Shabby Chic For Chloe

I have a love affair with vintage linens.  I love all the hand work that went into making them and I know the time and love that the long ago needle artists put into their work.  When I see such work in yard sales, estate sales, resale and antiques shops, I can't help myself.  I have to rescue them and look after them!  I wash them and see if they are still usable in their current condition and then they go in either my linen closet or my sewing stash.  The little pink blouse in this set is from a pair of vintage pima cotton gingham pillowcases that were hemmed with 'chicken scratch' cross stitch embroidery.  They were rescued from the Hospice Resale Shop near me.  If my sweet daughter was not an adult and her room was still aqua and pink, these would have gone on her bed.  Alas, her room is a golden color for a feminine grown-up now and she only occasionally stays overnight. 

See the embroidery work on the hem?  I added two tucks above the hem on the tunic to add more texture to the blouse.

I used both pillow slips for a size 5 Oliver + S Class Picnic Blouse for Chloe over a year ago, when she was five.  It was a bit big on her then but she liked the ensemble and wore it often.  It is perfect on her now!  It was my first time using this pattern and I thought the sweet simplicity of the lines went well with the pillowcases 'character'.

I used one pillowcase for the body of the blouse and one for the sleeves.

Check out my pattern matching at the seams!  I was pleased with them!
 I added the little blue flower button and the simple embroidered leaves to tie the design to the skirt.

The skirt was made using the Vintage Rose Skirt by Ruby Jean's Closet.  I like the pattern but PDF patterns aren't my favorite thing to put together.  That said, I really like this designer's patterns and purchased several of them!  (See the mitten cape I made using one of her patterns HERE.) It was made using a blue chambray and white pima cotton sateen for the lining.  The skirt pattern doesn't call for lining but I felt the chambray needed the extra support as it was so light.

Cutting the lining for the front and back pieces of the pattern.

Nice flat front and the adorable shabby chic fabric rose applique.
 Large pink mother of pearl buttons.

Gathered back for comfort and fit.

Little Chloe last year as just after she turned 5!  

The outfit was a little big:   it is falling off her shoulder but she loved it.
She chose her shoes and socks to match!!!

Enjoy your day!  May it be filled with pleasure and blessings!

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by.  Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.
  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt For Halloween

It's that time of year again!
We see children sporting Halloween themed clothing throughout the month of October and then even into November!
It is a favorite time of the year for little ones!
 Kindergarten teachers, like myself, get to answer the questions, "Is it Halloween yet?" and "Do you know what I am going to be for Halloween?" every day... multiple times a day.

Last Halloween I made (and never blogged) several little skirts for some of my favorite little people.  I used the free Oliver + S Lazy Days Skirt (HERE) with added width and buttons over the belly button to help the girls to keep the skirts on straight.  These skirts were quick and were well loved.

This one was for Chloe and worked with a couple of the blouses I made for the Black/white capsule set.

This one was for Kayla.

I can't remember for whom I made the next two skirts!

This one was for Emma.

Are you sewing any Halloween themed clothing?

An Autumn Tea For One

A little tea and a treat to celebrate this wonderful new season!

An oolong, some flowers from my garden in a tiny Lenox vase, and Frosted Pumpkin Cranberry Bars (recipe at the end of the post).

An English Haddon Arthur Wood teapot found in an estate sale.

A bone china Paragon tea cup found in a Hospice Shop.  The chrysanthemums are perfect for a little Autumn Tea for one.

Frosted Pumpkin Cranberry Bars

Recipe Below

Sweet thick linen tablecloth made by a long ago needlewoman and found at an antiques store.  Such lovely work!

Just click on the recipe to enlarge and copy it to your computer.  Enjoy!

An Oliver + S Croquet Dress For Chloe

Project Run & Play's sew-along challenge this week is for a "signature look".   With the weather here in Florida over the last few days and the fact that my son is in college on the east coast of Florida, I did very little sewing this week.  I will have to share what was intended for the challenge another time.  However, I made this little dress for sweet Chloe (my friend's daughter) last school year and never shared it here.  It embodies some of what I consider part of my sewing "signature":

• Classic Style
• Woven Fabrics
•  'Fussy" Fabric Cutting
• Top Stitching
• Mother of Pearl Buttons

This dress was part of a little 'capsule' of black & white things I made for Chloe that I will continue to share in the coming weeks.  Most of the things I made were to 'mix and match' like the set I made for Chloe recently (HERE) and this was the only dress made for that set.  I started with a lovely toile print of black and white dogs that I bought in a quilt store about ten years ago and some black/white pindot from my stash.  I decided to use an Oliver + S pattern I had never used before:  the Croquet Dress (you can find it HERE.)  What a great pattern!  Beautiful finishing details and great instructions.

Love the bow!

The back is closed with a single button and a loop and there is elastic in the waistline casing.

I was very careful to 'fussy cut' the shoulder and bodice pieces to feature and center the cute print.

Nicole of Five and Counting has wonderfully detailed tutorials on many of the Oliver + S patterns.  I found the one on the Croquet Dress HERE and utilized many of her tips.  If you look closely at the next photo, you can see that I top stitched the facing down in the back a la Nicole.  Love that tip!

Although I haven't seen the dress on Chloe very often at school, I know that she wears it to church and out with her family.  (Something about it being white.....  What was I thinking?)  In fact, it is getting a bit short on her and I just might need to make another one!

I hope that you will check out the other entries in this week's sew-along challenge HERE.  So much inspiration!  

May you see that your day is filled with blessings!

Chloe's Autumn Mix & Match Wardrobe

Click on the photos to enlarge them to see details.

Project Run and Play has some wonderful inspiration for this season's themes!  I had so many ideas for this week's challenge "I Am an Autumn"  that I couldn't stop at just one 'look'.  I decided to make my friend Kaye's little Chloe a 'mix and match' wardrobe.  Planning this set reminded me so much of the mix and match sets for Barbie and Midge that I would save my allowance to buy back in the early 60's.  This was fun!  There are five pieces to show you here but there were seven pieces planned.  Unfortunately, one blouse and one skirt didn't get finished in time for the challenge.  They will be completed and shared in another post.

Two blouses, two pairs of shorts, and an heirloom skirt were completed and we had a little photo session this evening.  Now shorts may not be Autumn attire in most of the country but I assure you that here in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida, it is still HOT and will continue to be for a long while yet.  The shorts will get lots of wear!

Peasant blouse (Simplicity) and 'walking' shorts from the book Sewing with Whimsy by Kari Mecca.

The color isn't true here.  The green is better in the other photos. I was gifted this bottom weight fabric so I can't tell you where to find it.  It has some polyester and holds a crease beautifully.  

Tatted medallions were given to me by a friend as was the lace attached to the hem and sleeves.  The buttons were also given to me by other people.  I have been the fortunate recipient of many people's family button boxes. 

In the next picture, Chloe models her Autumn Heirloom Skirt with the floral peasant blouse.

The skirt is made from an antique all hand-stitched square tablecloth that I found in an antique store.  It is an ivory color and was a great match to the various ivory laces in my stash.  I cut the cloth in half and sewed the halves together to make a skirt that is approximately 66 inches around.  I lined the skirt with white cotton and attached two inch wide ivory French lace to the bottom of the lining so that it would show below the skirt.

I wove three stands of DMC floss in the hem stitching of the skirt and attached green glass leaves, yellow glass flower beads, and tiny red and gold beads to the design hand embroidered by a long ago needle artist.  

A pretty vintage button to go over her belly button to help Chloe keep the skirt on straight.

The lace attached to the lining.

Here Chloe is wearing the skirt with the second blouse:  a mottled ivory cotton embellished with some hand embroidery (by me) and the same two inch French lace used for the skirt.  I used the Class Picnic Blouse by Oliver + S with some length removed from the sleeves and hem to accommodate the wide lace and shorten the sleeves a bit.  I also added two inches to the fullness of the skirt portion of the blouse in both the back and the front.  

She is such a sweetheart!

Hand embroidery and whip-stitch piping.

Full of personality!

Just the right amount of sassy, too!

The ivory blouse is paired with a pair of cranberry shorts made using the same pattern as the green ones but with a self drafted wavy cuff and bias binding.  There are little acorns and leaves in the print.

A little hand embroidered squirrel.

Chloe is such a pleasure to sew for!  She was also a pleasure to teach.  She was in my kindergarten class last year.

Chloe is a little sister to two much older siblings and the big sister to the little cutie in the last photo.  What is it about boys and sticks?!  Hudson turned one last month and is a busy, busy little fellow.  This was the least blurry of all the photos I took of him!

Thank you for reading all the way to the end of this very long post!  

May your day be filled with blessings!