My Latest Obsession

To indulge my creative side, I have embraced a variety of needlework over the years.  As a girl, I learned to embroider on "Days of the Week" tea towels and to sew clothes for myself, as my mother made many of our clothes. As a newlywed, I was into crocheting, making Christmas stockings for my husband and myself and a tree skirt, then baby items when our daughter came along.  Next came counted cross-stitch, and I made a number of samplers and a Christmas stocking for our son, as well as more baby items for shower gifts.  Then the smocking craze hit, and I smocked many outfits for both children, until my son -- at age 4 -- told me he wanted a suit and tie for Easter, NOT the cute little smocked shirts with button-on knee pants I loved to make for him.  Fast forward a few years, and my sister got me re-interested in knitting, which I had learned as a child from my grandmother.  I knit many hats and scarves and a few socks, then a grandchild born in the Frozen North had me knitting adorable baby sweaters.  I still love to knit -- more about that in another post, maybe -- but in the past few months I have been entertaining myself by sewing doll dresses.

This spring I sewed several sundresses for my youngest grandchild, and for fun, I made matching dresses for her American Girl-style doll.  Here's one example:

Then, I discovered the wonderful dollmaker of Phoebe & Egg.  In addition to Lisa's amazing handmade dolls, she generously shares free patterns for clothing for her dolls, as well as American Girl and Waldorf dolls.  Her blog features some of her creations, and she sells them in her Etsy shop, too.  I quickly signed up for her newsletter and downloaded the patterns.  They are easy and fun to sew, adding various features and trims to make them even cuter.  Now my idea of a lovely weekend is spending a morning sewing a new doll dress!  My older granddaughter even loaned me her American Girl dolls to use as models.  Here are some of my favorites:
 

Lisa is introducing a new historic collection with dress designs from the 1940s.  That's a little before my time, but it started me thinking about some of my favorite dresses when I was a child.  The one below was my favorite dress in third grade in the early 1960s (before color school photos, obviously!).  It was a blue floral print, trimmed with black rickrack and tiny black buttons, and I loved wearing it. So, I decided to use that dress as inspiration for a doll dress, and I'm pleased with the way it turned out.


Then, just for fun, I made another "dark cotton" as we called the school dresses worn when the summer heat was still evident, but fall clothes were desired. I have learned a LOT about sewing with baby rick rack, not to mention sewing tiny collars and pockets!

Do you think sewing for dolls is a sign I'm entering a second childhood?  Or should I only worry if I find myself actually playing with the dolls -- without a grandchild present?!

Learning to Sew

Do you remember when you learned to sew?  I think the first time I was allowed to use a sewing machine was when I was about seven and visiting my grandmother for a week.  She "helped" me sew a dress from white cotton printed with red and blue stars.  I'm sure I only sewed the long, straight seams and Grandma did everything else, but I was still proud of that dress! 

As I mentioned in my last post, I brought home quite a few old dress patterns that I found at my mother's house last year.  One pattern I didn't find, but sought out with the help of Google, was the one I used to sew a dress for my eighth grade home economics course.  As I recall, we girls (only girls -- the boys took "shop") were instructed to purchase a How-to-Sew pattern chosen from a short list of teacher-approved patterns, along with the fabric of our choice and required notions.  I chose this pattern, the sleeveless version, and I selected a cotton pique printed with flowers and strawberries.

It took us most of the semester to finish our dresses to Miss Blodgett's satisfaction.  I still remember having to rip out my offending armhole facings more than once and re-sew them properly.  Finally, we all finished our dresses, but part of our grade depended on actually wearing the dresses to school and modeling them in a fashion show!  By that point, most of us were sick of our dresses, but we had to comply.  I think that was the only time I ever wore mine! 

Looking back, now I wonder how on earth Miss Blodgett maintained her sanity while helping more than two dozen thirteen-year-old girls learn to sew! 

In Your Easter Bonnet

Will you have a new outfit for Easter this year? Was a new outfit an exciting part of your childhood Easters?

While visiting my parents last year, I found a treasure trove of patterns (now vintage!) that my mother had saved after sewing clothes for me throughout my childhood. One of my all-time favorites was this dress with coordinating coat, which I wore for Easter when I was 12 or 13. Mama made the coat in a pink and white floral, and the dress and coat collar in solid pink, both from linen-like fabric. The coat had covered buttons with fabric loops, which must have required a lot of extra time!  I wore it with pink slingback flats (and possibly white gloves -- were we still wearing gloves in the mid-1960s?) and felt very special and elegant.

To go WAY back, here I am in my Easter finery at age three and a half. Mama didn't make this dress -- my baby sister was 11 days old that Easter, so she was a little busy!  I have to wonder how much attention I paid in Sunday School, wearing that stiff petticoat, hat, gloves, and no-doubt-new shoes.

I continued the tradition, sewing for my children, especially their Sunday and special occasion outfits.  I was into smocking back then, and here are their Easter outfits in the late 1980s.  Our son looked adorable in smocked outfits until he was four, when he insisted he wanted to wear a suit for Easter!

And now there's another generation to sew for! Here's an Easter dress I made for my oldest grandchild a few years ago. I have sewed a few things for her and my grandson, but I haven't yet sewn anything for my youngest grandchild.  I HAVE knitted her a few things, but she's two now, so I need to get back to my sewing machine!

Halloween Sewing

Here's a tiered skirt made for Miss E using two Debbie Mumm companion prints. I used clear elastic to gather the tiers, which worked pretty well.