My sewing these days is mostly quilting and I found myself longing to step back into the baby heirloom stitching just for the joy of it. I thought you might benefit from the little tricks I remembered. The garment is a baby dress with a high curved yolk, puffy sleeves, lacy collar and gently gathered skirt which is also 'curved' to set into the yolk. When I went to stitch the skirt onto the yolk I realized that the seam allowance of the skirt was going to show through the yolk. I applied a light-weight interfacing to the yolk and that solved that. Applying a sweet Swiss lace insertion on the skirt presented another challenge since the skirt has a bit of an A-line cut to it. I lengthened the stitch length from default to about 3 and decreased the tension to 3 also. That let me lightly stitch the lace on without even the hint of a pucker. =) I wanted the hem edge to be sturdy (hoping the dress may be passed down or passed around) and a serged edge would be too heavy. We forget that our SMs will do just anything including a fine edge. You use the 3-toed foot, set the needle position hard left, adjust a plain zig-zag to very skinny and nearly, nearly a satin stitch. The cut fabric edge is placed just one thread to the right of that middle toe. Oh my, oh wow. How exquisite. This is long and I know most of you don't 'do' christening gowns but just had to share the happy with you. Polly
Up to my old tricks
Jan 09, 2012
22 Replies
Sounds like the dress ended up being close to perfect! Barbara in FL
it sounds beautiful.....you're making me want another baby......(not likely to happen...i'm 47 and my youngest turned 10 yesterday...)
betsey
Noooo, Betsey. What you want to do is begin a 'grandmother's hope chest'. In my case it's a great-grandmother's but whatever. The nursery at church will be happy to let you love a few babies for a couple of hours and you don't even have to take them home. Polly
it sounds beautiful.....you're making me want another baby......(not likely to happen...i'm 47 and my youngest turned 10 yesterday...)
betsey
Thanks for sharing these nifty tips, Polly. The dress sounds lovely!
-Irene
The computer speller got me again. Back from running errands, I came here to see if anyone else ever wallowed in the beauty of heirloom sewing. Read the whole thread and was so surprised to see that the 'checker' had changed yoke to yolk. I guess it thought I was cooking instead of sewing. That's okay. Cooking is good. Polly
I'm so glad you caught that. I was turning yellow, just reading.
S'alright, I think you needed coddling...
Naw, I'm pretty hard-boiled.
oh polly...katie is just turning 18! i've got at least ten years before grandkiddies! (translation...better be at least ten years!). and believe it or not, our church does not have a nursery...seems something that we Catholic folk in new joisey don't believe in
any chance of getting you to post pics? maybe to your facebook page? pretty please?????
betsey
You only think that because your brain cells are scrambled...
Maybe you're just egging me on. Polly
Watch her, she's been known to poach.
To bring this cascade back on topic: maybe you are just shirred.
Roger that, but I am easy, over.
Ten-four good buddy, you be deviled?
Fried, my friend. Fried.
Now you are repeating yourself, are you pickled?
Not yet, but that's an eggcellent idea.
I don't know if it's an excellent idea or not. Methinks you are eggzadurating? Polly
"Pogonip" > Not yet, but that's an eggcellent idea.
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