How It All Began

I fell in love with French Hand Sewing and English Smocking when my first daughter was an infant. I've sewn and done simple hand embroidery since I was about nine years old. My first project on a sewing machine was an apron for 4-H when I was nine years old. Both my mother and my grandmother had sewing machines. I still remember the clothing my mother made me growing up. My husband, children, and I spent summer vacations at his parents house. The first summer after my daughter was born, a friend of my mother-in-laws taught me how to pleat, smock, and construct a bishop dress. My mother-in-law (Tommie) purchased a pleating machine and I've never stopped smocking.

I didn't think it was too bad for my first try!

The pleater my mother-in-law purchased for me is still the one I use today thirty-nine years later.

After returning home that summer, I looked in the yellow pages (yes, there used to be a book published listing all the local businesses) and found that Tuscaloosa, Alabama had a smocking and heirloom sewing shop called Sew Fancy. Later the name was changed to Sew So Fancy. I still remember getting my 19 month old and 6 month old out of the van, putting them in their double stroller and wondering how I was going to get them up the stairs of the old Victorian house where the shop was located. Luckily, the owners of the shop saw me and helped get the stroller into the store. A life long friendship began that day between me and those two sweet women, Swiss Batiste, and French lace. 

The world of heirloom sewing was new to me and I desparately wanted to learn all about it. One of the first things I learned was there were two techniques; french sewing by hand and french sewing by machine. French sewing my hand has been used for many generations and uses the finest fabrics and laces so in order for me to try to duplicate the look on the machine, I knew I needed to first learn the technique by hand. 

Lessons were a must as were books by Sarah Howard Stone. 

   
                           

During my class, I learned all the techniques from a great teacher and friend. This was a hands on project so I had to select what I wanted to make. My daughter had auburn red hair so I decided aqua Swiss Batiste and ecru laces would be a good choice. Below are pictues of the finished results.

Note the french seams and hand rolled and gathered skirt ruffle. 

Pattern used was Bijoux by Sarah Howard Stone in a size 1.

I plan to share more of my journey in furture posts.

Heirloom Easter Dress

It's that time of year again when southern mamas start planning Easter outfits for their children. It is an age old tradition in the south for little boys to wear Eton suits, sailor collar shirts with button-on pants, and Jon Jon's. Heirloom dresses out of cotton Swiss batiste fabric in an array of colors adored with rows and rows of french lace are the proper attire for little girls.

Last Easter a good friend asked me to design and sew a blue batiste dress for her granddaughter. The mother of the little girl is a busy working mom so she needed an easy to care for dress. For that reason, I selected to use baby blue Imperial batiste fabric from Spechler Vogel Textiles.. Imperial batiste is a poly cotton blend fabric with a beautiful finish and is a great alternative to 100% cotton Swiss batiste. Here is a picture of the hem of the dress as I was working on it at the sewing machine. You can see the beautiful French Val lace and the tiny holes in the fabric are called hemstitching. The lace is attached to the hemstitching usung a zigzag stitch with the machine needle going into each hole of the fabric then catching the heading of the lace.

Pintucks or little folds of fabric were sewn on the yoke, sleeves, and skirt fancy band of the dress.

Here you can see the sleeve details. Lace beading was used on the sleeves bands. Any color double faced stain ribbon can be woven through the holes and tied in a bow at the top.

Wider pintucks were stitched on the fancy band and a hand embroidered design was stitched down the center of the band. Ecru feather stitching and pink bullion roses were used in the embroidery design.

The bottom of the skirt was scalloped with pintucks. Then hemstitching and lace were added for the finishing touch.

The mother and grandmother were thrilled with the dress. I loved working on this dress and knowing the little girl who would wear it made the dress even more special to me.

Here's a link to my other blog post about heirloom sewing Heirloom Sewing - My First Love

Some of my heirloom creations are available on my website The Polka Dot store and here are the links to a few of them:

Cluny Lace Christening Dress

Cross Embroidery Christening Gown

A sweet little white Swiss batiste dress with ecru lace will be listed soon. Sign up for email and be the first to know when it is up on the website. Scroll to the bottom of the page here to sign up for email.

I hope this blog post gives you inspiration for planning your next heirloom outfit.

Chadwick Heirlooms
Peanut Butter n Jelly Kids
Delicate Stitches