Sewing Vloggers

Friday, November 7, 2008

Christening Gown and More

I am all over the place today but the bottom line is I spent hours all having to do with sewing and that's always a good thing.

What you see at left is the palette for my next "little" project. We have another baby girl on the way in the family and I am going to do a puffed sleeve little number for her baby shower gift that will have beads, ric rac, and more. I am itching to cut this out but you know my rule, only two projects at a time! Tonite I finished the christening gown and the slip. I spent all day on the slip today. It is not my best work but it is pretty and will go under the gown beautifully. It has a hand embroidered monogram of the baby's initials and birth date, some entredeaux, and some shell stitching which I love. I think I put more work into the slip than I did the gown. I pretty much did 90% of the work on the slip today. Tomorrow all will get a good press and I hope to have pictures and a post for you. Till then here's a few teasers:
For the monogram I played around with Word. I did my first effort in a satin stitch and was not happy with it at all. The satin stitch made the monogram out of scale to the tiny garment. I regrouped and decided to do the entire motif in a tiny backstitch in pale pale pink floss, one strand. This was a much more delicate treatment, appropriate for a little baby.
Next came the lace shaping. For the lace I used some of my antique lace. It has a header thread which is absolutely necessary for lace shaping. You can see on my pic above that there are little dots from a drafting pencil in a heart shape around the initials. Then the inside edge of the lace was pinned to the dots, the header pulled to shape it, and the whole thing steam pressed.
Sound simple but its actually pretty fussy work.





When it was all done, the inside edge of the lace was stitched. The background was then cut away right up to the lace. This was then laid on the bodice and the outside edge was stitched to the bodice. I did a basic zigzag. I just didn't feel like taking time to do pin stitching. I think it looks nice anyway. Then after the outside edge of the lace was stitched the interior of the heart "base fabric" (the bodice) was cut away .
And here we go. Once this was done I proceeded to make the slip, doing a shell stitch on all neck and armholes and the hem, and entredeaux between the bodice and the gathered skirt. More pics tomorrow when that is all pressed up.







And if that isn't enough, when I went to town today I hit the fabric store and finally came up with buttons for the cashmere jacket. I brought my sample of fabric to the store with slits cut in it and auditioned lots of buttons. I have been unable to find anything on line that works. I got it down to three choices and proceeded to hit on every person in the store to get their opinion. Most lined up with my opinion and here it is, live and in person from JHB:
...........................Bunny

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful work as always, Bunny. And those buttons look great!

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  2. Hello Bunny, I love the heart monogram ! It looks lovely ! I can't wait to see the final photos :) Dana

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  3. Me again, I have just received a notification that my comment was rejected, yet is appears on your blog ! How strange, don't you think ? Dana

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  4. Those buttons are wonderful, a perfect match. I love getting/offering feedback at the fabric store. The heart monogram is so pretty, especially with the lact cutaway detail. Your 2 project rule is one that I need to institute! Too many UFO's...

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  5. Bunny .- these jobs are no longer ..... is a great effort and require very skillful hands as theirs. Congratulations, all the details of this are precious christening gown.

    I love the button. Looks like an old button. This style was used much in the twenties in what was called "Art and Crafts" and always had these ornaments and organic vegetables is also very present on the fringes of drawings, embroidery and so on.

    Sincerely, Paco

    Bunny.- estos trabajos ya no se hacen..... es un gran esfuerzo y requieren de manos muy hábiles como las suyas. Enhorabuena, todos los detalles de este vestido de bautizo son preciosos.

    Me encanta el botón. Parece un botó antiguo. Se usaba mucho este estilo en los años veinte en lo que se denominó "ARTES Y OFICIOS" y siempre tenían estos adornos vegetales y orgánicos también muy presentes en las orlas de dibujos, bordados, etc.

    Saludos, Paco

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