Old Fashioned Baby Bubble–Re-run

I’m still up to my eyeballs cleaning out Aunt Aileen’s apartment and sorting through all her paperwork.  Now she is settled in a nursing home and seems to be content.  We are so grateful. 

Aunt Rheeta is staying a while longer to help me sort and was thrilled to find old photos of her parents, grandparents and siblings that somehow ended up in Aunt Aileen’s custody.  We have another week to vacate the apartment and it is going to take every minute of that to get the job done.  So this is another re-run. 

Now that Alastair’s 2nd birthday has passed, I am enjoying these pictures of him as an infant. 

This is a delightful little garment, old fashioned in appearance but with all the convenience of a modern garment.   It looks soooooo much better on  Baby than on the hanger.  When I showed this to Rebecca, she paused a moment before saying, “….uh..thanks.”

 But after she saw it on 5-month old Alastair, she really liked it. 

It is still a quite large on him and will look better still when he is a little taller.  But hey, Florida summers last until November so I’m sure he will have plenty of warm days to wear it.

The pattern is  from the Old Fashioned Baby Embroidered Baby Clothes pattern www.oldfashionedbaby.com .    The beauty of the one-piece pattern  is that there are no buttonholes, no shoulder seams, no side seams and no set in sleeves.

  Two tiny optional pockets,  a small crotch extension and a one piece facing for the back opening are the only other pieces. 

Pique’ is one of my favorite fabrics for children’s wear, but then there is the ironing factor.  And I am putting a great deal of thought into creating “modern projects for old fashioned Nanas.”

Nonetheless, I do use a lot of pique anyway, but I’ve found a really good alternative.   This is white baby wale, or  pin feather cord, the name by which it was first introduced to me years ago. It looks as crisp as freshly pressed pique. 

  I like the contrasting look of the pockets cut on the crosswise of grain rather than on the straight. 

I love feather stitching by hand.  But for this garment, I used the sewing machine and 30 wt. Mettler thread.  Pearl buttons, sewn on with the same blue thread, are placed at the points and intersections of the grid.  The pockets are also held in place with machine feather stitches.

To finish the neckline and armholes, I attached entredeux and then cut right up to the holes.  Using my tiniest hook, I crocheted a simple edge into the holes with the same 30 wt. Mettler thread.  That makes a neat, tailored finish.