December 25th, Laurel will find her new American Girls Molly doll under the tree, wearing a dress nearly identical to Laurel’s Christmas dress. As I sewed, I kept imagining the delight in my granddaughter’s big, hazel, doe eyes.
Much as I hoped to embroider the bib with miniature Sugar Plum Fairy, just like Laurel’s, it was apparent that it was too risky to reduce the design to doll size. So I hunted and hunted through my designs, searching for a fairy in a scene that could be extracted.
Finally, I came upon Martha Pullen’s Mother and Child Embroideryscapes from Amazing Designs. This fairy isn’t exactly like the graceful ballerina on the child’s bib, but she is tiny and fit nicely. With BuzzToolsV2 I added little ballet slippers, but the design is so small that it was wasted effort.
Tiny as the design was, I did reduce it by 10%. In order to compensate for reduction, I used 50, 60 and 80 wt. threads.
In order to make this kid friendly, the lined bib is ivory Imperial broadcloth edged with French levers lace (nylon) edging. The edging was too wide to use at the neckline, so I simply folded it over a length of quilting thread and zig zagged over it. Then the 1/8″ beyond the zig zag was trimmed away. This was easily gathered up and joined to the entredeux. It still looks a little too wide and I wish I had made it narrower still. But I hadn’t noticed that Molly has no neck at all.
The pinafore bib it loses lot of effect without the black peeking out under the lace. On Laurel’s dress, the black velveteen behind the antique lace insertion was very dramatic. However, to have inserted the lace beading, rather that just applying it in place, would have made the bib far less sturdy.
If I had it to do over, I would simply have lined the bib with black Imperial broadcloth, as the dress bodice is. Then the ivory broadcloth could have been cut away behind the beading and even top stitched in place. This would have left the bib almost as sturdy as it is.
Sweet Amy Spriggs made Molly’s hair bow as well as a matching bow for Laurel. Won’t she just love prancing around Christmas Day, carrying her doll and wearing matching clothes!
I have a few simple little extras for Molly that will be posted in another post. Back to the sewing room……….
Are you having as much sewing fun as I am?
