LuLu & Annie

New Smocked Dress and Jacket - Two Ways

2012-02-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

This is my new project to teach at Farmhouse Fabrics this year, I will be lucky enough to go there three times in 2012. If you love nice fabric, interesting laces and trims, millions of buttons, and almost anything else related to sewing a trip to Farmhouse should be on your bucket list. For a little taste go to www.farmhousefabrics.com. The first version of the class project is quite formal - a floral brocade mandarin collar jacket paired with a smocked and beaded silk dupioni dress.

The second version is a floral print featherweight corduroy paired with a Swiss flannel smocked dress. The corduroy jacket is completely interlined with 'baby' interfacing to give it some additional body. I don't ever make anything brown so this was a nice change for me.

I've already got ideas for several more combinations which is always a good sign to me. I hope this will be a versatile pattern that will work up well in many fabric combinations.

Teaching Year Winding Down

2011-10-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

I have only one more teaching engagement left until the end of the year which will hopefully give me some time to work on some much needed new projects. I have had some requests for photos of the projects for the 2012 Martha Pullen schools - so here they are.

This is the pre day (three day) project. It is a Swiss voile christening gown with a lace bolero style jacket and matching bonnet. Swiss voile is my new favorite fabric for traditional heirloom work as it is lovely and sheer but does not wrinkle near a much as cotton batiste. The gown is sleeveless and I am pleased with the simplicity of the overall look even though there are a great number of details on the outfit. I do not like the dress to look like it is wearing the child.

Here is a close up of the front of the bodice. The bullion roses are worked with DMC 'satin' floss which is really rayon. I like the bit of sheen it adds to a project although there is a learning curve involved when working with rayon floss.

The lace strips on the jacket are worked over a layer of silk organza which gives the jacket a nice amount of stability. The jacket dips down a bit at the center back.

I like to finish off a christening gown with a bonnet although I must admit my own children did not wear their bonnetts because they had so much hair which I could not bear to cover up.

The four day school will include two different projects. The first one is a silk dress with a bit of a different take on a traditional sailor style collar. I like the look of the ecru laces over the darker toned silks. As with the bolero jacket in the christening gown (above) the entire collar and front inset on this dress are strips of ecru laces worked over a layer of silk organza. The front of the belt is lace worked over three layers of silk organza for stability. The belt back is a wide silk organza sash tied into a bow. The project will be offered in sizes 4-8.

The final two day project is a remake of the one the projects in my book. It's called Daisy Mae and this version is a Dakota pique jacket paired with a lime classic cotton gingham bishop. The embroidery on the jacket is quite simple and quick because the buttons (81 of them!) are doing most of the work. The project will be offered in sizes 6 months thru 3 years.

For those of you who have been asking I have finally started adding some new project kits to my ETSY site. The link is www.etsy.com/shop/gaildoane Thanks for visiting my blog and Etsy site. Happy stitching!

Return of a Classic

2011-06-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

When I ask my adult daughters, ages 32, 30, and 25 if they remember a favorite dress from their younger years they will almost always mention some navy blue pique sailor style dresses that are now coming up on twenty years old. I'm partial to classic styles and I think these dresses still have a timeless look that have weathered the test of time quite nicely. These dresses and the little boy suit were constructed from 100% cotton navy and white pique from Bear Threads. I worried about the color bleeding but as luck would have it they washed beautifully and have since been passed on to another generation of little girls.

I have just finished an updated version of this classic sailor style dress to use as a class project in the future. I plan to teach this project at 'Sewing At the Beach' 2012. You can have a look at their website by going to www.sewingatthebeach.com. I tried to incorporate several of the design features of the three previous dresses into one cohesive design. I added a hat and a splash of color in the hot pink embroidery and the fabric roses. The dress is constructed from Fabric Finders 100% cotton pique and all the trims are from Capital Imports. I hope this dress will hold up to the classic ideal and find a long and happy life with several of my granddaughters.

Long Absense

2011-05-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

Please forgive my long absence. There seem to be many things demanding my attention other than this blog. I thought I would post a little section out of one of my class handouts about the preparation of a Peter Pan collar. I always work my collars in a block method which seems to help eliminate the possibility of stretching the collar out of shape before it is even attached to the dress. The collar was designed to complement the smocked dress shown below. The collar is white cotton pique and the dress is a Fabric Finders 100% cotton floral print.

A. Preparing the Collar

1. Cut a 14” wide by 8” long rectangle of the collar fabric. Using a #2 pencil trace the collar outline (make sure to do a left and a right) onto the right side of the fabric. Be careful to line up the grain line of the collar to the grain line of the fabric. DO NOT cut out the collars. Mark the center front, center back, and the shoulder line. Fuse lightweight interfacing to the wrong side. Mark and work the hand embroidery on the two collars using the embroidery guide provided.

2. Cut a length of piping the approximate length of the collar perimeter. Clip into the seam allowance at 1/2” intervals. Working with the grooved foot used to make the piping stitch the piping (2.0L) to the collar, stitching just inside the stitching line on the piping. Be careful to keep the raw edges of the piping aligned to the drawn collar perimeter. Do not stretch the piping while stitching.

3. Matching fabric grain lines lay the collar backing, right sides together, over the piped collar front. Pin in place. Neither the collar front, or the collar back is cut out yet. Using the stitching line from Step 2 as a guide, stitch again, (1.5L) around the collar perimeter.

4. Stitch again, (1.5L) in the seam allowance 1/16” from the stitching line in Step

5. Trim through all layers right next to the second stitching line.

6. Cut out the neckline curve, through all layers, approximately ½” from the pencil line and turn the collar right sides out. Gently press the outside edges of the collar keeping the tip of the iron on the piping.

7. Make a ¼” turned bias tube the measurement of the outside of the collar plus at least 2”. Work over two layers of tissue paper and use the edge of your sewing machine foot (adjust needle position as necessary) to make a stitching line 5/16” away from the fold line of the 1 ½” wide bias strip.

8. Tear the tissue paper away and trim the seam allowance down to 1/8”.

9. Turn the tube right sides out with a ‘Fasturn’ and gently press rolling the seam line slightly to the wrong side.

10. Baste (5.0L) the piped collar onto a double thickness of notebook paper, stitching just inside the piped edge of the collar. Backstitch to secure at the beginning and the end. Stitch a second time, ¼” away from the piped edge of the collar using a 3.5L stitch.

11. Using a steam iron, shape the turned ¼” bias tube around the ¼” stitching line. Machine baste (5.0L) down the center of the bias tube, backstitching at the beginning and the end to secure.

12. Trim both layers of notebook paper to within ¾” of the turned bias tube.

13. Using a #8 crewel needle and #80 tatting thread, faggot the piped edge of the collar to the ¼” turned bias tube. Keep a consistent tension around the collar. Work with a long thread so as to not have too many tie on's and tie off's. Use the machine stitches on the ¼” second stitching line as a guide to place your hand stitches at the turned bias edge.

14. Be sure to start the hand stitching below the cutting line so the hand stitches will not be cut when the collar in sewn into the neckline.

15. Remove the basting thread lines from the piping and the

turned bias tube to release the stabilizing paper. Press well.

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P.S. - Oh to be fifteen, flying, and fearless. My youngest son is permanently attached, except in this picture to his much loved Flying Bhangra.

Floofys, Floofys, Everywhere

2011-02-01T15:49:00.000-08:00

If you thought I was never coming back to post anything on my blog I have to confess I thought the same thing. Sometimes life just happens but hopefully my life will once again allow me to check in here more often. I firmly believe that knitting is good for the soul. It's a rhythmic, quiet, individual process that suits me just perfectly. I can't stop making Floofy's. If you read back several posts I got hooked on these while teaching for the Bewitching Stitchers SAGA group in Boston. Lucky for me, I will be going back to teach for the same guild in March and will get to revisit 'Yarns In the Farms' where all this started. The photos are of my two favorite Texas girls (oldest daughter and oldest grand daughter)wearing their birthday Floofy's and my gorgeous, good natured twelve year old wearing hers.

Lacy Wrap Dress

2010-10-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

In the process of stitching lots of practical things I find myself forgetting how much I enjoy working with lace. This dress has been designed and stitched to be a preday class at the Martha Pullen school in February and July of 2011. The entire front wrap bodice, back bodice and sleeve of the dress are strips of French and Swiss laces worked over a layer of silk organza. The skirt is silk organza over blue cotton batiste.

The bodice and sleeve edges are finished with entredeux, 1/4" Swiss edging, and running stitch worked with three strands of DMC floss.

Hailey did a little try on for me. Notice all the missing teeth - she's so happy to be going to kindergarten this year.

Silk Dress Binge

2010-09-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

I'm on a bit of a silk dress binge. I like the intensity of the silk colors and the crisp feel of the fabric. This first dress is a copy of 'Eloise' which was featured on the cover of AS&E #87. The original dress was made from a beautiful tropical weight men's grey flannel suiting. It might be one of my favorite dresses I have ever made.

My new version is apple green silk. It was sold as dupioni but it really feels and behaves like silk taffeta.

There are a few things I have learned along the way when working with this silk. It seems to work best to interface the area to be smocked prior to pleating the fabric with a very lightweight interfacing. The stuff I'm most partial to at the moment is the 'Baby' interfacing you can get from Sally at Farmhouse Fabrics (www.farmhousefabrics.com) It seems to add just the right amount of body and stability to the outer fabric. You will have a hot mess on your hands if you try to just pleat the silk on the cross grain without adding the interfacing. Trust me on this. The second thing I have discovered is that this silk does not gather very nicely (really not very nicely!) on the cross or lengthwise grain. Areas that required gathers such as the skirt back to the bodice back presented a big problem. I got around this by softly pleating, big 2" pleats, the skirt back to the bodice back.

I really like the formal, almost bridal look this gives to the back of the dress. The next problem was the sleeve which required gathers on the cap and at the cuff. I found that cutting the entire sleeve on the bias solved the problem. For some mysterious reason the silk gathered beautifully across the bias. This dress is for a class I'm teaching at the Children's Corner in Nashville Tennessee in October.

This next dress is another color version of the silk dress Jorden was modeling in a previous post. The fabric is the ivory silk taffeta trimmed with lavender and smocked with Mill Hill seed beads.

I quite like the strong contrast the darker lavender provides. The Mill Hill beads add just the right amount of bling. I think both these dresses would be prefect for flower girls in almost any color combination. I'm thinking about a lime green/hot pink combination next. This project is also for a class at Martha's Pullens in February and July of next year.

Matt (5th child) moved away to college last week. The house is achingly quiet. Who would have thought I would have missed all that piano banging, viola plucking, guitar strumming, loud singing, craziness already. If you want to check in on him look at www.matthewdoane.blogspot.com - maybe this is mom bias but I think he is quite an interesting writer.

Before and After

2010-07-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sweet baby Jane turned one year old this week. The before and after pictures speak for themselves.

Wild Thing!

2010-07-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of my oldest granddaughter Jorden wearing a new smocked silk dress. It's a adaptation of one of the dresses in my 'Sew Cute Couture' book. The project was a little exercise in smocking an entire dress without any of the actual smocking stitches showing on the right side of the dress. All the stitches are either beaded or back stitched. I plan to use this dress as a class project in 2011. Jorden could not resist popping off a cartwheel before we could rescue the dress off of her.

Some Things Are Just Perfect

2010-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Still rock'in hard at 68 - maybe there is hope for all of us. A big thank you to my good friends Wendy and Randy who gifted me these near front row tickets. Perfect night, perfect outdoor venue, perfect music.

Matt's Graduation Day

2010-06-02T20:14:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to my beautiful boy. Today was your 18th birthday and high school graduation all rolled into one. You have always been comfortable in your own skin and not ever afraid to be exactly who you are. I can't wait to see what the future will hold for you. You are one smart cookie as evidenced by all those cords hanging around your neck. You are loved beyond measure - what a lucky mom I am.

Jen's Wedding Dress

2010-05-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a little look at the wedding dress I hesitantly altered and highlighted a section of in an earlier post. I just love this dress. Jen is my neighbor and I've known her since she was about 10 years old. She has grown into a very stylish young lady and I think the 1950's fitted silhouette looks fabulous on her. We put our heads together to come up with the style of the little cropped jacket and I made it out of ivory silk shantung. It seems a perfect compliment to this beautiful dress.

Finished Floofy

2010-05-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was in Boston a few weeks ago teaching for the Bewitching Stitchers SAGA group. After class one day some of the SAGA girls took me to a wonderful little knitting shop to see the 'Floofy Skirts'. It was love at first sight for me. I love to knit and this project allows you to sample all those interesting textured yarns you never know what to do with.

All you need to get started is 6 to 10 skeins of interesting textured yarns in one to three color families. The skirt is worked from the top down on circular needles following a very simple formula. You do not have to count anything or follow any stitching charts - just plain knitting. It is not boring because every few rows you get to start a new and interesting yarn. I really like the way the colors and textures play against each other. This skirt will be a welcome addition to my somewhat conservative (that's code for BORING!!) mostly black wardrobe. You can see lots of pictures of finished floofys and get the instructions from www.yarnsinthefarms.com

Trip to GNO SAGA

2010-05-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm soooo far behind with my blog posts. At the end of March I had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans for classes with the GNO SAGA group. They have a long time tradition of being a very well organized, active, SAGA group. They bring teachers in for weekend classes several times a year and are a really great group of accomplished stitchers. On the last night I was treated to a real Louisiana style crawfish boil.

Martha Stewart could probably have taken some entertaining tips from my hosts - the entire evening was beautiful. After dinner we retired to Suzette's amazing sewing room and I was beyond pleased to see she had completed four complete dress and jacket sets from my book.

Suzette had also completed the dress and jacket set I had taught for the guild way back in 2002. As a teacher, it is greatly satisfying to see such beautifully embroidered and constructed FINISHED class projects.

I already have plans to go back to see my stitching friends in New Orleans in September of 2011.

My Marathon Crew

2010-04-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the early morning start of the SLC 2010 marathon. From the left are my oldest daughter Erin, my wonderful neighbor and Michael's best friend's mom Shauna, my third daughter Lauren, me, 17 year old son Matt, and 14 year old son Morgan. Lauren, Matt and Morgan ran the half and Erin, Shauna, and I did the full. This was Shauna's first full and Lauren's first half and they both blew me away with their determination. We all managed personal best times for our events and I'm quite sure we all felt another tall strong boy running along with us. I hope to participate in this event every year until I have to be pushed in a wheelchair.

Marathon Eve

2010-04-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken while running up my much loved mountain two weeks ago - we had a bit of a blizzard Easter weekend. Tomorrow is the SLC marathon and the weather is predicted to be a perfect sunny 68 degrees. Welcome to spring in Utah, if you don't like the weather wait ten minutes and it will change. My wonderful, wild, crazy family are all getting ready to participate in the various events tomorrow. I'm feeling really unprepared this year. We will all be running for Michael. My kids have posted a video of last years marathon at www.runningformichael.blogspot.com Wish us luck!

How cool is this!

2010-03-22T16:32:00.001-07:00

I have reluctantly agreed to alter a wedding dress for my neighbors daughter. It's the most gorgeous, interesting thing I have ever seen. The entire dress is covered in horizontal rows of shaped netting, sequins and spiraled silk ribbon. The base fabric is silk shantung. The netting is machine stitched on and sits out at least 1/4" from the surface of the dress. I can't for the life of me figure out how it was stitched to the surface of the dress in such an intricate pattern. I may be in way over my head here so wish me luck. I will try to get the brides permission to post a photograph - the wedding is in June.

Almost heaven....South Carolina????

2010-03-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

I know the song goes "almost heaven, West Virginia" but I'm quite sure it was almost heaven, South Carolina for me last week. I was lucky enough to spend four days teaching at Farmhouse Fabrics in Beech Island, South Carolina. Sally's warehouse is an overwhelming experience - in the best possible way. I've included a few close up photos to show a tiny portion of what's available at Farmhouse Fabrics.

I had an excellent group of students from all over the country, several of them dear friends who I have not seen in the last two years. Sally and her staff, especially Connie Palmer, were beyond helpful making sure everything went well. Everyday at lunchtime we were treated to a beautifully presented meal.

Between the stitching and the great food and the unbelievable on site SHOPPING I don't think anyone wanted to ever go home. I plan to go back two more times this year and hopefully many more times in the years to come. You can visit Farmhouse Fabrics online at www.farmhousefabrics.com.

Sweet Baby Jane

2010-02-23T20:57:00.001-08:00

Sweet baby Jane is 7 months old, has three teeth and is crawling. I held her down long enough to model a new hat which will most likely be the jumping off point for a new four piece summer outfit. Hat fabric is white cotton pique trimmed with ric-rac and red mini micocheck.

A Trip to Florida

2010-02-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

I had the opportunity to go to Florida last week and stitch for five days with a wonderful group of ladies. The classes were sponsored by the Victorian Smockers SAGA group and were held at Laura's Sewing in Palm Beach Gardens. We had a lovely big classroom where roses and chocolate magically appeared on Valentines day. A big thank you to Laura and her excellent staff who out did themselves to make everything run smoothly. Another big thank you to Pat and her husband Bernie who were my hosts. They made my stay so comfortable and I even managed some early morning runs around the beautiful golf course their home sits on. Everyone there thought they were in a cold snap but for me it felt just like summer.

Upon arriving home my computer savvy children have encouraged me to set up an Etsy store. I have had many requests over the years to provide kits for some of my class projects. I will start with projects from my book 'Sew Cute Couture' ('Cute As A Button') and hopefully add more as time goes on. You can find me at www. etsy.com/shop/gaildoane

A Little Red Jacket

2010-01-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

This jacket just makes me happy. I made it for my oldest daughters 31st birthday which was on January 1. It's so her. She's a little tiny thing and a bit of a fashionista and always likes things a little left of center so this suits her perfectly. It's made from a superfine 100% wool and Simplicity pattern 2730 - no design changes whatsoever to the pattern. Please excuse my somewhat cluttered photography - I need a lesson on cropping photos!

A series of 13 reverse darts around the neckline make for a really cute fit on this pattern and also an interesting design detail. The fabric flowers were quite heavy when completed but actually sat quite nicely around the neckline once firmly stitched down. I added a few beads to the center of the flowers. I keep gently nagging at her (that's what mom's do, isn't it?) for a photo of her wearing it. Her family just had pictures taken at Christmas time. Hunter is 9 and Jorden (wild thing!) is 7. Her really great husband Bart shall remain ageless.

An Inside Peek

2010-01-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

Some time ago Rosa asked about using fusible interfacing on the front yoke and the skirt front of a smocked dress. My apologies to her for being so slow in responding. I dislike using the words 'always' and 'never' because it 'always' seems to come back to bite you. But... I almost always interface the front yoke of any smocked dress. It just makes sense to me to stabilize the little yoke that has the big job of holding up a somtimes heavily smocked and embroidered skirt. The extra layer on the yoke helps to eliminate puckers and other nasty business that can sometimes happen along that piped seamline. It also helps pad the lower edge of the yoke to help prevent the sometimes quite bulky seam allowance from imprinting on the right side of the yoke front.

I turned this smocked dress inside out, as best as I could, to show the interfaced front yoke and also the interfaced smocked portion of the skirt front. This particular dress is made from a Liberty Tana Lawn which is 54" wide and seems to pleat down to almost nothing. On lightweight fabrics like this I will usually fuse a strip of lightweight interfacing to the area that will be pleated. Once pleated this helps form plumper pleats and keeps the fabric from collapsing down to nothing. It makes the job of blocking out a skirt front much easier.

I also like to add a single layer liner to the back of the smocked section of a yoke dress. This covers up all the yoke seams and the inevitable knots on the back of the smocking. It helps stabilize the smocked area and is comfortable against the skin.

A Blast From the Past

2010-01-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

This all started when my daughter in Texas sent this photo of her daughter wearing a velvet dress and heirloom pinafore vintage about 1989. I dug out the photo of her mom and sisters wearing the original pinafores. They were about 4, 9, and 11 at the time and are now 24, 29, and 31.

I love that good Swiss cotton batiste and Swiss cotton laces have the beautiful ability to come back to life with a good wash and a press after many years in a trunk. A couple years after the above photo was taken Lauren (the youngest) modeled a similar pinafore for Creative Needle Magazine. I'm still sad every month when there is not a new Creative Needle in my mailbox - they are greatly missed.

These photos were taken with the Utah Symphony. This pinafore features lots of hand embroidery in the paneled skirt. The Creative Needle issue is Nov/Dec 1991 if you want to take a look. Tina Lewis, a VERY talented designer and stitcher who lives in Park City organized the photo shoot and created many of the garments. A funny little side note - Creative Needle came to Salt Lake several times to do photo shoots and on two occasions I managed to have a baby the VERY NEXT DAY after they left. That might give you some indication about how stressful photo shoots can be with unpredictable children and delicate clothing. As I said earlier - they are greatly missed.

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-30T12:52:00.000-08:00

I can not even begin to explain my long absence. The one year mark of Michael's death was a bigger slam than I could ever have anticipated. The holidays came and went with all of us still struggling to sort out what our new 'normal' is going to be without Michael. I am grateful beyond measure to my six children who do so much everyday to fill in the gaps. This year also marked the last Christmas outfit I will make for one of my girls using a children's size pattern. My youngest daughter is almost twelve and is just outgrowing girl's size patterns. This outfit was made from Simplicity 4518 (Lizzie McGuire) and she seems to be quite pleased with it. I will try to post of picture of her wearing it if I can get her to sit still long enough.

The jacket is 100% cotton velvet (stash left over from her oldest sister's wedding 10 years ago!) and the skirt a poly/rayon Asian brocade. She will probably wear the jacket with jeans the next few months as I fear she will grow out of it before next fall.

I've been busy getting class samples ready for teaching next year. I like to size check all my patterns so these next pictures are different size versions of the four piece set previously shown .

The navy blue set is made from feather weight corduroy paired with a navy floral brushed twill. I completely interfaced all the jacket pattern pieces with fuseable baby interfacing from Farmhouse Fabrics (www.farmhousefabrics.com). It gave the corduroy just the right amount of thickness to make it a pleasure to embroider on. Happy New Year to all my blog friends.

Magazine World Versus The Real World

2009-11-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

So here is the lovely image of one of my dresses on the cover of AS&E #80. The model, such a cutie, looks charming and serene.

My oldest daughter who lives in Texas sent me these pictures of her daughter wearing the dress. Miss Jorden is a bit of a wild thing and her mother who has a terrific sense of humor thought I might like to see what happens to my dresses in the real world.

You have got to love a real girl who can wear a fancy dress and turn a mean cartwheel at the same time!

Home from Australia

2009-10-19T19:26:00.001-07:00

I'm home after seventeen days away in Australia. The first few days were spent with my good friend Susan at her home in Geelong, about an hour out of Melbourne in Victoria. We are both quite content to sit and stitch so the first few jet lagged days went by all to quickly. We drove from Geelong to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road which is pictured above. Such a beautiful place.

The next 8 days were spent in Adelaide at the Beating Around The Bush needlework convention. The photo above is one of the shop windows at the Country Bumpkin retail store - clearly heaven for smockers and embroiderers. It was a beautiful week filled with students from all over the world so eager to learn. Even language barriers seemed to disappear once everyone had a needle in their hands. Margie Bauer and her staff at Country Bumpkin out did themselves to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome.

The drive back to Geelong was filled with many pleasant surprises which included an up close and personal encounter with a koala (this is NOT in a zoo or enclosure!) and Logan's Beach at Warnambool. If you were to sail directly south from where I am standing the first thing you would encounter is Antarctica. This was my favorite spot. I'm planning a trip back to run the 20 plus miles of completely open beach.

We flew to Sydney for the last few days for a taste of something completely different. It is a fabulous, cosmopolitan city filled with beautiful scenery, shops and great places to eat. We probably spent an hour in a spacious Armani boutique having fits over the elegant fabrics and spot on construction of the garments. An early morning run around the famous Opera House and the adjoining Botanic Gardens was another favorite memory. I can not thank my dear friend Susan enough for taking such good care of me and showing off her wonderful country.

Baby Jane is three months old!

2009-10-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry if this is getting boring but I just can't resist the monthly update on Jane. Her hair cracks me up. She is a sweetie pie but not so fond of modeling Grandma's sewing projects yet. I'll have to work on her a bit.

This One Is For You Michael

2009-09-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

As many of you know on the 14th of November last year my beautiful, smart, funny, confident 18 year old son was killed in a terrible accident. He was the fourth of my seven children and the oldest boy. He was a natural leader and the life of ANY party. He is missed beyond measure. As luck would have it Michael actually had a bucket list and it is my intent to do as many things as possible on that list in his honor. On the 18th of April I ran the Salt Lake City Marathon wearing the number he was signed up to run with. I'm quite sure a tall strong boy was running along beside me. On Saturday I'm leaving for Australia and returning to teaching after almost a full year off. Michael very much wanted to go to Oz after graduating high school . I sometimes can almost hear him saying "you can do it Mom". When I get home and we mark what would have been his 19th birthday his best friend and I will be jumping out of an airplane on that day. It was something they had planned to do since they were about eight years old. I hope we will make him proud. Not a minute goes by, not a mile is run, not a stitch is taken that he is not in my thoughts.

What's Hailey Wearing - Part 2

2009-09-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here's four year old Hailey again. Today she is wearing an all cotton batiste middy dress. The dress originally belonged to my daughter Doireann who now at a sophisticated eleven years old is Hailey's favorite auntie. Doireann had the opportunity to be photographed several years ago wearing this dress in Huntsville Alabama for the back cover pattern of Sew Beautiful magazine (issue #81).

The dress has had a bit of wear and tear. I wish I had taken pictures of it about two weeks ago. It had a huge (about 12" long) tear in the skirt where the French insertion butted up to an entredeux edge. Luckily I still had pieces of the insertion left over which I stitched in right over top of the tear and then cut away the damaged insertion. It made the mend completely invisible.

The last two pictures are Hailey modeling an embroidered wrap dress which is a new class project for me. I will be teaching this class at BATB in Australia the first week of October. Lots of things to get packed and ready this week. I leave on Saturday to fly to Melbourne and a week with my good friend Susan before we head to the conference in Adelaide.

Jane is 2 months old!

2009-09-17T07:26:00.001-07:00

I could not resist posting this happy little picture. Jane is the intended model for the four piece set in the next post. It's a size two and by the time it's done being a class sample she should be just about ready to wear it.

Finished Project

2009-09-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

This four piece set is the project for my classes at Farmhouse Fabrics. I'm very pleased to have plans to be there three times next year. I live in somewhat of a fabric wasteland so having access to Sally's warehouse full of treasures sounds like heaven to me.

I'm pleased with the look of the a-line dress. It has a very do-able amount of smocking. This particular one only took about two hours for the front and the two backs. The smocking shows quite nicely when the dress is paired with the wrap style jacket.

I like the idea of getting lots of mileage out of my jackets so I added a swing style smocked top and reversible pant. It gives a very wearable year round look

The jacket fabric is Australian Doctor's flannel, dress and pants are Liberty Tana lawn trimmed with tiny microcheck. Swing style top is cotton batiste. It will be sized in 1-4. I can think many, many more combinations of fabrics to make this set up in. I'd be pleased to hear your thoughts on possible combinations.

8.5 & First Sign Of Fall

2009-09-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite things to do are sew and run. If I had to pick between the two, and I hope I never do, I think running would win. I am lucky enough to be able to walk out my front door and in a very few minutes be in a beautiful, pristine place. I do an 8.5 mile loop six days a week. The vertical climb is about 1500 feet. The leaves in the above picture were at an altitude of about 7000 feet. The picture was taken today and it's the first sign I've noticed that fall is coming.

The sunflowers seem to be having a great year. They are EVERYWHERE on the mountain.

I've saved the best picture for last. This is my dear friend and running buddy Sandy giving me a little pose on the fence line at one of our stop points. I'm quite sure she is the funniest girl on the planet. Her razor sharp wit and uncompromisingly clear view of things have carried me up this mountain through some very dark times. I would wish such a friend for everyone.

Out Of the Closet

2009-09-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Someone bravely asked to see the closet - so here it is. Actually it's about four closets. We lived in Dublin, Ireland several years ago and the house we lived in, although lovely, had absolutely no closets built into it. This made it necessary to purchase free standing wardrobes which fortunately followed us home. They have provided the perfect storage for my 'grandma's closet'. The best thing that came home from Ireland with us is my now 14 year old son. He was born during our stay there and is a killer soccer player and a really terrific kid. (Not so much into heirloom clothes though!)

I will be on the lookout for a new corner to stash things in after BATB in October. All the garments from the 'Cute As A Button' book along with several AS&E projects are still in Australia and should be coming home with me. Hailey (4) and Jorden (7) should fit into a few of them and baby Jane will be just right this winter for the bunny jacket and bishop from the book. Can't wait to kidnap her for a dress up session.

What's Hailey Wearing?

2009-09-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is Hailey, my 4th grandchild. She has just turned four and is truly a girly girl. Hailey has hit the hand-me-down jackpot. She lives close to me and has complete access to grandma's closet. I have a sort of check out system with my adult daughters for their children's dressy or Sunday clothes. They take as many things as they want, let their kids wear them, and then return them to me for laundry, repair (if necessary) and future storage. This gives their kids lots of cute things to wear and leaves me in control of the clothes to pass out to the next cutie in line. This dress is made using 'Maggie' from Wendy Schoen Design and is constructed from blue and white Swiss voile gingham from Bear Threads. It has a great twirl factor. The dress made it's first appearance on Hailey's cousin Jorden at a family wedding three years ago. Hailey is the little girl, then only a year old, in the photo wearing the smocked collar bishop.

The boys are wearing linen shirts made from a KwikSew boys pattern. The baby boy is wearing a blue linen adaptation of 'Family Heirlooms' from AS&E #75. It's my 'go to' sailor romper for baby boys. Watch for more "What's Hailey Wearing" posts - some of them will be her mother's clothes from 25 years ago. Click on the photos for a close up view.

The Lowly Blanket Stitch

2009-08-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

I'm finding the older I get the greater my need for instant gratification. My patience level is not what it used to be. I will always have to utmost respect for the Mirella A's, Martha B's and Kris C's that have mastered pulled thread work but sometimes I just need something quick and easy. I've been playing around with the 'anyone can do it' blanket stitch and am quite pleased with the results. You can stitch one of these blanket stitch flowers in about ten minutes and it gives you a huge sense of accomplishment. Base fabric is Australian Doctor's flannel, thread is three strands DMC, and background print is (my personal weakness) Liberty Tana Lawn. Finished project will have to be a surprise.

2009-08-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's so easy to get carried away with cute girl things that sometimes the boys get overlooked. This is Caleb Michael, the seventh of my eight grandchildren. He was about five months old when this picture was taken and he has just barely turned one. His little suit is made from 100% wool challis, one of my favorite fabrics to work with especially for little boys. The pattern is an adaptation of 'Family Heirlooms' from AS&E #75.

2009-08-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

This perfect little bundle is 5 day old Jane, my precious new sewing muse, and 8th grandchild. She was born July 16, 2009. Her round cheeks and feminine features make for a perfect little model for upcoming gowns and garmets!

Welcome!

2009-08-27T14:54:00.001-07:00

Thank you for visiting my new blog! I welcome you to check back often and leave comments as I share my thoughts and inspirations on sewing, life, friends, & family. My expectations are to share my creative expressions and to eventually grow to a 'full-service' site where kits and products are available for purchase. I hope you will follow my blog and feel welcome to read and comment often.