looks delicate and delightful.
Made of good quality domestic cotton batiste, it needs no lace or trim to complete its tender look.
In my humble opinion, shadow embroidery is one of the prettiest embellishments that can be added to a project. For babies, children, ladies or linens, its delicacy is stunning. Much as I have always enjoyed doing it by hand, I was absolutely enthralled when my friend Suzanne Hinshaw developed her techniques for achieving the identical look with machine embroidery.
The technique is so simple that it’s hard to go wrong. You simply hoop up a very sturdy water soluble stabilizer with no fabric and then stitch the portion of the design that, when done by hand, would have been on the back of the fabric. Think of it as the fill pattern.
Then, after placing strips of double sided tape around the embroidered design, you press sheer to semi-sheer fabric to the stabilizer such as batiste or even light weight linen. Of course, you would have marked where you want the design to be so you can position the design perfectly.  And Suzanne’s instructions make it clear just when the fabric is placed on the stabilizer. In fact, all of her directions are very clear.
The next step is to stitch on the fabric. The design is sized such that the underlay portion of the design which is stitched only on the stabilizer is just ever so slightly larger than the outlining stitches that are worked on the fabric itself. The top stitches catch the underlay stitches which create the shadow effect.
Finally, you remove the piece from the hoop and gently peel the stabilizer away from the linen where the double sided tape has held it in place. Cut away as much of the remaining water soluble stabilizer away as possible. Then immerse the piece in water and let the stabilizer dissolve away. When all signs of stabilizer are gone, let it dry and then press.
When it is finished, you will have shadow embroidery so credible that no one would even think to examine the back side. And if they did, they would be hard pressed to recognize the slight difference in the look.
In subsequent posts, I will have more shadow embroidery, some by hand and more by machine using Suzanne’s gorgeous designs. I might even persuade her to make her designs available again.
Shortly after my daughter and her husband found out they had a little one on the way, I began sending a package every Monday, with Nana-sewn goodies. Sometimes the contents were complete sets with a daygown or bubble, bonnet, booties and bibs and other times it was just a package of Harry Potter themed burp cloths.   But the arrival of those packages marked off the weeks very happily.
This bubble was delivered to Rebecca during her 33rd week. Bubbles look so neat and tidy on babies. There is nothing to come untucked or to scrunch up so Baby always looks well put together.
I especially like baby bubbles with no collars, as these seem always to flip up on little ones who rarely have a discernible neck. So this Michie’ Bubble/Dress #104 Yoke Overlay pattern appealed to me immediately.
Posted in heirloom sewing, infant clothing, machine embroidery
When our children grow up, so do their friends. Many of those same youngsters who hung out in our kitchens, tied up our telephones (before absolutely everyone had her own personal cell phone) and shared secrets with our children, now have babies of their own. And those babies are special in a special way.
Just as we personalize garments and items for our own grandchildren, we often are moved to create something unique for these babies. Continue reading
Tea table is set up in front of a mural Suzanne Sawko painted in her grandchildren’s playroom at her house.
Several years ago, I made this tea set table cloth and napkins for my Nana’s hope chest. At that time, having a tea party with grandchildren seemed like a dream that would bring immeasurable joy. And now this dream has come true.
Laurel at one of her first tea parties
Robert and Laurel have been taught that at social occasions, they are not to talk about their health, religion or politics. One of Laurel’s first questions was, “What’s politics?” I told her to never mind for now, but to remember this rule for when she did know. “Then what do we talk about?” she asked. “I told her that we ask about one anothers mothers, gardening and our sewing. Now, at the first sip of “tea,”she asks how my roses are.
This initial inspiration for the project was finding a lovely little child size porcelain tea set. The style is suggestive of Mary Engelbreit, but really is just a generic design and seemed to be easy enough to replicate. Wouldn’t it be fun, I thought, to copy this sweet design onto a child sized tea cloth and napkins!
When computerized machine embroidery was brand new to the sewing world, Pfaff ran an advertisement showing how they had copied a china pattern onto a tablecloth. I could do that! Well, maybe with a little help, I could.
Mary Alice Smith of Alabama kindly digitized the applique bow for me and I took the flowers from one of the machine embroidery collections that Suzanne Sawko and I did.
Some of my favorite sewing techniques are incorporated into this project: machine embroidery, hemstitching, feather stitching, monogramming and applique. As a big fan of heirloom sewing, I used 100% linen. But the charm of a tea party with grandchildren would not be diminished by the use of a polycotton blend. Use what you have or what you like.
SEWING HOW TO
SUPPLIES:
TABLECLOTH PREPARATION:
Work on practice piece first to see how to line up fabric. Then stitch around cloth edge with pin stitch, making certain that the the right swing of the needle is going off the folded edge. As rounded corners are approached, execute pivot after the needle finishes reach to right, off the edge of fabric, and has returned to the previous “hole” in the fabric.
NOTE: When you approach the origin of the pin stitching, try to line up by adjusting the length of the stitch, so that you complete the stitching by piercing the first hole with a repeat stitch.
4. Cut away excess fabric VERY carefully with curved embroidery snips or blunt nose “kindergarten” scissors.
NAPKINS
TABLECLOTH EMBROIDERY MOTIFS
NAPKIN EMBROIDERY
Hoop embroidery:
TABLECLOTH FEATHERSTITCH FRAMEWORK
kindergarten tea recipe:
Laurel’s mother thought it would be fun for Laurel to host a tea party for her friends. She and Laurel made cookies and little sandwiches. Her mother Shelly even provided gloves for the little guests’ dress up fun. Meanwhile, Laurel learned a little about hostessing.
Laurel hosting tea party for friends.
After rummaging through the dress up box, they were ready for tea.
My precious daughter-in-law really likes brother-sister outfits for Robert and Laurel. So for their birthdays, I usually make themed, matching clothes.
Since their birthdays are only 15 months apart, their interests are not so unlike as to make that a problem, at least not until 4 yo Robert’s Spiderman party. But that’s another story, another post.
Robert in his Big Red Car gifted by his great-grandmother, Neenie.
Posted in boys, brother-sister, clothing, girls, machine embroidery, techniques
