Jo’s Family Easter

Jo’s beautiful family in their Easter finery. Every one (except Jo, unless she made the lavender sweater) is wearing one of her creations.

I just love seeing what you all have sewn up for holidays–or everydays!  So it really pleased me to see photos of Jo’s family all decked out in the Easter garments she made.   They are all color coordinated in lavender and yellow, with a paisley print used on several outfits.  Living in the cold, cold north, Jo chose corduroy for the little ones in the family.

As so often happens, in the midst of her rush to finish up, there were complications.  Most of the family came down with a terrible virus requiring huge amounts of laundry, at the exact time that her dryer died.  So while she tended to the sick, she was running back and forth to the home of a good neighbor whose dryer was put at Jo’s disposal.  All the while for those several days, Jo awaited delivery of her own new laundry appliance.

In spite of these roadblocks, she finished everything up–dresses for the girls, a smocked Children’s Corner Johnny for little Gideon and ties for the big boys and her husband.

I love the way she pulled the colors of the paisly piping fabric into the smocking design.

Joy’s beautiful dress is perfect for a big girl.  Made of silk batiste, trimmed with tatting and embellished with a tiny bit of smocking, it is contemporary enough to suit most girls in this age group.  I know my almost 9 yo granddaughter, Laurel, would love it.

Jo said, “I first saw Joy’s dress in the anniversary issue of Sew Beautiful,  though it originally appeared in issue #125.  It’s called “Daisy” and was designed by Helen Lively.  I was very nervous about using silk batiste, but once I discovered that I could iron it with steam, I became a little less so.

I tell you,I have WAY more appreciation for those who sew heirloom style on a regular basis.  The dress is not perfect but the part I worried over most, the right-angled entredeux, came out reasonably well…..I omitted the suggested embroidery because I  ran out of time.  But now I think I like it better as it is.”

Apparently, you do heirloom JUST FINE, Jo!

Noel’s dress was featured in an earlier post, but is included here in case you haven’t seen it.

I like to see back yokes get special treatment or at least the same special fabric as front yokes.  The piping and zipper give this dress a perfectly couture finish.

The sleeve treatment is especially nice, especially since Jo came up with that on her own.

The paisley ties for the man and little men in the family finished the look for a very well put together family on Easter Sunday.

Great job, Jo!