This past weekend Margaret Tully taught a class at the Sewing Garret in South Daytona. As always, she was delightfully entertaining while she teaching her students fabulous techniques and tips.
I was unable to stay for the sit and sew portion, but snapped these pictures of some of her inspiring samples.
Margaret is best known for her serging expertise, but she is equally adept with sewing. The creativity and variety of her samples shows just how diverse her talents are. Continue reading
Home dec projects appeal to everyone. Whether or not we have little ones to sew for, each of us has a bedroom where we seek a calm and quiet atmosphere, away from the demands of our busy days.
This model bedroom was done for the Springfield, MO,  Babylock dealer, BSewInn, by my friend Judy Day. Her unfailing good taste, skillful color coordination and attention to detail make this model bedroom a soothing refuge. It is both classic and contemporary.
There are several other items in this grouping, but they will be posted at a later date. There is so much meat in the pieces shown that any more items would make for a very lengthy post. Continue reading
I’m really on a roll with classic children’s clothing. This 2-piece suit is quintessential heirloom for boys, with knee length Viyella pants and a buttoned on ivory linen shirt. Sadly, Viyella is no longer available. The wool blend is as fine and soft as Swiss flannel, but warmer with a similar hand.
My shortcomings as a photographer are obvious here, as I managed to cut off the neat little cuff at the bottom of the knee length pants. The suit is also crooked on the hanger. But after trying to find a flat spot to hang the suit on the 12″ deep Confederate jasmine that climbs up a palm tree, I neglected to straighten the suit on the hanger.
Linen is a joy to sew. Every heirloom technique works wonderfully well on this natural fabric. The front features hemstitching, tucks and inserted lace tape.
Posted in boys, clothing, heirloom sewing, lace tape
Tagged knicker suit, lace tape, linen shirt, Viyella
This is one of my all-time favorite smocked dresses. I made it for Rebecca when she was just 4 years old and now, 30 years later, still enjoy seeing it hang in the nursery closet.
There are several interesting features to this peach Imperial batiste bishop dress. The extra deep smocking front and back, white sleeve overlay, and original smocking design made it a pleasure to design and stitch. The bottom rows of the smocking design were drafted to mimic the sleeve overlay fancyband.
EXTRA DEEP SMOCKING: The number of rows smocked front and back on this dress greatly exceeds the recommended amount for this size. You can see that the smocking goes far below the beginning of the armhole curve, normally the absolute last row of stitching. Smocking rarely goes beyond this point because 1) it would exceed the width of the child’s shoulder and 2) it is impossible to pleat through that curve.
The first restriction is eliminated by smocking only a few rows at the neckline, well before the edge of the shoulder. Secondly, the pleating is done before construction, allowing pleats to go to any depth.
This is most easily done by working with a block of fabric, rather than a cut out front and back.  The armhole curve is traced with a washaway marker onto the fabric block before pleating front, back and sleeves from a straight edge to a straight edge. Later, the pleating threads are pulled out up to the seamline of the armhole and knotted off. Then the armhole curve is cut out and the front and back pieces are joined to the sleeves.
SLEEVE OVERLAY: The white sleeve cap overlay includes a Swiss embroidery from Capitol Imports, entredeux and French Val lace edging. This detail alone elevates the easy care bishop to a more elegant level. Continue reading
Posted in clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, smocking, techniques
Tagged bishop dress, lace smocking, smocking
Do little boys in your area wear heirloom clothing? I hope so. This little suit is for my 18 month old grandson who will wear this as soon as he grows into it. I am always so pleased that my daughter and her husband enjoy seeing Alastair in classic clothing.
The blue suit fabric is a very fine wool challis, no heavier than broadcloth. It is lined with blue microcheck and closed at the shoulder and side tabs with pearl shank buttons. I was tempted to embroider a little mouse on the front of the suit, but chose instead to leave it plain so that it would be more versatile. I may make another shirt, perhaps with a wide, embroidered collar.
The shirt is made of ivory combed batiste. A box pleat at center front allows for more ease of movement.  Pearl 4-hole shirt buttons close the back opening. Continue reading
Posted in antique textiles, Binche Lace, clothing, girls, heirloom sewing
Tagged Aesop's Fables lace, binche lace, boy suit
Finding this dress and pinafore made me so happy. I had long since thought the fall Liberty print dropped yoke dress was lost. As it turns out, I had forgotten that my friend Suzanne Sawko had made another pinafore to go over the dress for a Sew Beautiful photo shoot some time ago. Both garments were recently retrieved from the bottom of my antique blanket chest where specially sewn items are stored.
The dress was originally made to go under the Little Fawn Pinafore.
The picture lace pinafore shown above is made of a medium weight champagne Swiss batiste and edged with ivory lace tape and antique picture lace or AEsop’s Fables lace. It’s unique characteristics include the colored cordonnet that outlines a figure and is worked into the lace edge. It is an antique Binche lace, made some time prior to 1926, though the exact year is unknown. Continue reading
Posted in antique textiles, Binche Lace, clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, lace tape, techniques
This classic linen blouse is lavished with fil tire’, bullion roses, lazy daisies, web roses and point de Paris. It looks like the product of an overworked, thimbled embroideress. In fact, it was all done by machine.
Wing needle entredeux and shaped French laces add detail and delicacy to this versatile garment. It is a project I designed and taught at the Babylock school at a Martha Pullen School of Art Fashion in Huntsville.
The machine embroidery is from Fil Tire’ and Fancywork Combinations by Suzanne Sawko and me. Suzanne digitized the designs and her fil tire’, in my unbiased opinion, is the best, cleanest and most delicate machine embroidered fil tire’ there is.  Continue reading
Posted in clothing, heirloom sewing, ladies, machine embroidery
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The Madeira hem is actually a taupe/tan color, not gold as it seems in this photo.
My daughter Rebecca has always loved fine linens. When she went to University of Florida, the non-standard size dormitory bunk beds could only be encased in tee-shirt knit or rough polyblend sheets. So I custom made pima cotton sheets for her. Otherwise, my sweet princess declared, she just didn’t know how she would sleep. I was tempted to put a pea under her mattress before she left home to prove without a doubt that she was royal. Maybe I didn’t really want the answer to that question.
When she and Harvey married, she was delighted but not surprised when he brought a set of glorious 1000 thread count cotton sheets to their marital linen closet. This luxurious bedding was just one more quirky affirmation of the newlyweds’ compatibility.
Purchased in 2004 and washed weekly since then, the linens are showing signs of wear, most notably the pillowcases. When Becca brought her pillow along on our trip to North Carolina, I saw just how shabby it had become. But even when offered my favorite pima cotton, she was unwilling to replace it, noting their unique dense but almost velvet texture. Continue reading
Posted in heirloom sewing, home dec, machine embroidery
Fewthings are sweeter than a little girl in a smocked nightgown.  This ruffle sleeved classic bishop in blue batiste is smocked in white with pink bullion roses, edged with French lace. Six year old Laurel loves it.
The nightie was completely constructed before it was smocked. Again and again, I have heard friends talk of their stacks of unfinished projects. Many, if not most, are smocked garments awaiting construction. Smocking is a joy. Construction is less so. Some of these projects will never be finished.
Some time ago, I began making my own ready-to-smock bishops. To me, doing the construction first makes as much sense as eating your vegetables before dessert. The initial surge of enthusiasm for a project can get me through the sometimes tedious construction phase and before the project is yesterday’s news, it is ready to smock. Yippee!!! Continue reading
I’m really into recycling Rebecca’s dresses that have been packed away for 25+ years. It’s amazing how timeless a smocked dress can be and how well they hold up.
Some, like Barbra Streisand, may turn their noses up “second hand,” but neither Laurel nor I mind.
I had to drop the hem, as little girls’ skirts are longer now. Fortunately, when the dress was made, I followed the standard recommendation of putting in a 6″ hem so I had a good 3″ to drop.
This basic yoke has a sash that ties in the back. It is smocked to just above the waist and meets the back yoke at that same depth.  The sash snugs the dress up and feels more like a big girl dress.
The intriguing smocking plate is Chinese Chippendale by Barbie Beck, an almost ancient design. If you blow up the photo, you will see how interesting the design is. Continue reading
Posted in Binche Lace, clothing, girls, heirloom sewing, smocking, techniques
Tagged binche lace, smocking
