Ouch!

Ouch is the word that comes to mind today. Katie started vomiting on Saturday night and had to miss Easter. Andy had an infected tooth pulled last week and a tick bite this morning. Davy, Rose, and Pete have the sore throat too- will it turn into strep? After the tick visit today, we will have had 3 doctor and 1 dentist visit in 5 days all for different things. Ugg.
Ouch also works for my little boys' Easter shirts. Visions of elegance in khaki seersucker and tasteful embroidered shirts went out the window. We had a cool, rainy day and the boys wore pants with these shirts.

At 11, this is about all we can get away with anyway. At 5, Andy just wants to do whatever his big brothers do. Andy wanted a gold ribbon and a blue. I love the gold metallic. It reminds me of the gold Lindt bunnies with the ribbon.

I wasn't thrilled with the density/coverage on the bunnies. There is a lot of white show-through.

Speaking of t-shirts for boys, I am a couple of weeks late with this one:

Davy wore this on March 14. Our upper elementary has fun with pi day. Do you know what this one says??  See the answer after the story:

When my oldest was in fourth grade, the teacher used to hold a contest for who could bring in the most numbers of pi. My geeky hubby went online and printed a million numbers of pi in the tiniest font you can imagine, both sides of the paper, printed as a booklet. The teacher made Pete carry the booklet around all day and recite the numbers. By the time Katie had that teacher, they had to recite from memory the most numbers of pi! So far, four of our kids have had that teacher and we always remember that funny story.

Answer: I 8(ate) sum (some) pi (pie) on 3.14 (March 14).

Speaking of Christening Gowns...

my friend Kathryn will be giving a lecture on Christening Gown History. I wish I could go, but it's hours away from me. I offered to make a "sample" garment for her, though. She said to do something with lace. Yesterday (Sunday) I just spent the morning sewing and ignored the housework. I was amazed how quickly this came together!

The fabric is domestic dotted "Swiss". It is 100% cotton, but I bought it at a discount fabric store for $4/yd. It is really soft and nice.

The cotton laces were all from a box I got on ebay. I tried to choose lace/embroideries with a dot theme and I just mixed and matched. I still have to add ribbon to the insertions.

Here is the yoke. The pattern is the Baby Dresses from Old Fashioned Baby. I made a size newborn, but it looks more like 3 months to me. I used entredeux to attach the front and back skirts to the yoke and between any laces and embroideries. I modified the skirt to be all one piece. I could manage it because my fabric was 58" wide. So, the dress closes in the back with buttons and there are no underarm seams. The bottom fancy band is also continuous.

This is the fancy band. The lace in the middle that looks like 5 narrow laces sewn together is actually all one lace. Likewise the lace on the bottom is all one. The insertions will get white satin ribbon.

We also had a different kind of white stuff this morning- SNOW! We have had such a mild winter and haven't had snow on the ground in over a month. It has been over 70 degrees already. Today was a no school day!! It is already starting to melt, happily!!

I learned something on this dress. It went super-fast because I did NO planning, NO over-thinking. I just grabbed a pattern and a pile of lace and started cutting. And I LOVE it anyway!!

Princess & the Pea Shortie Outfit for Ella

I would usually post the front of an outfit first, but in this case, the back is so cute, I thought we'd start there.

I was inspired by this adorable Princess & the Pea fabric I got from an online friend. It has a soft hand and a very large scale print. I thought it would be easy to find a co-ordinate, but it took a long time to find this simple magenta dot. I was hoping to go with something purple and this was perfect. There was only about 3/4 yd on the bolt and I wasn't sure if that would be enough for shorts as well, so I also bought it in a hot pink colorway. As it turned out, I have more princess fabric to do something with the pink dot!


I wanted to try the SIG Delaney pattern of which I had seen so many cute versions. Everyone said it was a quick and easy sew and boy, were they right! This was done in about 1/2 hour. The pieces are just rectangles. I used lime ric rac on the bottom. All of the seams are serged, so it should be a sturdy wash-n-wear outfit.

Simple bloomers complete the ensemble. Both are size 3, but they look generous to me. I bet these will fit for 2 summers.

Peachy Wee Gowns

This is a "free" post for me, since I didn't stitch these peachy little gowns myself. My talented friend Lynn made them. I met her in my Smocking Guild and she has now joined my Quilt Guild. She is an elegant lady and her sewing reflects that: always tasteful and from the nicest materials.

The fabric is similar to a dotted Swiss, but all in one color. However, the little nubs are more a part of the weave, rather than embroidered on.

Lynn reports that she found this at a store near her with a treasure trove of fabrics at low prices, because "they don't know what they have.". I love going there, too, but it is 1 1/2 hours from where I live. Probably a good thing for my bank account, though!

The 2 gowns are identical except for their smocking. You can see in the first photo that one is peach and white and the other has a hint of green. I am sure these sweet baby gowns will be much appreciated by the parents of the special babies who wear them.

Vintage Lamb Embroidery Available Now!

Isn't this little lamb adorable? I digitized it from a 1940s transfer. I love how it stitches out! I tried this one with tan fur.

I thought these colors were good for a girl and I love the gray fur, too.

I don't like the yellow fur as much, but it does look very "nursery"ish.

This design is available in my etsy shop along with other cute vintage embroideries and patterns- just click HERE: