All three dresses in the Children’s Corner, Pleats II set are 100% “our style”!! Those pleats! Those sweet collars! The places for some embroidery! Wow, wow, wow . . . and, yes, yes, yes! We sewed LG a Pleats II, Camille in a size 4. This is the second dress of the set we have sewn our youngest […]

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The second child, CL, received our favorite of the three dresses sewn this year – primarily for the embroidered collar. Again, using an older Children’s Corner pattern, we sewed a Kathy {of the Kathy-Kelley dress pattern} in a size 5. We lengthened her dress too, but this pattern worked better proportionally than the Denise pattern. […]

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As many turn to their sewing machines to prepare for Easter, we thought we would share the nieces’ dresses from two years ago. Since we never did . . . It seems we never posted Easter 2018 creations . . . . but, since we went “vintage”, perhaps each post will still be timely {and […]

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We thought a good place to start this round of “Sewing for Disney” was with the four characters that were revisited! That’s right!! Four of the original characters sewn were requested once again for our return trip. There were a few others of the original group requested, but they were much further down on the […]

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This dress is one that could definitely be qualified as a “TEAM EFFORT.” And, one with two shortcuts. . . Our first shortcut was having the dress constructed prior to smocking. A Children’s Corner, Lee {size 5} was constructed – with the addition of an eyelet collar and trim to sleeves. Then, Ashley {frances} backsmocked the […]

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We took a shortcut. Time was of the essence. Our oldest niece, EA, still loves to wear “fancy dresses” {ie: the ones with smocking and/or lace}! We aren’t exactly sure when that will change . . .but are taking advantage of her desire to wear these dresses. That said, we had a few dresses sewn […]

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It has been a while since we have shown a “Tale from the Bin” . . .garments that were sewn well before our nieces were born, and ones that were sewn as we were learning various heirloom techniques to have in our sewing skill set. The previously sewn garments from the bin are becoming fewer […]

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Anyone else feeling the strain of Easter rapidly approaching?? And, since many sewists are frantically working on sewing / completing that special Easter garment, we thought: What better time to share our third, and final, Easter dress for 2017?? And, one with a secret . . . Or, maybe this blog post is merely another […]

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This spring, we were consumed. Consumed by Easter sewing . . . for all three nieces. Two dresses made the Easter “deadline”. One did not. This dress WAS completed by Easter {along with her older sister’s dress}. And, believe it or not, pictures were taken Easter weekend. It just wasn’t blogged about . . . […]

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Some sewing projects are like a marathon. You train / practice . . . not to win, but to finish. You may strive for a personal best time, knowing it isn’t necessarily going to be perfection. Ultimately, you do your best and feel a sense of accomplishment when you cross the finish line! This is […]

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Here’s another gem from the bin! It’s an heirloom dress that Ashley sewed many, many years ago. A light pink dress with beautiful lace trim on the hemline, as well as around the collar area. EA truly likes her dress, the Child’s Wedding Ring Dress . . .but steps out her lace hem almost every […]

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Don’t you just love it when you find a gem? A treasure? Something similar happened to us recently. We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what we discovered in THE BIN . . . waiting to be worn! While it isn’t to say we wouldn’t do things differently now, Hanna’s Sundress {by Collars etc} is a perfect combination of […]

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It’s a far cry from perfect, but if the house were on fire and everyone {as well as photographs} were safe, I’d grab this creation and run! Maybe it is the fact that it was intended to be LG’s Easter dress and was finished almost 3 months late. The dress is truly a labor of […]

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This child! She’s only been talking about “my pretty blue dress” {pattern: Trudy Horne‘s Shoulder Button Bishop, Creative Needle} for months now . . . You see, we asked her to try it on prior to completion – to check hem length, fit, etc. Then, she wouldn’t “let it go” . . . the concept of the […]

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It’s no secret that we LOVE hand embroidery!! When we stop to THINK about it, we like it in all fashions, shapes, and forms. . . From “old school” forms . . . To a more “modern approach” . . . From a LOT of embroidery . . . To just a little of it {less […]

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Last week, we did something that stretched us . . . . WAAAAYYYY out of our “comfort zones”! We “taught” a class at our local Agriplex on “Hand Embroidery: The Basics” {for their “Heritage Skills” series}. In essence, it was one of those situations we just couldn’t tell a sweet friend “no.” But, we are really glad […]

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Recently, we started doing some “Tales of…THE BIN” posts. In the first one, we mentioned a particular photo shoot “emergency” and how we went to “the bin” to solve the problem. And, here is the dress we found for EA to wear on family photo day. We’ve all had times we’ve looked back on life and wondered, […]

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Who doesn’t love a bit of inspiration? Today, we are going to be sharing smocking inspiration that spans the gamut from traditional, English smocking to more modern techniques. But first, we have a few housekeeping items we need to follow-up on in regards to our post, Smocking: An Introduction, due to some excellent comments and […]

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Now that you have learned about the cable stitch and wave stitch, it’s time to learn the third smocking stitch: THE TRELLIS STITCH! And, since MOST smocking is comprised of ONLY these three stitches in varying combinations, lengths, and widths, you will be well on your way to mastering the art of smocking. In our step-by-step video, we will […]

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Hopefully by now, you have practiced your cable stitch and have been bitten by the “smocking bug”! Today, we will be discussing another stitch used in smocking . . . THE WAVE STITCH . . . bringing our total to two stitches. What’s more exciting is that most smocking is comprised of ONLY three stitches in […]

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