Sweet Niece

Esme:  1.French,  "beloved "or "esteemed"

   I got this picture of my sweet niece Esme through email, and I can't enlarge
the picture, which is sad because she is sooo cute.
   Esme took a sewing class last summer and started this precious top .  She was
able to pull it out last week and finish it up by herself.  She has grown up to such a beautiful young lady, is an accomplished gymnast, an excellent student, and has
recently been accepted into the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Esme acts with the Bards of Birmingham where she will learn to put her new sewing skills to use while
helping make costumes    The part of Miranda  will be played by Esme in their production
of The Tempest. Can you tell I am slightly proud of this sweet niece?
   I hope she will come and visit soon so we can sew together again!

Roses and songbirds

Dear Father, hear and bless
Thy beasts and singing birds,
and guard with tenderness
small things that have no words.
                   ~Anonymous




I have been away from my blog for awhile ;  I went to Ohio
to plan the funeral for my Aunt Marge, who was 92 .  Marge

and Earl had no children, and through the years have been nothing but kind to me,  so it was a sad journey this time across the Ohio River.  Aunt Marge was a lover of roses and songbirds; she spent many hours looking out her window at her bird feeder, and brought home many, many awards from rose shows. And no matter how many times I visited, and as her memory became increasingly foggy, she would always ask, "How are your girls?"  

     My first day home I was eager to get back in my sewing room and make this little dress for Katelyn .  I texted photos of different fabrics to her mommie's phone , and Katelyn chose my favorite one, a songbird print.  She chose pink accents rather than green gingham, and I headed to my little room and got busy.

     I chose this pattern by Trisha Smith because I love the way her patterns fit, and I thought this style was precious.

     The cutest part of this dress is the detail in the back with the keyhole opening and bow.  A happy accident was my lining.  As I laid my dress onto the lining, the dark pink and white polka dot came through the white background of the bird print.  Thankfully I had a pale pink polka dot in my stash, and was able to cut out a second lining.  I liked the addition of a third print and the pale pink worked perfectly.

I used my ruffler again for the bottom ruffle and my new invisible zipper foot for the piping.  Now I need to find pretty pink buttons and make some bottonholes before I go to Birmingham.  I hope Katelyn likes it, and I am sure that Aunt Marge would approve.

Spread your wings, and let the fairy in you fly! ~ Author Unknown

 

Katelyn and I have read about fairies during our last few visits.  She decided that she needed a cape, so a trip to Hancock's was necessary.  Oh my goodness, it took a very long time to choose the perfect fabric; she wanted dark pink and she wanted sparkles.  After some help from the nice lady that worked there, she chose a dark pink ever so lovely fabric and this burda pattern. The fabric was as sheer as a fairy wing! We could not resist the peacock blue feather boa;  mommy may be picking blue feathers from her Berber carpet for weeks. I am not so used to sewing on such fancy fabric, and did not have any idea how I was going to proceed, so I just dove in!



  After I cut out my pieces, I sewed them into the circular shaped cape.  I did not put the collar or hood on it, and finally settled on just a bias binding around the neck.  It worked well, so I used a pink grosgrain ribbon (with beautiful sparkly silver polka dots) to trim the outside of the neckline and hang into ties.  I had enough ribbon to double the ties, stitched them down and they look loverly on the sparkly fabric.

My last embellishment was silver and pink ribbon which I ran through the trusty Bernina #88 ruffler foot.  A Bibi with granddaughters could not do without the magic ruffler!  I attached it to the hem, then covered the back seam with a tiny grosgrain ribbon.  I will not soon forget the smiles and hugs from my sweet little Birmingham girl.