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. 

My Funny Valentines

Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves.
                                                          ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I am thinking that stifle is not a word that I would ever use in the same sentence with either of these girlies in their Valentine t shirts!

NASHVILLE !

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

To see a fine lady upon a white horse

With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

She shall have music wherever she goes.

                                                          

Kathy and I were able to go to Nashville to attend the Children's
Corner pre-day sewing school with Debbie Glenn.

 

We signed on to make this pique

sundress with a new method for shadow

embroidery.  It was a time consuming task, and I am not sure that it is a technique that I would use again, but I think that the dress will be precious on little Sarah.  Debbie Glenn is a true perfectionist and this fact is reflected in the craftsmanship of her garments.  We spent the entire morning working on the little rocking horse; tracing it, cutting out the individual colors from batiste, then anchoring it on the pique before applying the sheer batiste that would give the "shadow" effect .

  The dress in the photo to the right doesn't actually have a puff sleeve, one is hanging behind the sundress.

I am not entirely happy with my shadow rocking horse, and Kathy and I are considering doing our inserts over with a monogram or applique .  I will have to see how much trim I have left, and look closely again at my little horse .

     The sewing school at Children's Corner was, as always, well organized and fun.  The new classroom is roomy and well lit, with plenty of tables, and the walls are decorated with garments from the visiting instructor.  After the class there is time to shop for patterns and fine fabric 

Of course, a good portion of the fun is girlfriend time and sipping wine!  There is a story to trying to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew but all I can say is that it takes considerable time and for me was not successful.  (See photo with paper clip and Nivea lip balm)

I am looking forward to another sewing school with the wonderful Children's Corner teachers!

So Precious Girls

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. ~Nadine Stair

This spring jacket (if you live in Birmingham, Alabama) or fall jacket (if you live in Auckland, New Zealand)  was fun and easy to do.  I did the first one for little Mae, and will put it in the mail when I finish Issa's.  I used Fabric Cafe's  So Precious Sweatshirts, and started out with the Flowers and Bees jacket, but then found myself going in a different direction.

The first step was to remove the the waistband and sleeve bands from the sweatshirt.  I cut as closely as I could to the seam so that I kept plenty of length.  The rest of it was so easy I am mad that I didn't think of this myself!

Next I did the hem, fusing a piece of fusible woven interfacing around the length of the inside bottom .  I chose brown and pink polka dots thinking of Mae Mae's flushed cheeks and pretty brown eyes. I cut a strip of fabric about an inch wide, folded down the top edge a 1/4 of an inch, matched the raw edges of the strip right side to the wrong side of the jacket, stitched and flipped it to the inside and pressed it well.  Then I top stitched along the edge with my #10 foot.  I didn't like the seam around the bottom so I used some large rick rack to cover the seam.  This would have been the time to do it,  but I wasn't thinking that far ahead .

Once again, I love my ruffler!  Using a 1 1/2 inch strip this time,  I folded my pink and white polka dot length wrong sides together and pressed it well.  I did enough to go around the cuff and neckline.  It was easy to lay the ruffle around the seam of the neck edge, and then just turn down the ribbing to cover the raw edges of the ruffle.  Then, the ribbing is top stitched down.

I changed up the sleeve a little bit.  At first my trim was added to the outside of the sleeve, but I just didn't like the look.  So I changed the trim to the brown polka dot and added it to the inside of the sleeve.  After 3 tries, I had a look that made me happy.
     The strip down the center front was done like the bottom strip, turning the edges under on the top and bottom.  The buttonholes were a little bit of a pain...the bottom 4 went in like a charm with my automatic buttonhole foot, but it took several tries to get the top one.  I finally went to the manual 6 step buttonhole on my machine and it worked fine.

I finished up with the Twirly monogram, the m in the pink polka dot and the brackets in the brown.

Issa and Katelyn have requested pink and green, so I will see how my mood strikes as I complete their little spring (or fall) jackets!

Two Hearts

                                                                                      

Grandmas hold our tiny hands    
for just a little while, but our hearts forever. 
                                         ~ Author Unknown 

Oh my goodness.  I just got this picture today through email, and even though I have shown you this skirt before, I have to preserve this memory.  When I discovered the little one inch spot that I had missed  when stitching the seam lines of Issa's patchwork skirt last fall,  I put 2 little hearts on the seam and told Issa that when she looked down at her lap and saw the hearts, to think about Bibi and Issa and how much I love her. So today, Issa is sitting on a park bench, somewhere in Aukland, New Zealand,  pointing to our hearts.  I think I am going to be just fine till they return!

peewee Kiwis

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

Aukland!

Bibi's girls arrived safely in Aukland and after a good night's sleep were ready to explore.  While Bibi is curled up in her fleece jacket and thick socks, the girls have discarded the leggings that went with these little dresses and walked in the surf in 80 degrees.  

 Nana got these  little knit dresses for them before they left and Mandy wanted to personalize them.  This was a different font, Twirly, and I modified it a little bit.  The original version is enclosed in brackets and was just a little too much for the stripes.   Each letter is then outlined in a little lacy stitch that I could have deleted also, but you can't really see it on the white stripe. I used a layer of polymesh, a layer of tearaway beneath the hoop, and solvy on top.  Nary a pucker!   



Sweet Issa in cooler Atlanta



I measured my little ones carefully before they left, no fittings for dresses for a year or so!  I love this family of adventurers!

My sweet angel

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen,

                 both when we wake and when we sleep.

                                                            ~John Milton, Paradise Lost

I found this picture of Mae in Issa's angel dress. This was the Christmas dress that made me hang up my smocking need for a good while.  I did 3 of these angel dresses, and the knot on my right thumb joint has never been the same!  Issa, Mae and Katelyn all looked very sweet in them though, and I might rethink my decision.  This bishop dress is made from a very tiny micro check, with a placket in the back and one pearl button.  The smocking plate is an old one from Molly Jane Taylor, and it is still one of my favorites.  I smocked it for Mandy about 30 years ago and did blue angels on white batiste.

I love that my sweet girls all had angels on their shoulders!