This is another of the antique daygowns that hang on a twig swag in my bluebird nursery ( Nana’s Nursery). Like the others, this yellow beauty has a wealth of sweet details and a variety of well-executed techniques.
Teeny, tiny tucks, hand embroidery, fagoting, pin stitch, lace insertion and edge, French seams…all done by hand. I’ve done some handwork, but I wouldn’t begin to know how to go about making twenty four 1/16″  tucks finish out at 1 1/2″ wide. With a 9-groove pin tuck foot and a 1.6/60 twin needle, great results can be had. But I am quite certain that no one could get 24 tucks to measure out at 1 1/2″ by machine. If you disagree, take that as a challenge.
The feature that initially attracted me to this dress was the fagoted lace collar. Beginning with a 3/8″ wide two-layer collar, two rows of lace were fagoted together and joined to the batiste collar. The stitches are tiny and perfect.
Contrary to what this photo shows, the two collar pieces are actually the same size and in alignment. But there was a stiff breeze and I kept rehanging the dress, ultimately hanging it crooked.
The lace insertion on either side of the front opening is attached with a tiny pin stitch, which reminded me of a conversation I once had with Judith Dobson, embroidress extraordinaire. We roomed together when we taught at the SAGA National Convention about a hundred years ago. As I examined her samples while I waited for my turn with the iron, I commented on the difference in wing needle pin stitching and her hand worked stitches.
She pointed out that when executed by hand, the size of hole is largely the result of the tautness of the threads rather than the size of the hand needle. And that needle would never match a wing needle in size. Machine made pin stitching is lovely, no doubt, but because of the wing or large needle, the holes are far larger than any resulting from hand worked point de Paris.
Since then, often when I pin stitch a baby or doll garment, I use a needle as small as a 60 or 70. As a matter of fact, I think  tomorrow’s post will feature a doll pinafore that pinstitched with a 70 needle. The proportion is so much more appropriate than if a wing needle had been used.
Another noteworthy detail of this dress is the use of different edging on the collar and sleeves. I often find myself with the need for edging in two different sizes. Since I almost always work with materials from my stash rather than purchasing specific goods for a specific project, I have combined similar but not matching lace patterns.
On this dress, the lace on the collar is 1/2″ wide, but its maker determined that to be too large for the simple sleeve finish–or she didn’t have enough of the wider edge on hand. Whatever. At any rate, the sleeve lace in a different pattern is a scant 1/4″ wide. I feel vindicated in my mix and match approach to lace trims.
Laurel wore this dress a few times and it pleased me enormously. It is still lovely, in tact and up to gentle use. God willing, someday I will have another granddaughter to wear it. In some ways, it brings to mind my recent post about the store-bought smocked dress Laurel wore in the wildflowers. Having no personal investment of time and labor, that garment did not dictate cautious handling. She romped in the wildflower wearing the pink smocked frock, a bargain at $4.
At the top of a box of ratty Barbie clothes, this little dress caught my eye at a doll show. The vendor, patiently explained to me that it would not fit a Barbie doll–duh!!! We bargained and now it’s mine. I love it.
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