THE dress

After some encouragement from my biggest fans (Kevin and Caroline), I decided to enter my white heirloom dress in the Delta Fair. To my surprise, it won first in its section (adult or child heirloom item). It also won Best in Show for its category (French heirloom sewing). I had no idea whether it had won or not, so it was a lot of fun to find it in the Best of Show display case. I was already so pleased with the dress. This is just icing on the already-frilly cake!

The details

I had so much fun making Caroline's flower girl dress. I loved every bit of the process - planning the design, selecting the lace and fabric, picking out the embroidery pattern, constructing the dress and lace bands, drafting the slip. I took my time with this project and it was well worth the time and effort. I documented some of the process it took to get to the finished dress.

I had been thinking about what kind of dress I wanted to make for almost a year before I made my final decisions. The "problem" with heirloom sewing is that the choices are endless! I bought all of my fabric and laces in January of this year and began work almost immediately. I chose to borrow an out-of-print (vintage, I suppose?) Children's Corner pattern called "Grace". I wanted a pattern that would showcase a lot of embroidery because I love to embroider.

Looking at the lace and experimenting with embroidery design options

 

Go big or go home. I opted for a more intricate design. I was glad I did.

I used tape, a window, and a water-soluble pen to mark the design on the dress back, front, and sleeves.

Practice equals consistency with embroidery. Here I'm working on my bullion stitches (in green).

Slowly but surely, it's getting done. Sometimes I was sure I was crazy for choosing something with so. much. embroidery. But if I had 5 minutes, I'd sit down and make a few stitches. I brought it with me in carpool line. Most of it got done while watching TV with Kevin.  I couldn't believe it when I took my last stitch. There might have been cheering and a happy dance.

Marking how much to cut (yikes) off the top of the lace edging

Slow and steady is the key to joining lace. I couldn't believe how smoothly this part went. I kept thinking, "I'm doing it! It's working!"

This day I had a little helper who wanted a project of her own. A yarn needle, some thread, and a pack of wooden beads kept her occupied for a very long time.

I also had to make some significant cuts (yikes again) into the sleeves for a strip of embroidered insertion. This sleeve is ready for the gathered lace edging.

Speaking of gathered lace edging, I prefer to attach it by hand.

This is one of the last steps - attaching the lace border to the bottom of the dress. I measured Caroline and marked the dress in January. I mistakenly did not have Caroline try on the dress in May before sewing this band on and cutting the fabric. Caroline had grown almost an inch! Luckily, it didn't look too short. I had some bad dreams about it being too short. Lesson learned.

Almost done! I couldn't wait to soak that blue marker off!

I used the dress pattern to customize a slip for this dress specifically. I finished the arm and neck edges with a tiny hand-sewn French rolled seam.

I chose not to do buttons and buttonholes on the back placket. Instead, I used a vintage Victorian bar pin. It got lost in the graduation craziness. I didn't feel too sad about it because it wasn't expensive, nor was it a family heirloom. I need to get some little beauty pins.

I starched and ironed this thing 4 times before graduation! Kevin said the whole house smelled like starch. That fabric was stiff!

I couldn't be happier with the finished dress. It was a really special moment for me when Caroline put on her dress for the first time. It fit her perfectly (except for the tiny length issue) and I felt like the delicate details of the dress reflected her sweet personality. Caroline was so pleased with it and said she felt like a princess wearing it. I thought she looked absolutely beautiful!

So that's the diary of my first big heirloom sewing project. It sounds crazy, but I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Graduation

Caroline got to participate in graduation this year. St. Mary's pairs graduating high school seniors with a senior kindergarten flower girl. It's a really sweet tradition. Several times throughout this spring semester Caroline got to have little dates with her senior, Hannah. They had picnic lunches and a special chapel together and frozen yogurt outings. Caroline became quite enamored with Hannah. I think they were a good match!

Both of them looked so beautiful.

I made Caroline's dress. It was so much fun! I'll show you some of the "behind the scenes" details in another post.

I spent some time doing Caroline's hair. She was thrilled to have curly hair for a day.  When she said her prayers that night, she thanked God for letting her have curly hair that day! It's the little things in life...

Caroline and Shelby have been friends from day one of JK. I look at this picture and see them taking a similar one 12 years from now (sniff, sniff). They have a really special friendship and I pray they will be friends for life.

Caroline has had the most incredible teachers this year. I am so thankful she has had these two women to guide and challenge her not only academically, but spiritually as well. It is a huge blessing to know that the Godly virtues we are striving to instill in her at home are also being reinforced at school. God has been so good to put faithful, beautiful, strong, grace-filled believers into her life outside of our home.

We are very proud of Caroline!

Baptism

Helen was baptized last weekend. It was a very special day. We felt so blessed and honored to have so many family members and friends celebrating with us. In the words of our pastor, the fact that our home was filled with people who love us is a symbol of how much we are loved by our Father. How humbling! Our daily prayer is that Caroline and Helen would know and love our redeemer Jesus Christ all the days of their lives.

²⁴To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
-Jude 1:24-25

After everything got quiet Sunday night, I lamented that I couldn't remember everything that was said and prayed for Helen Sunday morning. I was wishing we had videoed the baptism. And I consoled myself by remembering what I could remember. Well, Tuesday I got a CD in the mail from church. It was an audio recording of Helen's baptism! I was so happy! God provides... Now if we can just find some copies of the bulletin! :-)

Helen's dress is 60 years old this year. It was made by my great-grandmother Zimmerman for my Aunt Suzi's baptism. It's been worn by my mother, me, Erin, Caroline, and now Helen. It is a treasured family heirloom! I made Caroline's dress. It was my first heirloom-style dress. I drew a sketch of what I wanted the dress to look like and then picked out all the lace. I pieced together the lace on the yoke with my machine and hand-stitched the lace around the sleeves and neck. It was a very fun process and I know I will be making another one.

Big Christmas

We had a great Christmas break. Santa stopped by our house in Memphis early. He knew we were going on a trip and brought Caroline a suitcase of her own. Smart Santa... We started in Mayfield and then headed down to Paris on Christmas Day. Caroline really got into the whole Christmas season this year. Santa brought some baby doll things, which are proving to be a big hit. Other favorite things were a doll house, Dora dress-up clothes, books, games, and a dance cam. It was so much fun watching her get so excited over every gift.

I made the girls' Christmas dresses. The pattern was really easy and I'm hoping I'll have time to make Caroline another for the spring. I kept the dresses away from the red and green theme so they can wear them through the spring and into summer. They really remind me of something Shirley Temple would wear -- especially Caroline's. I got the hem a little bit short. Very cute.

And, as usual, I wish I had taken more photos. My New Year's Resolution, perhaps?

Still around

I don't know why I've neglected the blog. I haven't been taking as many pictures as I'd like. Sad... Sometimes I feel like we just go all the time. I'm glad this week will give us some time to relax and stay home. Relaxing is pretty high-up on my "to-do" list this week!

This was taken before school one morning. I was trying to get her to model the new jumper I made for her. (I can't wait to show you the Christmas dresses!) But she just wanted to cheese with Mommy. Oh, goodness. I love this girl so.


Here's Caroline at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was a cowboy/cowgirl party. Caroline loved wearing her boots and having braids in her hair. The hosts had a trailer with hay hooked up to a lawnmower for hayrides. Caroline went on every hayride John gave. She loved it.

Lazy daisy crazy

Here is Caroline's fall dress - finally finished! Hooray! I started working on it back in July, but then that pesky first trimester hit and I could hardly muster up enough energy to make dinner, let alone smock. When fall arrived, I kicked it into high-gear to get it done. I finished it last night, just in time for church today. I am very proud of the sunflower dress. Here's a little math problem for you: there are 32 sunflowers on the dress. Each sunflower is made up of 10 lazy daisy stitches. That equals 320 lazy daisies. Yikes.

This is the back of the dress. This is one of my favorite dress patterns because of the back.

Yes, it was a very sad morning for some reason. She was not going to smile at all.


I think she'll wear it to church every Sunday until Advent!

Felt board and other stuff

We're taking a trip to the beach. The long car ride calls for some new activities for Caroline. So I made a felt board. It was very, very easy. I bought a cheap 8x10 canvas, 1/2 a yard of felt from a bolt, and tons of craft felt rectangles. I cut the felt to wrap around the canvas. Then I used my staple gun (so much fun) to attach it in the back. And the shapes are just free-handed from my imagination. This is the "summer day" set. I'm going to make a "sea scape" set and a shape set.


No new creation is perfect until the test user approves.


My sleeping beauty actually took a nap one afternoon! I thought the giant violet hippo made a perfect pillow.


And sometimes when I ask her to smile, I get this face instead. Her Aunt Emily must have taught her this one.

(Side note: Caroline's little dress is another that I made for her. It's strawberry pique with a lime green pique collar and shorts to match. I made it for picture day at school. I stayed up until midnight the night before because she just had to have something new and handmade for pictures. I know. I'm silly. I'll post her picture soon.)

I've got a couple more sewing projects to show you...

School days

Caroline started school this week! We've enrolled her in a sweet little mother's day out program at a church not too far away from our house. She had the best day. Her teacher (Ms. Emily) filled out a report sheet that had all kinds of activities she had participated in - play-doh, puzzles, numbers, ABCs, colors, Spanish, playground... The sheet also said that she had a very good time sliding on the playground with her friends. She even took a nap there, which impressed me since naps are hit-or-miss at home. After I picked her up, we went to McDonald's to redeem our free ice cream cones from our last dentist visit. What a busy day! I'm so proud of her... She hasn't stopped talking about school (and the ice cream cone) since!

(As an aside, I made her dress - an adorable new apron dress with a little smocked birdie. I had a great time making this one. I hope I can make another before I have to return the pattern to my friend.)

Two-year pictures

We had sweet Caroline's pictures taken last week. She wasn't really in the mood, but we forged ahead anyway. We actually wound up with a selection of photos that was much better than we had anticipated. I included one of the teary pictures just for fun.

Both of her outfits were made by me. The swing top is a dress from last year, but too short this year for her. So I made some shorts to go with it. The smocked dress is new - green and white micro-stripe with pink baby rick-rack on the sleeves and pink smocking. I'm so pleased with this dress. I got the inspiration from a dress in a children's clothing store. It had an $80 price tag. I didn't spend nearly that much!

Easter

Here are some pictures from our Easter celebrations. I had the pleasure of making the kids some very pretty Easter frocks. I had so much fun. Ian was sick on Easter morning, so I didn't get to see him in his outfit. Hopefully, he won't grow too much and he can wear it next time I visit! We had a great holiday weekend and hope you did, too.

Christmas sewing projects

I thought I'd feature some of my handmade Christmas gifts. I had so much fun planning and making these gifts. And it was even more fun to see my relatives' reactions when they received their gifts. I wish I had had time to do more! Next year, maybe...

First up were matching Christmas outfits for the cousins. I finished them around Thanksgiving. Ian had a white corduroy romper with piping matching the girls' dresses, but the little bugger grew too fast and it doesn't fit anymore! I'm already formulating some ideas for spring. Top of the list - larger size for growing Ian!


Autumn had a special request for some sleep masks. It's hard to find masks that aren't frilly or too "adult". I had some great fabrics in my scrap pile that were just perfect. I drew the pattern from an adult sleep mask that I own, lined it with dark fabric inside, and backed it with super-soft flannel. She loved them.


And this - a doo-rag for my Harley-ridin' Papa. This was the hardest project I had, partly because I had never made anything for a head and partly because I had no pattern. I wound up buying a doo-rag online (for $4 - shipping and all!). I ripped it apart and used those pieces for a pattern. I cut the fabric generously and it was a little big. The next one will be just right. (My Mimi Lee had no idea what a doo-rag was. I think she's saying, "It's for what?" I love you, Lee-Lee!)


Emily requested some of my favorite recipes. Because I always feel more successful when I look like I know what I'm doing, I thought an apron was the perfect addition to a recipe book. I had fun making this. I didn't have a pattern for this one, either, but I had no trouble finding tutorials online and in craft books. I love the ruffle trim at the bottom. I hope there are many, many yummy dishes that come out of her kitchen!

My pretty girl in her pretty dress

Here is my gorgeous girl in one of her Christmas dresses. This is her "fancy" dress. It's the same pattern I used on this fall dress. I am so proud of the work I did on this, especially when I look back on the trouble I had last Christmas. And the icing on the cake is seeing Caroline's sweet smile in these photos.


The back

The front

New dress

Here is the latest creation from my sewing sweat shop. (And, boy, is it ever hot up there! The poor window unit can barely keep up!) This is "Bessie" - smocking, lace collar, lots of piping, puff sleeves, very full skirt, sweet little buttons. I think I did a pretty good job on this one. The next one will be even better! I think this might be the pattern I use for her Christmas dress. Click on the last picture if you'd like to see the smocking up close.