{"id":4953,"date":"2009-12-17T23:37:16","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T04:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2014-12-23T02:24:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T07:24:13","slug":"christmas-critters-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/17\/christmas-critters-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Critters III"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChristmasCrittersIIILaurelbrite\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Laurel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas dress was finished just in time for her brother Robert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preschool Christmas program. In fact, her father had taken her for\u00c2\u00a0an afternoon outing and managed to get her to the program wearing jeans and a tee shirt only a few minutes ahead of me\u00c2\u00a0carrying her holiday clothes.<\/p>\n

She was absolutely taken with the dress, mostly because of the fullness of the 90″ skirt.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This\u00c2\u00a0motivated her to twirl, perform some of her ballet moves and smile at everyone, entertaining the waiting parents, grandparents and friends. Laurel loves an audience, even if, technically, it’s her brother’s audience.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"critter<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The bib, collar and sleeves are all trimmed with ecru tatted edging. The design on the embroidered button on bib is yet another from Bernina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Current Critters Continued<\/em>. Laurel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother has decided that the “critter” nestled in the big bow is a baby squirrel and she should know. As a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, she has hand fed hundreds of them. I always thought it was a mouse, but I defer to her expertise. <\/p>\n

Purchased more than 20 years ago, the pattern for the Viyella plaid, extended yoke dress is very old.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 If you have been doing this kind of sewing for very long, you\u00c2\u00a0might be\u00c2\u00a0familiar with yesteryear’s challenging directions .\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They\u00c2\u00a0often consisted of two typewritten pages with a number of hand drawn sketchy illustrations, like this pattern. \u00c2\u00a0And often, important information was left out.<\/p>\n

The pattern showed a Peter Pan collar, but in fact, it was for a shaped lace collar. The “lace collar guide” seemed adequate, but then the directions said to edge it with gathered lace but no specific width\u00c2\u00a0was mentioned. So with that collar pattern, I had no idea just how wide the collar needed to be\u00c2\u00a0 to accommodate the tatted edging trim.<\/p>\n

As I have so many times before, I pulled out Elizabeth Travis Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Complete Book of Sewing for Children<\/em>. Following the directions step by step, drafting the collar was a breeze and fit absolutely perfectly.<\/p>\n

My original plan was\u00c2\u00a0to use Mrs. Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Patty<\/em> dress, from Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Corner. But after fiddling with the boys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 outfits to match the plaid, I decided that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time for that kind of challenge with pleats. So I had to re-draft the Patty<\/em> bib pattern to fit the extended yoke.<\/p>\n

The bias band on the sleeve didn’t suit me.\u00c2\u00a0 I was undecided as to how I wanted to finish the sleeves, so I pulled out another of my favorite reference books, Mildred Turner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heirloom sewing book, Mimi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Machine Magic<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There are three books in the set and I love each one. They are chock full of techniques, inspiration and large, very clear illustrations.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Mrs. Johnson’s book,\u00c2\u00a0Mildred’s books are\u00c2\u00a0out of print and what a shame!\u00c2\u00a0 Looking over two full pages of sleeve illustrations, I saw just what I wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 One inch above the tatted edging is a row of bullion knots through which the red ribbon is threaded.<\/p>\n

When I was considering the banded sleeve, there were no suggested, average upper arm measurements in either the pattern or the other reference books I had checked. But sure enough, in the sleeve section of Mildred\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book, there was the chart with the very measurement I had needed.<\/p>\n

There were numerous other complications and mistakes, made by me. \u00c2\u00a0In a hurry, I marked one of the bib buttonholes incorrectly and didn’t notice until I scanned it for the picture above.\u00c2\u00a0I’ve since\u00c2\u00a0stitched another but the\u00c2\u00a0misplaced one \u00c2\u00a0still has to be picked out.<\/p>\n

Yada yada yada…..my Rebecca says I give too many details to keep her interest, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll stop now and thank those of you who\u00c2\u00a0 have\u00c2\u00a0stuck with me\u00c2\u00a0for your patience. I doubt Rebecca has read this far, but if she has I say, hurrah, Rebecca!<\/p>\n

And if you get a chance, let me know how you feel about inclusion of so many details.\u00c2\u00a0 If necessary, be brutal.\u00c2\u00a0 I really want to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Laurel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Christmas dress was finished just in time for her brother Robert\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preschool Christmas program. In fact, her father had taken her for\u00c2\u00a0an afternoon outing and managed to get her to the program wearing jeans and a tee shirt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,4,8,43,18],"tags":[264,203,1056,101,265],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4953"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32426,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions\/32426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}