Gingerbear Smocking

Hello Everyone,  I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was restful – I actually took a nap after church on Sunday!  I guess I have been pushing myself a little too hard in the past few weeks.   But I did get my Twilight Trails Quilt finish.  It is already on its way to the editor’s desk.  I will have some pictures for you later this week.

You know I have a knack for getting carried away!  Such is my Christmas dresses project for baby.  I am attempting to improvise on a pattern that involves picture smocking.  I have never done picture smocking in my life, and I am a little uncertain – but I shall try my best.  Don’t you just love the gingerbread fabric?

You also know of my clumsy sewing skills.  And of course I have never attempted to improvise on a pattern either, but I got carried away.  I hope this crazy scheme of mine would work out, and I can actually have something to show for by the end of the week.  Wish me luck.  Meanwhile, this is what (Gingerbear by Little Memories) I am hoping to smock to go on this little outfit for baby:

I wish you a happy and productive Monday!  Thank you for stopping by.

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New smocking project

I will be a smocking fool for the next few weeks as I am getting some fall/Christmas dresses made. I thought I would show you one of the projects underway. This is going to be a smocked bishop with a matching bonnet. What can I say? I just love the timelessness of bishops!

I learned to smock a little smarter this time. I did the first row (cable stitch) and second row (trellis) simultaneously so that the trellis row was the check for the first row in order to avoid un-stitching! Worked like a charm!!!

I absolutely love this cluny lace – it really adds to the Old World look of the fabric:

I shall have more pictures to show you once more progress is made! Thank you for stopping by. Have a great day. The coolness of fall is slowly upon us… I have enjoyed the cooler weather!  Have a fantastic weekend.

One last note: If you are a Jeannie Baumeister fan, she has a treat for you! She now has a blog tutoring us on heirloom sewing. Woo-hoo!

“Hip” Smocked Summer Outfit

This is a follow-up to my lavender smocked angel-sleeve bishop:

It is now finished, MANY MANY MANY thanks to my friend Annelle. You see, I am a total klutz when it comes to heirloom sewing. I was putting on the bias band around the neck, but ended up messing up big time! That was around midnight… I went to bed feeling really discouraged.

I called Annelle the next day and poured out my woes to her over the phone. Always a good sport, and the most selfless person I know — she told me to bring the botched up dress to her to fix it! If there’s a person who could fix my dress, it would be Annelle (although in my despondent state the night before, I doubted even Annelle could fix what I had disastrously done)…

Guess what? Fixed it she did!!!! She also graciously finished it for me since I was running out of time.  It looks absolutely perfect! I hadn’t had enough fabric in the first place to do a full-length bishop. Instead, I made a bishop top to go with pants. It gives a more informal look — in fact, it looks quite hip, if I may say so myself! :)  Perfect for a summer outing!

Thanks for popping by.  If you noticed that I have been tardy in visiting you back, it’s because I have been visiting with family.  I will still be visiting with family for the next couple of days.  But I will get to each of your comment when I am back to my routine.

OFB Smocked Layette Part 2: Completed!

Well,  my Old Fashioned Baby smocked layette project didn’t turn out to be a knocked down and dragged out saga like my smocked baby daygown. You see, I couldn’t dilly dally because this particular outfit was supposed to be worn for Easter this year (and it WAS completed in time for Easter!):

It was such a fun project. I think I am going to make another one with a floral fabric for a less formal look. But for now, here is the lacy fancy hem:

The coordinating slip. I embroidered a teeny rosebud right below the neckline just for fun:

Have a great Monday and week, everyone. I will catch up with you later!

p.s. Please click here for Part 1.

OFB Smocked Layette Part 1: Getting Started

This week, I have been working on a smocked layette. The pattern is by Jeannie Baumeister of Old Fashioned Baby:

The smocking is very simple by very sweet, with super sweet embroidery on the smocked sleeves:

This is what I have done so far:

These are the French Val laces I will be using to attach to the hem – I have a thing for lacy hem:

Thanks for stopping by! It’s always great to hear from you. I hope you are enjoying your day. Till tomorrow!

Completed: Lemonade Smocked Daygown

I am enjoying some down time from quilting deadlines, and am pleased that I am able to complete some heirloom sewing UFO’s. The latest is my lemonade smocked daygown:

The pattern is from Ginger Snaps Designs. In fact it is identical to the pink daygown I completed a couple of weeks ago. But as you can see, the fabric and thread color make a huge difference in the final look. The pink one (Imperial Batiste with tone on tone smocking) looks prim and proper, while the lemonade one (Dotted Swiss with contrasting smocking) looks playful and lively:

I decided to also leave the front geometrically smocked without any embroidery:

The smocked sleeves:

Closeup of the Swiss embroidery lace edging (isn’t it sweet?):

Ah, it’s always good to get something completed. Another monkey off my back -just so that I can pile on even more monkies! :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone! I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Peachy Pink, Pink, Pink

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope your week is going well for you so far.

I completed the embroidery on the baby daygown slip. I realized after the fact that using an entredeux would have probably been better before attaching the lace:

Once the embroidery was completed, I felt compelled to finish constructing the daygown. The ensemble is made of a peachy pinkish Imperial Batiste. The daygown pattern is from Ginger Snaps Designs, and the slip pattern is from Old Fashioned Baby:

I opted to just do geometric smocking on this daygown to give it a touch of simplicity:

I just think smocked sleeves are the sweetest things, especially on babies:

Thanks for stopping by. I will catch with you tomorrow.

Dainty Hand Embroidery

Okay, as if I don’t have enough to do, I went ahead and did some hand embroidery on a slip for a pink baby daygown where no one would see since the slip is worn underneath the gown. The design is another winner from Old Fashioned Baby:

Nonetheless, it is a fun exercise for a more serious undertaking in the future! I will post more pictures once I am done with this little detour project – I say “detour” because I still have a couple of quilt commitments that I need to fulfill! But I am going to enjoy the hand embroidery for now.

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!

OFB Smocked Daygown Part 10: Completo!

My dear friend Annelle came through for me AGAIN! The Old Fashioned Baby Daygown is now complete:

Thank you for all your encouraging comments throughout this looong saga! The latest and all pink issue of “Sew Beautiful” featured a similar gown made by Jeannie Baumeister (desginer), except the smocking part feature honeycomb smocking and there is additional embroidery on the yoke. It was absolutely stunning — I might have to make another one!! So many pretties, so little time…

(Previous posts on my daygown saga: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9)

OFB Smocked Daygown Part 9: It’s about time!

I did manage to attach the collars to my Old-fashioned Baby daygown yesterday – many, many, many thanks to my dear friend Annelle! I even sewed the bias band down – that’s how excited I was about these collars!!! [There is actually a picture of the same daygown made by Jeannie Baumeister (designer) featured in the latest Sew Beautiful magazine – it’s toward the end of the magazine!]

All I have left are the buttonholes, buttons, and the slip (pieces already cut). I hope I would be able to get those completed within the very near future.

The next Old-fashioned Baby pattern I intend to attempt is the Smocked Layette – I love all of Jeannie’s designs:

(Previous posts on my daygown saga: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)

Meanwhile, I am going back to doing some quilting – hadn’t done much of that this week, and I have some catching up to do. See you tomorrow!

OFB Smocked Daygown Part 8: A bit of progress

I added the sleeves to my daygown. It was quite challenging for me to have to sew something as tiny as infant-sized sleeves. All I can say is, heirloom sewing is vastly different from quilting.

I am glad that the daygown is looking more like a daygown, and less like a… like a… like a…. muscle shirt! ;)

Now, I am supposed to stitch this tiny tiny lace by hand (about 1/4″ wide) to the collar before I can attach the collar to the daygown. I am usually not afraid of handwork, but I have to say this part does overwhelms me a bit. Nonetheless I am going to do it as soon as I get a breather from my quilting deadlines:

(Previous posts on my daygown saga: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7)

Missy, who is also into heirloom sewing, graciously awarded me (thanks, Missy!):

OFB Smocked Daygown Part 7: Hang-ability!

Another Happy Monday to you all! I finished piecing my first of two quilts for “The Quilter” over the weekend. As a treat, I allowed myself to do some heirloom sewing. Now, my Old Fashioned Baby Smocked Daygown has “hang-ability” (ability to be hung!) because I french-seamed the shoulder seams!! You can also see from the picture how the fancy hem looks on the dress:

I also learned to attach the front placket. An edge-stitch foot really came in handy for that!! A piece of cake for some, but a MILESTONE for me. I actually also learned to do release pleats, but the picture doesn’t quite show it (next time, I promise!):

My remaining checklist for the daygown (I think, unless my wonderful teacher says otherwise):

1. Slip

2. Collars

3. Buttonholes

4. Sleeves

5. Buttons

I hope to be able to show you prettier pictures once the collars and sleeves are attached.

(Previous posts on my daygown saga: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

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Carrie graciously awarded me with this (Thanks bunches, Carrie!):

(She and I hit it off right away because we are both daughters of the King, and we are both dish-aholics! I always enjoy her posts on tablesettings and dishes among her other excellent posts).