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Classic Style, Construction, Embroidery, Forever Classic, Heirloom Sewing, SAGA, Sewing Techniques, Silk Ribbon Embroidery

Variations on Big Sister Pamela Pattern

I wanted to share my granddaughter’s Christening Gown.

 

I made it using my Big Sister Pamela pattern.  Even though it is featured as a smocked yoke dress, it can be transformed into any basic yoke dress with a few tweaks.

I wanted to make an heirloom style gown without smocking.  It was inspired by a scrap of hand embroidery I had trimmed off of Carol’s First Communion Dress.  I had just enough to fit into a yoke so Big Sister Pamela fit the bill perfectly.  This was also my first project using Nelona.  What a delight it is to work with.  It’s just so gorgeous and easy to sew and press.

First, I traced off the Yoke pattern piece and the Blocking Guide for the smocking.  I overlapped the seam allowances across the front and traced off a whole bodice piece.  Now, I had a template for laying out my  heirloom laces.  I added the V shape in the center to feature more of the embroidered piece and add some visual interest.

 

The hardest part was mitering the entredeux into the V shape.  Next time, I will just draw a separate template for the shaped seam line and hand stitch the entredeux pieces together first.  I think it would be easier to manage.

Next, the sleeves were finished with lace insertion and the hemstitch on my sewing machine. Gathered lace and entredeux are used for the armband.

 

The next big decision was concerning the skirt treatment.  I knew Carol wouldn’t want a huge skirt, so I chose a 36″ width.  I also liked that the number is divisible by 3 for the Trinity.  Then I calculated the lengths I would need for the lace band and stitched the laces together.  The ruffle is double the width of the skirt with lace insertion and pintucks on each side, with lace edging along the bottom.  I added the V shape in the middle and added seam allowances for stitching to the entredeux.

 

I also wanted to embroider a cross for the skirt and coordinate it with the embroidery on the yoke.  I tried to shadow embroider the cross but it was too large and I couldn’t get it to look nice.  So, then I tried a chain stitch.  My dear friend Lori suggested silk floss and my goodness, it was lovely to work with.  Then I used some floche for the vines and I even found some of the same white silk ribbon that I used on the original dress!  Same patina to match the roses on the yoke.  Sometimes it pays to not throw things away! LOL.   A lace insertion oval and it was complete.

 

I’m pleased with how it turned out even though my heirloom sewing skills are a little rusty.  It took almost 2 months to complete, which includes all the mistakes and Plan Bs, but it was still fun.  I think I’ll submit it to Show and Share when I go to the SAGA convention next month.

 

Happy Stitching!

 

 

 

Classic Style, Construction, Embroidery, Forever Classic, New Pattern, Quick Projects

Drawn Thread Motif

 

Hello everyone!  I’ve finally finished my tutorial for the Drawn Thread Motif.  I hope you find it helpful.  You can find it here.  It was inspired by a vintage dresser scarf that I found in an antique shop.  I love finding inspiration from vintage items.  I wrote about it here.

Check it out and give it a try.

And keep checking in for my tester call.  I’m almost ready to start the testing phase for my preemie bubble pattern, which features this motif on the collar, as well as other embellishment options.  If you are interested in testing the pattern, check back here or my Facebook page or my Instagram page.  The pattern will fit a preemie up to 5 1/2 lbs.  It’s also perfect for Reborn baby dolls.

Classic Style, Construction, Embroidery

New Tutorial Posted!

By | On July 19,20 | 2 Comments

Hi Everyone,

I’ve posted a new 2 part tutorial on how I did my hemstitch tucks.

How To Make Hemstitch Tucks Part 1

How to Make Hemstitch Tucks Part 2

It’s a very simple stitch but it can leave a big impact on your garment.  It adds the perfect touch for boy garments when you can’t use lace and but still want to add a special touch as most moms and grandmas want to do.

I used it here on my grandson’s Baptism bubble since Dad insists on no lace.  Dads will be dads, but I still had to stitch a little piece of my heart into the outfit.  This worked perfectly.  Both mom and dad were happy.

I’ve also used some of these techniques on a drawn thread collar for a preemie boy outfit, which will be coming shortly.

Here is a preview:
Playing With Threads

Once the threads are pulled and tucks are basted, the actual hemstitching goes very quickly.  Give it a try and let me know how you like it!

 

Classic Style, Construction, Forever Classic, New Pattern, Pleating, Sewing Techniques, Smocking

New Pattern!

Big Sister Pamela has been released and can be purchased here or at my Etsy shop.  I had a few requests to release the Baby Pamela dress in bigger sizes and I hope you enjoy making it.

 

 

The pattern includes sizes Newborn up to 9-12 Months and a simple smocking plate for new smockers.  It also includes my snap front diaper cover, which has been very popular.  It makes diaper changes so much easier!

 

A bias neckband is a quick technique and the sleeves ares smocked with baby waves for comfort and elasticity.

 

 

Perfect for spring time projects and Easter outfits.  Happy stitching!

Classic Style, Construction, Forever Classic, Sewing Techniques

Out Of My Head And On The Baby

I’m a little late in posting this, certain life events came up and I just haven’t been up to posting.  I can’t believe it’s been since May when I was trying to work out a procedure for my grandson’s baptism outfit.

Well, it’s finally out of my head and on the baby!  Here he is, sitting on Grandpa’s lap.  I tried my hardest to get him to sit on the sofa alone, but he played surfboard and just wouldn’t have it.  He was only happy on Grandpa’s lap.

 

 

All of the mental gymnastics were worth it.  My daughter loved the outfit and she was very happy.  Sammy was comfortable and happy.  He didn’t even cry when the priest poured the water on his head.

Here are the details:

This is the embroidery in the center.  I made the hemstitched tucks on either side.  a tutorial will be coming to explain the steps.  I pinstitched the yoke by hand.

The fabric here is linen and the rest of the bubble is a fine shirting fabric with a herringbone pattern.

 

I made a peter pan collar with faggoting.

And here is the bubble with the cap:

It certainly is a satisfying feeling to finally get it out of my head!

 

Classic Style, Construction, New Pattern, Smocking

My First Pattern Test- Baby Pamela

By | On April 27,19 | 0 Comment

A new pattern is published.  It’s a smocked yoke dress for preemies up to 5.5 lbs.  I drafted it as a special request from someone from the smocking and heirloom sewing groups.  She doesn’t care for smocking the bishop dresses that are so often made for preemies so she asked me to design a yoke dress as an alternative.  She was a tremendous help with ideas and advice.

Many babies are coming home from the hospital at around 5 lbs and newborn sizes are too big for these little angels.  My own grandson was born at 6 lbs. and even the preemie size patterns I had were too big for him.  There’s a difference between growing room and being way too big.  I hope this pattern can provide a quick solution to this situation and provide a better fitting garment for the celebration of baby’s first day home.  There’s a little bit of smocking that can be stitched quickly and the instructions include easy construction methods.  I designed a simple bound neckline to avoid the extra bulk of a peter pan collar that might irritate little chins.  There are also 2 options for the back, a button down or a bound placket.  Sleeves can be smocked or gathered and bound.

The instructions include lots of photos and clear, detailed construction directions which makes this little dress a perfect project for someone who wants to try smocking.  There is a simple smocking design included in the pattern.  I didn’t include a stitch dictionary because they can easily be found on the internet.   One of them is linked at the bottom of this post.  I offer all the tips and techniques that I’ve developed over the years for sewing on pleated fabric and lots of construction advice.  It’s quick, with a simple design that will give elegant results.

I was lucky to have several talented stitchers to test out the pattern and help iron out the wrinkles, so to speak.  Their projects came out beautifully and are just darling.  Their encouragement is so important and I’m so grateful to have met them.  It was such an enriching experience.

This dress was made by Mary Beth Bolt @ButtonandBeeCreative on Instagram.  Her dress is just darling and so classic.

She did a great job.  Check out her Instagram page at the link above to see her other wonderful creations.  Cute little outfits and beautiful stitching.  She’s a great source for inspiration.

This yellow dress was made by Kaitlyn @kait_isabel on Instagram.

I love the cheerful yellow print she chose.  Perfect for a little girl.  She did a great job also, I just love the touch of embroidery she added.  Check out her Instagram page at the link above and also her shop at www.oldschoolstitches.com.au.  She has a wide selection of heirloom patterns, smocking plates, and other supplies.

I even had a first time smocker testing for me!  She was really able to give invaluable reactions from someone who is totally new to the art.  Here is her sample and she did an amazing job for a first timer!  She hand pleated then followed a few stitch tutorials from my friend at Pink Hollybush Designs and she was off and running.  She’s got the smocking bug now and wants to test more projects.  This warms my heart  because I have a passion for passing on this art to future generations.  I don’t want it to be lost to posterity.

I want to thank everyone that participated.  You were all great to work with and I hope to work with you in the future.

I hope the pattern brings joy to parents as they bring their tiny angels home.  The NICU can be very stressful and when baby finally graduates and is able to leave the hospital, she can say hello to the world in style.

Don’t worry though, I haven’t forgotten about the boys! A Preemie outfit for them is in the works.  Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter for updates.

 

Bishop Construction, Classic Style, Construction, Forever Classic, Sewing Techniques

New Feature- Tutorials!

I’m finishing up my first pattern testing and it has been an amazing experience.  I’ve gotten some valuable feedback and I had the opportunity to work with some talented testers.  Thank you all for joining!  I’ll be posting the photos very soon, after I’ve finished all the revisions to the pattern.

One of the best suggestions I received was to post tutorials on the blog here for beginners who might not be familiar with heirloom sewing techniques.  I thought it was a great idea.  Thank you Pam!  I have a Tutorials page now with a link at the top of the Home page.

My first tutorial shows how to make piping for heirloom garments.  Click here.  It’s a basic feature for smocked dresses and classic children’s clothing.   It supports the smocking on yoke dresses and inserts.  It can be used as trim on a cuff, or around a peter pan collar.  But’s it’s also a lesson that isn’t taught in most basic sewing classes.  It’s simple, doesn’t cost a lot of money and adds such an elegant touch.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting other tutorials on topics such as an easy way to make a continuous bound placket and binding a neckline.  More topics will be posted as I cover different techniques in future patterns.

 

I hope you enjoy them!

Bishop Construction, Construction, Pleating, SAGA, Smocking, Uncategorized

More Pleating Part 3

The next challenge in my pleating adventures is to tackle a method of bishop pleating that requires the pieces to be pleated before stitching the underarm seams.  I like to call it the Release and Rethread method.  It takes longer and requires a lot of concentration but it is a no fail method to totally hide seams.  Your bishop dress will appear totally seamless and smooth.  No ugly bumps that are created when the seams are caught up in the pleat during the typical pleating method.

The first step is to carefully lay your pieces in order.  Pleaters vary in the way the needles pierce the fabric in the rollers.  Some pleat with the longer stitches on top and other pleat with the longer stitches on bottom.  “Long is wrong” is the cardinal rule for pleating so it’s important that you understand how your pleater works.  The dress pieces should be laid out according to how your pleater pleats: right side up or wrong side up.

Pleat the first piece and clear it from the needles and unthread them.  With the right side of the fabric facing you, remove the threads and pull them out of the seam allowances, usually 1/2″ on each side of the pattern piece.  Make sure the pleating threads are coming out of the right side of the fabric.  You want to make sure your seam allowances will be falling to the wrong side of the garment.

Next, start pleating the sleeve, making sure the you have the correct sleeve piece.  For a back opening bishop, you will need the back of the sleeve to go through first so that it matches the back armhole of the first pleated piece.  The opposite would apply for a front opening bishop.  In that case, you have pleated one front already and need the front sleeve seam to go through the pleater first to match up with the front of the dress.  When the pleats start to build up on the needles, CAREFULLY pull off the seam allowance and flip it either up or down.  If you are pleating right side up, flip the seam allowance down.  If you are pleating wrong side up, flip it UP.  Be careful to have all your seam allowances on the wrong side of the dress.

 

Clearing the seam allowance from the pleater needles

 

Now that the seam allowance is free, carefully rethread the pleater with the same threads that are coming out of the first pleated piece.

 

Rethreading the needles for bumpless bishops

 

Make sure the pieces are all facing the same way and the pleating threads don’t get crossed as you rethread.  Continue pleating the sleeve and pull it completely off the needles just like you did for the first piece.  Clear the threads from the seam allowance, making sure the seam allowance will fall to the wrong side and continue the steps until the whole bishop has been pleated.

  1. Pleat
  2. Remove threads and clear seam allowance
  3. Pleat
  4. Pull seam allowance off needles and rethread
  5. Go to step 1 and repeat

When you are finished you should have no crossed threads, all the seam allowances on the wrong side and all the pieces in the proper order.

 

Bishop pleating without stitching the seams

 

Now it’s time to sew.  Basting is a crucial first step to sewing up the seam and making sure the pleating threads stay aligned.  Fold the seam so that the right sides are together and hand baste.  What I did to insure perfect alignment is to use the same needle holes of the pleating threads. I didn’t get a picture of just the basting but you can see it in the next steps.  Come up through the same holes in one row, go down through the same holes in the next row.  Then you machine stitch 1/16 of and inch from that basting line to form your valley.

 

Creating a valley for the bumpless bishop

 

 

 

I think you can see the basting line best in this picture.  Right where the pleating threads end, you can see a basting stitch between the two rows in white thread.

There are several options to finish the seams.  You can serge them, but if you are making an heirloom style garment you probably want to use on of the other methods.

Here I’ve done a Faux French seam by turning under the raw edges and stitching along the fold.

 

Faux French Seam

 

Here I’ve done a simple overcast edge.  The stitches are very tiny and hard to see but I think you can get the general idea.

 

Overcast Stitch on Pleated Seam

 

I’ve never worked with this method before but now that I’ve tried it, I plan to use it more often.  It’s definitely less stressful than pleating French seams and holding your breath as they go through the rollers.  You just have to concentrate and remember all the steps in order.  And even if you forget, you only have to go back and repleat one piece, not the whole dress! I call that a win right there.

My next lesson is double pleating.  As my daughter’s got older I had to figure out that technique all by myself.  This was almost 30 years ago and limited resources were available!  I  muddled through and got the dresses made but now maybe I can learn a few new tricks to make it easier!  Stay tuned.

Bishop Construction, Construction, Pleating, Smocking

More Pleating Homework- Part 2

By | On August 14,18 | 0 Comment

The next chapter in my adventures with the pleating course concentrated on pleating seams for bishop style dresses.  This has become a concern lately because so many of us have pleaters that are no longer manufactured and therefore, the original needles are no longer available.  There are generic needles on the market but they bend and break at the slightest turn of the crank.  Plus they are very expensive!  My solution is try to bend the pleating rules (better than the needles!) a bit and think of a new plan.  In the previous post on this topic, read here, I described how to get a VERY tiny french seam.  Now to talk about getting that little seam through those rollers.

First, I rolled the fabric on the dowel, keeping each seam parallel to the dowel.

 

 

Next, I made sure the fabric was started through the rollers on grain.  My method is to turn the crank until there is a tiny opening between the teeth of the rollers.  Then I hold the fabric edge at the top and bottom of the pleating area and slide it into the rollers, keeping the  inserted edge taut.  I wiggle it in until I see that the grain is parallel to the rollers.  Then, with my left hand I spread my fingers and hold the fabric against the bottom roller to make sure it doesn’t slip out of place as I turn the crank.  If your opening is small enough, you should only have to turn it a little bit before the teeth grab the fabric and it is secure.  Make sure everything is on grain and start pleating.

Pleat slowly and stay on grain.  You might have to make small adjustments on each side of the fabric as it goes through the rollers and pull the pleats off the needles often.  Just turn one crank at a time, tug and pull as necessary to keep the grain parallel.   As the seam comes off the dowel and approaches the rollers it must be parallel or you will hear that dreaded crunch!

 

 

Push the seam into a groove on the top roller just before it goes through the pleater with a screwdriver.

 

 

If you work slowly, have patience, and stay on grain, the seams should come out of the pleater free from the pleater threads.  Your bishop will be bump free from the right side and the smocking will be continuous and GORGEOUS!

 

Mini French Seam

 

In Part 3 I will talk about pleating before seaming – what I like to call the release and re-thread method.  It is suitable for heavier fabrics and it guarantees no needle breaks!  It takes more time but in the end you will have a beautiful no bump bishop to show off all your beautiful smocking!

 

Bishop Construction, Construction, SAGA, Smocking, Uncategorized

More Pleating Homework

Mini French Seam for Pleating
By | On August 04,18 | 2 Comments

My next assignment for the pleating class from SAGA was focused on pleating over seams.  I had to pleat two samples using two different techniques.  One was pleating over tiny French seams. The second involved pleating the pieces in a continuous manner without stitching seams first.  These two methods are used to pleat bishop style dresses.

I had trouble with the French seams which is a direct result of the pleater needles.  I have seen several complaints about the pleater needles being sold on the market today and I have to agree with them.  I never broke this many needles when I was pleating for my daughters 25 years ago.  That being said, I decided to think outside the box in order to save my needles.  This meant that I had to disregard the conventional pleating wisdom of using a tiny 1/8″ French seam.  I went smaller if you can believe that.

I had to get creative in order to do this and I decided my goal would be to create a French seam closer to 1/16″.  Such a tiny seam is basically like stitching over piping when you consider the bulk of the enclosed seam allowance and stitching so close to the edge.  The bulk would slip out of the bottom of the presser foot while stitching and this would create precise stitching.  It would be impossible to get an accurate seam. Also, this would only apply to lightweight fabrics such as batiste or lawn.  Anything heavier would just not work for this technique.  I realized I should treat this tiny seam just like piping and I searched through my presser feet to find one with a tiny groove that would hold the enclosed seam allowance in place as it traveled under the presser foot.  The regular piping foot had a channel that was way too big.  The closest I could find was my manual buttonhole foot and a pintuck foot.

After stitching the first seam, I trimmed VERY closely to the stitching; less than a 1/16″.  Remember: we want to reduce bulk as much as possible to make this seam fit into the tiny groove of the pleater gear.  This line of stitching doesn’t take any stress in wearing, it sits at the top of the seam allowance when the garment is finished.  It’s only purpose is to keep the raw edges of the fabric turned under, so trimming that closely will not cause any problems.  It is the second row of stitching that takes the stress because it is directly in the seam line of the garment.

To stitch the second part of this seam, I experimented with the two presser feet and the pintuck foot was the winner.  It has the tiny groove to hold the little bump of the enclosed seam allowance and the needle position can be easily adjusted for a 1/16″ final seam allowance.

 

Mini French Seam for Pleating

It’s a little wider than 1/16″ but it’s pretty darn close. and it went through the pleater with no broken needles.  I was able to pop the seams so that when the fabric came off the needles, the seam was standing upright.

 

Mini French Seam

 

Next time I’ll post about the second technique for pleating a bishop before the seams are stitched.  That was Assignment #2 from this lesson.

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