Infinity Baby Bonnet

Who doesn't love to see a precious bonnet on an infant? Beautifully stitched, lovingly embroidered and tied with soft silk ribbons? I enjoy making them because they don't take long to make as a small project. I always use motifs from the outfit, whether christening gown or dress, so the bonnet matches.

Here's the one I made for the Infinity Christening Gown:  sweet, simple, easy and, very importantly, adjustable with the casing in the back.

The lace is mitered at the front corners.....

The bonnet is perfect for the gown: elegant and simple at the same time, perfect for a boy or a girl!

The instructions and supplies for the bonnet are included with the kit for the Infinity Christening that I'm teaching at the Boston Stitch Party Retreat. Sign up and join us!

Pin Tucks

Pin tuck...what the heck is it?

It's exactly what it says: a tuck that's tiny...as tiny as a pin's width. I like stitching them by hand. They're pretty easy, kind of monotonous: it's a rhythm thing. The kind of stitching that can be done watching TV.

I use a fine, cotton sewing machine thread and a #10 sharp needle on the batiste. I draw the fold line with the blue washout pen, fold the fabric along the line and begin the tiny pin ticks with a split back stitch on the underside of the tuck. I take tiny, even running stitches along the line, rocking the fabric onto the needle as I go.

This is the result on the unfinished bodice front...vertical triple pin tucks on either side of the machine pintstitched lace.

Pin tucks are another heirloom technique I'll teach (part of my Infinity Christening Gown Class) at SAGA's Boston Stitch Party March 30-2 April 2017 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bedford Glen, MA.
Come and join the party!

That Featherstitch!

I love featherstitch! Some people don't. They think it's difficult. I don't, but then again I've done a lot of it.

The names are sort of confusing...single featherstitch, double featherstitch, even triple featherstitch! But when you look at a "Single" Featherstitch it doesn't look single. It looks like two rows of "U"s.


Featherstitch can be used in so many places: crazy quilts, baby clothes, blouses, linens. Love it! But the best place of all is a Christening gown...tiny, lovingly placed featherstitches to decorate that special gown for the most important of baby occasions! Here it's used in the bodice of my Infinity Christening Gown in the infinity symbol.

I will teach the featherstitch in my Infinity Christening Gown class at SAGA's "Boston Stitching Party Retreat" March 30- 2 April 2017. Come and join in the fun with lots of other fellow stitchers and sewers!

Trailing Looped Bullions

I'm so looking forward to teaching at the Smocking Arts Guild of America Boston Stitch Party Retreat March 30-2 April 2017! I'm teaching my Infinity Christening Gown class complete with bonnet. It's such an unusual gown, perfect for a little girl or boy...restrained and elegant. There are two rows of feather stitch and the Trailing Looped Bullions on the gown's skirt.

Trailing Looped Bullions are an element that I saw on an antique christening gown about 10 years ago and it fascinated me. They "completed" the serpentine row by trailing the thread from one bullion loop to the next because the carrying thread shadows through the Swiss batiste. Very unusual and interesting and something I'd never seen before. I decided to use the design element but changed it by enlarging the serpentine rows.

I'll be covering this unusual technique in the class in beautiful, soft floche thread.  So easy to do and a big impact at the same time! Come to Boston and learn this technique with me and lots of other hand and machine techniques!

Designing a Project

I get my inspiration from many different sources to start a new project: books, photos, fashion and antique magazines, antique garments. Sometimes just a technique will trigger an idea for a project. Once that idea starts to foment in my brain I turn it over and over working out some of the details. I will even go to sleep thinking about the details, color selections and embroidery ideas. It sure beats counting sheep! But since I'm a very visual person (like most stitchers) I have to draw and write it all out. That's when I really get down to the nitty gritty details. There's something about drawing out the design idea on paper that helps me work out construction details and proportions. I always use a 0.5mm mechanical pencil...the cheap ones from the big box office supply stores. With a good eraser...always need that when I change my mind about something!

I have a notebook that I draw the ideas in....several notebooks over the years. These are a record of the ideas, the year when I drew them, maybe a listing of the supplies and yardage used, and even the design elements that I go on to use in the actual project. Unfortunately one of my most precious notebooks was left on a plane last year....oops. I miss that one, but that loss forced me to start anew and fresh.
Here is a really good example of working out a design for my grand daughter's Easter dress that I wrote about earlier. I was using a Children's Corner pattern so my drawing shows a couple versions of design details that I wanted to "try out" on paper.

The dress on the left is closest to what I actually made minus the idea of piping at the high waist seam (the scratched out line). The fabric was a beautiful floral, hence the scribbles. The collar embroidery was close to what I actually did. The right drawing shows an idea of using a pleated ribbon trim on the white pique collar. Glad I didn't do that one because it would have detracted from the wearer! But you can see how visually I worked out the details close enough to start construction instead of winging it as I sewed. Below is the collar embroidery design I decided upon which I actually used for the template.

I traced the collar piece front onto the notebook paper and figured out the placement allowing for the collar roll at the neckline.


Here's another more recent example:  my Infinity Christening gown. You can tell from the drawing I was trying to decide the order of the pin tucks, lace insertion and the serpentine design on the hem. I ended up with a different order but I had sketched enough to really get a good idea of the proportions. Look at the bodice on the actual dress below...it doesn't look anything like what I drew out, but that's the beauty of sketching it first. I could "see" it and decide I needed to change the design. 

Compare the drawing to the actual gown. Even the sleeves are different. I penciled in the serpentine design around the sleeve but decided one Infinity symbol was best on the sleeves to "match" the ones I decided to put onto the bodice. Drawing the ideas out helps the actual construction process by speeding it up (no spur of the moment decisions) and simplifies the entire process.

Try this technique on your next design project and see if it helps you. The drawing doesn't have to be fancy or perfect. I think you will find this organizes your thoughts and supplies before cutting into those precious, expensive materials!

Feather Stitch

One of my favorite hand stitches is the Feather Stitch. I think it's beautiful, unusual and fun to do....but many people don't like it, or they are very hesitant to try it.

Feather Stitch adds an elegant touch to baby clothes, on borders (above or right on the border) and even in smocking. In the photo at right the bottom smocking row is Single Feather Stitch worked horizontally in variegated thread. There are also a multitude of variations found in Crazy Quilts. 

This photo (right) shows a Triple Feather Stitch in the peach colored floss with added lazy daisy stitches. This is part of a Dresden Plate crazy quilt that I made years ago.


Here is another example of Triple Feather Stitch going around two sides of the blue patch. Isn't the variegated thread gorgeous? Feather Stitch is just the perfect stitch and it's particularly beautiful in variegated thread that has short colorways to show off the changes in color. Look at the Silk Ribbon Roll-Up below to see the variegated thread I used that's from Treenway Silks...it's the Montano "St Thomas" color silk cord. Absolutely gorgeous stuff to work with!

The terms for different Feather Stitches can get a little confusing: Single Feather Stitch, Double Feather Stitch, Triple... The Single Feather stitch looks like two rows of Feather Stitch because it's alternating "U's", one on the left and one on the right as the stitch is worked down a line. So why wouldn't it be called a Double Feather Stitch? Well, if one did a single row of "U's" down a line it would be an open chain stitch. Historically it was called a Coral Stitch...yup, that's right. If you look at page 19 of the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Therese De Dillmont, it states that figure 46 (what we know as a feather stitch) "illustrates single coral stitch, worked vertically". To make it even more interesting, Carole Samples, in her incredible tome entitled Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches, has done an amazing study on it. Chapter Two of her book starts off with "Demystifying the feather stitches, or, a blanket stitch by any other name....". Indeed, the feather stitch is just a morphed version of the blanket stitch.
Enough history for now! So where do I use Feather Stitch? Right now I'm working on a boy's christening gown and am using the Single Feather Stitch in the main motif of the Infinity symbol. It circles the skirt and is on the bodice and sleeves, along with a very unusual treatment using "trailing" bullions (a technique I saw on an antique christening gown) that completes the infinity motif. I'm using DMC Cotton Floche and working "in-hand" (not using a hoop). Love the floche! So soft, thicker than floss, and works up beautifully in feather stitch and bullions (to name a few stitches).So here's how to do a Single feather Stitch.....