A Very Special Dress

Though the calendar may still say January now, these pages fly by before you can believe it.  If you have a special occasion coming up this spring...First Communion or a wedding in the family...it's time to start planning now.

Last year, my goddaughter, Grace, celebrated her First Holy Communion, and I made her dress.    Grace had definite ideas about the style and length she wanted.  She wanted a simple scooped neck, short cap sleeves, embroidery on the bodice front and a sash in back.  She also asked for a bow on one shoulder, but it really didn't end up working with the design.

Ordinarily, I'm not a quick seamstress.  Planning, measuring, embroidery, etc. take time and careful consideration.  But I had a smocked Easter dress to make first, and then I whipped up an everyday dress for Grace, to try out the pattern's fit.   So this dress needed to go together quickly, and it did.

For fabric, I was very fortunate to have yards of silk dupioni on hand...a gift from my aunt.  I made an overskirt of organza and used that for the sash as well.  

For the embroidery, I used my own designs.  I use this same cross when I'm making baptism garments.  Here I've made silk ribbon roses around it.  

I used the Children's Corner pattern "Jane Anne" and drafted a new sleeve of my own.  It's completely lined.  It sewed in pucker-free my first try!!

Here I'm gathering yards of organza.  I ended up hemming both skirts by hand.

I found these perfect buttons at Sarah's Fabrics here in downtown Lawrence.

I have to say Grace was the sweetest, best-dressed little girl in her class!

Seriously Study Hall

 Setting out to make a late-summer sheath dress, I started with a Butterick pattern and ended up having to throw my work in the trash and start over from scratch.  I was not pleased.

This Vogue 7241 sheath fits like a dream.   I cut it a wee bit shorter than the pattern for a true '60s look.  Don't try lining the whole dress with another fabric, as the instructions suggest.  Too bulky!   I lined the neck and armholes with tulle before putting in the darts.  

Darts in doll clothes, particularly full darts like these, used to be scary.  No more.  First I mark them with a pin prick, and then I mark each teeny tiny hole with wash-away marker.  Then sew with short stitches.

I call this "Seriously Study Hall," and it's available on my etsy shop at:


https://www.etsy.com/listing/202506516/sheath-dress-for-11-12-inch-doll?









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Betsye Gray

 My client wanted a sundress for her daughter's portrait sitting.  She sent me this pale blue linen and asked that it be smocked with white and have black centers for the flowers.  At first I was alarmed.  Black centers?  On a little girl's dress?  But then my client showed me a picture of her own blouse she'd be wearing in the portrait.  It was made of black lace. 
  

Edgestitching the neckline

I came up with this smocking design.  It's quiet elegance kept me thinking of my great-great-great grandmother, Elizabeth "Betsye"  Gray, who is a bit of an enigma to us genealogists in the family.  
   

The dress is collar-less, with a big sash to tie in back.  I made two tucks at the hem, incorporating the hem into the bottom tuck.   I'll discuss how that was done in a future entry.

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Down to Business

The tree trimmers are here today.  It's rather exciting to watch the sawdust flying, to feel the heavy thud of limbs falling.  I watched them cut the mulberry limb my swing used to hang from, many years ago.  Good-bye to that!

It's a bit hard to settle down to business, but I'm trying.  I've been going back and forth between "Save the Date" cards I'm addressing and two doll dresses I'm putting together.

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Tools

These are a few of my favorite tools:

1. Sewing machine walking foot

2. Sheaffer calligraphy pens

3. Strathmore coldpress watercolor paper

4. Typewriter/laptop

...

5. a good c.d. repeating on the stereo (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Michael Martin Murphey, Midday Ramblers, Johnnie Ray, etc.)

6. Children's Corner patterns

7. Kneaded eraser

8. Light box

9. Derwent watercolor pencils

10. Rotary cutter and mat

11. Chestnut Roan chalk inkpad from Colorbox

12. Dark chocolate sea salt caramels!

.............What are YOUR favorite tools?...........

Beginning Sewing

Dear Paden,

So you think you'd like to learn to sew and make your own clothes.  You have a lot of interests and talents for a sixteen-year-old girl, but I hope this won't be just a fleeting whim, and I'm more than a little pleased to think that I may have inspired you even in some small way.

It used to be common and thrifty to make one's own clothes.  My grandmother, great-grandmothers, etc., on back, made all of their daughters dresses, certainly and these weren't the skimpy things you see walking around today.  Think full skirts and layers of petticoats!  My own mother made many of our clothes when we were growing up.  And she did it for a long time with a machine that wouldn't run unless one of us girls stood there and held a knob just so.

These days, in spite of what you see on TV, it's not so common.  It's not cheap anymore.  Patterns and good fabric are expensive and hard to find.  I say this not to discourage you, but simply because it's true. 

Nevertheless, sewing has its own rewards.  When I see something I like in the stores, I don't just want to have it, I want to know if I can make it.  Or, more often than not, I simply can't find what I want in the store.  Or it needs to be adjusted-- have the hem shortened, the waist taken in, etc.  There's nothing like the feeling when you finish something and it FITS!  When the finished product is just what you wanted, and it looks beautiful, all is right with the world. 

I knew as a little girl, when I watched Mother sewing for us, that I wanted to sew.  I was nine years old when she took me to the store downtown owned by the couple who sat ahead of us in church, Fred and Rosella McClure, and bought me a treadle sewing machine.  Tiny Rosella showed me how to start the wheel and pump the pedal.  When we went home with that treadle in the back of the station wagon, I remember clearly telling Mother, "This is the best day of my life."

A few things to remember:

• Start with something simple.
•  Be nice to the machine, and it'll be nice to you.
•  Be patient,...especially with yourself.
• Measure twice; cut once!
• Ripping and sewing go hand in hand.
• Never cut paper with your sewing scissors.  Never!
• Some days you'll make mistakes and feel like throwing the whole project in the garbage, but after a good night's sleep (or a good cry....and sometimes BOTH) you'll find that mistakes CAN be fixed.

Love,

Sarah Ashley

**I'd love to hear from you! Please leave your comments and questions.**