Tag Archives: antique lace

Christmas Fawn Daydress

Christmas is just around the calendar corner and it’s rush, rush, rush for me and many of you. I’ve just finished this Swiss batiste dress for Baby Beatrice.

I’ve written in earlier posts about Baby Bea, our new granddaughter via our church. Neither of her parents’ mothers is living, so months before she was born they asked me to serve as her official Nana. That was a happy day! And, of course, she is a doll, just now 4 months old, which for me has been at least 120 more happy days.

Her daddy is an avid hunter, especially for deer. Bea’s little daydress is a reminder NOT to shoot Bambi or his antlered father.

But back to the dress……the pattern is Old Fashioned Baby‘s Baby Daydress.

Like all of Jeannie B’s patterns, this one is a delight to sew and offers several design options. I love the Scriptures and embroidery designs she places in the blank space around the pattern pieces.

The shadow work fawn is from Joy Welsh’s Applique for Kids. It stitches just beautifully with her instructions. The greenery beneath the fawn was extracted from another design which I cannot recall right now.

The holly at the neckline is another design whose origin I cannot recall. I need to keep better records of what I embroider.

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Pink Antique Lace Daygown

ant pink lace daygown all2

 

I love antique laces.  I love the extra detail in the pattern, the unusual colors, the history of previous owners and previous uses about which I speculate while I am sewing.

I love this daygown.  I love the materials, the techniques, the details that I so enjoyed adding and the daydreams I entertained while fantasizing about grandchildren in my future.  Can you tell I love heirloom sewing?

Yet again, this is not a modern project for an old fashioned Nana.  I needed grandchildren before I realized the importance of easy care.

Through the years, I have sniffed out some incredible finds.  This lace was one of them.  At the end of this post, I will tell you about how I became the final owner of this unused, antique lace. Continue reading

Fagoted Lace Daygown and Bonnet

Posted in freckled laundry‘s “air your laundry friday” textile party.  Check it out!

fagotted lace daygown

 

When I made this daygown, my daughter was certain that her unborn baby would be a girl.  But alas, it was precious baby boy Alastair who arrived to fill her heart with love.   So this daygown and matching bonnet hang in  the closet, as yet unused.

Many years ago, when I bought the lace on this daygown, I knew it would be stitched into something for my Grandmother’s Hope Chest.  Rebecca was a teenager and we often talked about heirloom clothes for her future babies.  My vision was that of a white Swiss batiste daygown with a matching bonnet, all smocked in yellow and all lavishly trimmed with this gorgeous lace.

But times change and long before I began stitching, I realized my vision had to include an easy-care component.  So I edited my vision, without PhotoShop, to show polycotton blend, Imperial batiste.  It is of such high quality that the compromise was small.  So in at least that respect, this is a modern project for an old fashioned Nana.

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