Ooooooh, I like this!

So, I have a friend whose sister is soon to have a baby girl. This soon-to-be new mama, loves purple. And my friend has asked me to make a dress for the new baby.
All she asked for is something with chicks smocked on it and it needed to PURPLE. I convinced her that a newborn would look better in white with lavender accents in the smocking. Here is the smocking.

I use this tiny trim on baby dresses quite often. It is available from many places; I usually buy mine from Old Fashioned Baby because Jeannie always has it in stock. I like it because it is sweet, simple and soft. I really don't like lace near a baby if it is scratchy.

I'm sure many of you have seen the technique of using entredeux and threading floss through the little holes, like beading. This is a very pretty technique and a nice way to pick up the colors of your smocking. However,  entredeux is a bit stiff for the edge of a smocked baby sleeve. Soooooo, I attached this sweet little edging by hand, and then threaded it with one strand of lavender floss. I love how this looks and my "client" will love the additional purple. Here is the sleeve. I will do this on the collar as well.

I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year, which will include lots of smocking, sewing,embroidery, knitting and spinning!

Oops, no picture of Egg Girl

I just looked at my last post and realized that the picture of my egg ornament, made by a dear friend did not make it to the post. Here it is.

Almost there!

I keep saying, "I'm done!".......and then I start just one more Christmas project. Here are the Lucy jumpers I made for Adelaide and Vivi. I found the snowman button sets at Joann's and had 95% of the materials required in my stash. I tucked little Christmas tissues in their pockets.

Lucy is a versatile, quick pattern. The hemming by machine and the turning right side out can be confusing. The first one I did went great. No problem; I didn't even have to think about it. The second jumper was another story. What a mess I made,
but finally figured it out. I think Lezette has a You Tube video on this subject. Did I go back and refer to it? NO! I will try to be more thoughtful and organized when I make my next Lucy.

Here is my tree, decorated, and a few of my favorite ornaments. It is a homey, New England tree. When my kids were growing up I really wanted to have all white lights on my tree. But the kids really liked the colored lights. Now I am sentimentally attached to the colored lights, but guess what? My kids have all white lights on their trees! Go figure!

This ornament is not homemade, but has two of my  favorite things: kitties and cardinals!

  

 

I have carefully wrapped and protected this ornament through two moves and 34 years of Christmas ornament storage. It was made for me by the mother of a terminally ill infant I cared for early in my nursing career. We went on to become lifelong friends, and thankfully she and her husband went on to have two very healthy children. This little girl was made from an egg, in a likeness of my older daughter, Chelsea. She is front and center on my tree every year. I have given my children almost all of the ornaments which have been purchased or made for them over the years, but I can't part with this one just yet.

caption

This is a new ornament for my tree this year, made by the newest member of our SAGA chapter, The Charles River Smockers. What  could be better than a handmade item for our annual Yankee Swap? And the story of her last minute finishing was hysterical. Stuck at home with no car, she found a scrap of gingham for the backing, used cotton balls for stuffing and dismantled a swag to get the cording. That's Yankee ingenuity! Thanks Karla!


And here is my little Samuel, the newest grandchild, born October 9th. We woke him from a sound sleep for the photo opp with Santa! Poor little guy. Santa doesn't need to leave me anything under the tree....these precious grandchildren are all I need to make my holiday perfect.

I promise pictures of the girls in their finery! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Christmas is Coming!

 I went into the grocery store today and realized that every person I came across was stressed and unsmiling. I am usually pretty stressed by Christmas as well, which is the reason Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Anyway, I decided today that I will enjoy the parts of  the holiday that are important to me. Sewing, baking and crafting with Adelaide and Vivienne.  If the house is not decorated perfectly, who cares. Monday the girls and I are making Nutcracker themed cupcakes and a tree garland made from card stock circles and red and white baking string.

Our beautiful Christmas tree is up, but not decorated as yet. I will do that tomorrow along with the annual baking of Swedish Cardamon Bread. We went to Seasons Four today for little Samuel to get his picture with Santa. NO LINE!! And a great Santa with real long white hair and beard, and a very generous girth! Sam again this year challenged me to purchase the first tree we chose. I think this is the third or fourth year we have done this, and again the tree is just perfect. We have a lot of laughs doing this. It takes approximately two minutes for me to hone in on a tree. I do not profess to have great "tree choosing" ability......I just think all the trees are perfect!

Here is Miss Adelaide's Christmas dress. Most of you have seen it. Just wanted to tell you a few details. It is a combination of two patterns, Lee and Anne. It is basically a Lee, but I used the yoke from Anne as that pattern has a deeper yoke, and I did not want any more rows of smocking, and needed the bottom of the smocking to match up with the bottom of the back yoke. I also used the long sleeve from Anne, but made it less full and made a narrow bias rather than a cuff. I really love this little  "candy cane" dress, but I cannot believe she is old enough to fit into this big girl dress!

Christmas 2008....How time flies!

My Favorite Christmas Craft

What is this?

If you guessed a bowl full of peppermint and wintergreen candy you would be

WRONG!!

It is cutest Christmas Tree garland that you ever saw...... and it took 20 minutes to make.  I can't take credit for the idea; it came from one of my favorite blogs, Sew 

Many Ways. She used all peppermint, but I like mine because there is no printing on the cellophane. (Starlight Holiday Mints purchased at Stop & Shop.) She suggests using a low temp glue gun on the twisted ends and then press them together. Donna and I bought one at Michael's for $2.99. Much better than burning my fingers and I think a regular glue gun might melt the cellophane. This would be a fun craft to do with a child, but one older than three or four. 

Hope you enjoyed this, and that you will make one for your tree!

                                                                                                                

Swedish Festival

Today was the Swedish Festival at the Cyclorama in Boston. Adelaide has been attending Swedish School since September and much of the past two months has been spent rehearsing for the St. Lucia processional and singing. Well Miss Adelaide has refused to rehearse. She either cried, just walked away or spent the time doing a solo dance routine. So today our whole family was biting our respective nails. Will she? Won't she? Well she did!!! And she knew every word to every song!Her papa was so happy! Kids....you just never know. The little girl in the gingerbread girl dress is Nora, Marcia Anderson's grand daughter. They were both perfect. Little Samuel spent his time in a sound sleep. Cute family, don't you think? The Swedish Festival was great...lots of vendors selling beautiful Swedish items, most Christmas related, and amazing pastry.

More sewing on another day. We spent the rest of today getting the outdoor decorations up. Bring on Christmas!