My dear husband and I are enjoying some quiet time here at our cabin in North Carolina.
Mountainside Cabin on Seven Devils Mountain
Now, the mountains are covered with these flowers that look like yellow black-eyed Susans. But I don’t know what they are called. Continue reading
Posted in heirloom sewing, infant clothing, smocking, uncategorized
Swiss flannel Old Fashioned Baby slip with hand embroidery—yes, I embroidered this by hand! Here at the cabin, this quilt was the only thing I could find to use as a background.
While we at here our cabin in North Carolina, I am enjoying some uninterrupted sewing time. This is the first project I have finished (except for buttons and buttonholes) for Grandbaby Girl #2, due around Christmas.  December weather in Florida could be 28 or 90 degrees.  So for a start, I am planning several daygowns and at least one Swiss flannel slip for cool days.
This should have been a quick and easy project, but it has taken me several days. Once again I am actively pursing the achievement of an acceptable feather stitch. I think I just barely made the grade this time, but it took me FOREVER!!!! First, I had to study all my embroidery books and then go to on-line tutorials and finally YouTube demonstrations. Continue reading
as shown in Sew Beautiful issue #118
NOTE: The link for the free pattern from Southern Stitches has been updated. If you were unsuccessful before, try again. It works now.
I was just delighted to find free patterns for preemies from Laurie Anderson of  Southern Stitches. The patterns are included in issue #118 of Sew Beautiful magazine but are also available here at Laurie’s Southern Stitches web site.
More preemie garments from Laurie Anderson’s free patterns, as shown in Sew Beautiful issue #118.
At that web site you will find her lovely machine embroidered shadow work designs and lots of other goodies. By clicking on Sew Beautiful Published Freebies you will find the free downloads of the preemie patterns, as well as free hand embroidery bullion knot designs for bunnies. Laurie even offers free machine embroidery designs. Continue reading
Posted in free patterns and designs, infant clothing
More than this daygown is in waiting. My daughter and her husband are expecting their second child and I can hardly wait to find out the baby’s gender. We will be delighted with a baby boy or girl, but I desperately want to know which it is!
When Rebecca was pregnant with her first, Alastair who is now 3, I sent her a package every Monday to help tick the weeks off. Sometimes it was a complete outfit, like this daygown and bonnet, and other times it was just a bib. But every week something was sent.
It’s a very long story about how Alastair was expected to be a girl, but that’s why there were so many pink and frilly gifts sent and which now lie in waiting. So this time, I am waiting for confirmation of gender before I begin any pink or blue projects. That news may come as early as next week.
Meanwhile, we are tied up with our other two grandchildren, six year old Robert and 8 year old Laurel who are spending the week with us. They are attending Vacation Bible School at our church and it will be a hectic week.
So until I finish and can show you the cute little French dress (see Lulu in Paris designs) I’m working on, I hope this re-run of the Daygown in Waiting will serve to notify you that I am still alive and kicking and blogging.
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Posted in baby accessories, infant clothing, smocking
This diaper shirt was returned to me in a bundle of infant clothing I had loaned a friend for the use of her first grandchild. It is another treasure I brought back from one of my teaching trips to San Juan. As I looked over this sweet garment and tripped through the memories of those special sewing schools, I was reminded of the beautiful baby clothes those Puerto Rican ladies make.
With the sweltering tropical climate, island babies need simple garments to keep comfortable. The shops in San Juan are well stocked with exquisitely made garments embellished with delicate handwork. Continue reading
She is thriving and growing! This beautiful cherub and her equally beautiful mama are snug at home with baby’s undoubtedly proud and doting daddy. They are all easing their way into a new family routine.
Just look at those sweet pink toes!
The daygown, made from Lezette Thomason’s Angel Gown pattern (all proceeds go to charity) for tiny, tiny babies, was shown and detailed in a previous post.
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. Continue reading
In November, 1995, when this bonnet was featured in Creative Needle magazine, I was absolutely enchanted. Chery Williams’ reproduction of this 1920’s simple, unique and charming chapeau screamed “MAKE ME!! MAKE ME!” so loudly that it went to the top of my grandmother’s hope chest project list. But life got in the way and it was only recently that I was able to get to it.
Basically, the pattern consists of a single piece of batiste 15″ X 9″ with deep zig zags along the front and back. This measurement allows a little excess around the edges for hemstitching.
My Brother Duetta 4500D does beautiful hemstitching, even through the two layers of Swiss flannel and lawn.  This bonnet shows off the pretty entredeux stitch, worked with a reduced width setting.
Embroidery, by hand or machine, is worked into the front points and then the entire perimeter is hemstitched, either commercially or with a machine made entredeux stitch. Lace edging is joined all around.
The embroidered points are folded back to serve as a brim and the back zig zags are hand stitched together. Ribbons are attached at the sides and, bam! You’ve got a dynamite baby bonnet. Continue reading
It’s time to get started on Easter outfits for the grandchildren. In fact, I woulda/shoulda started before now but I am busy working up a design and embroidering tee shirts for Robert and Laurel’s Odyssey of the Mind competition next week.
I’m especially grateful for the 1000 stitches per minute that my Brother Duetta puts out. The shirts are pretty ugly, but beautifully embroidered (film at 11, or after the competition). There are other must-do’s but very soon I MUST at least have a plan.
For sewing mothers and grandmothers, there is no greater thrill than to see their little darlings decked out in their most elaborate and special garments, created with love in every stitch.
Those of us who have labored long and hard on these very special holiday garments often find that specific recollections of each Resurrection Sunday are tied more closely to the Easter outfits made that year than to the calendar year. Continue reading
This preemie daygown was made for a tiny baby girl who was born last week weighing 3 lbs. 9 ounces. Almost 8 weeks before her due date, she is doing quite well in the neonatal intensive care unit at an excellent hospital. But she is sooooo little!
Her mother was a classmate of my daughter’s as well as one of my favorite students in my children’s sewing classes. Now she is a wife and new mother to a precious baby daughter who will probably be in the hospital for some time.
I had planned to smock a daygown for this little darling, but she arrived before I even began. So I whipped up this simple A-line so she would have something girlie to wear over her itty bitty institutional nappies. If I can find a little more time, I’d like to make a bonnet and blanket. Continue reading
