Fiona has finished the first of the etui she is making, this has been such a happy project for our Wednesday stitching mornings and she had it on the show and tell table at guild this month.
My etui is being sadly neglected but I will have more doll photos to share soon.
The second party for my Party book has now been completed… a Tea Party. Rosie invited her friends to a tea party and told them it would have a pink them, she planned to wear her favourite dress.
And they came wearing pink dresses
There were pink Teacup party hats for everyone
And party games included Tic tac toe which Poppy won the most games.
And everyone enjoyed the afternoon tea with a special cake for the occasion that Rosie had prepared
And she had goodie bags and balloons to thank her guests for coming.
Everyone enjoyed the tea party.
Fiona, Diane and I stitch together on Wednesday mornings, we are currently working on etui the ones Fiona and I are stitching are for our granddaughters while Diane plans hers as a gift to a friend. We are using the layout of the Robin etui I stitched some years
The theme for this one is Strawberries and the next one is ladybirds. Her third one is just started so will share it later.
Diane has a cat theme for her etui
I will share mine one when I do the next update as I have yet to get photos.
Yesterday I completed a story about the bears going to the beach which will form one chapter in the book.
Setting out car, caravan and boat, off to the beach where Father Bear and Benny Bear will go fishing.
It’s been good to be able to move round with just one crutch, allows me to do more, so yesterday with Finn’s help we set up background and dolls for some Easter photos, I decided to use chickens and some tiny Easter eggs.
It’s good to be back stitching again, yes needle and thread does make my day complete.
I’ve just finished a small gift for a special friends birthday this week, we both share the love of fine linen and count thread work, The scissor fob was stitched on 40 count Permin linen using DMC perle 12 thread, plus a little gold thread to highlight the design.
Several weeks and no posts! On march the 1st I had a fall and broke my hip, two weeks in hospital followed and then slow progress at home with lots of support from family and caregivers, I am now feeling more mobile . And in the last few days have taken up my needle again and am busy stitching a special piece which I will share with you in my next post.
As a result of the fall changes were made specially in the living room where a large coffee table sat in front on my chair and had everything I needed on it, that’s gone to make it easier for me on crutches to move but finding where everything was packed away is a task ahead of me…. Today I want just the simplest item a cord weight but where is it…… Caitlin is coming in shortly hopefully will find it and I can proceed with the project in hand.
Kaytu who is far from happy about the crutches approves the walker.
Time to say good bye
Florence is finished with the completion of her bonnet, I had tried one of the other doll bonnets on her so it was easy to see what adjustment needed to my usual pattern. I was able to restore the fabric that had formed the long skirt on her previous dress, the wedding dress. Special to use as it was scraps from Joan’s own wedding dress, trimmings were lace, cream ribbon roses a lovely white feather that Ann had sent down specially and ribbons. Her trip home to Joan and Vicki has been delayed but I have shared photos with them first.
This is being put together on my iPad so I have no idea if the photos will be shown in the order I want
I have chosen to make Florences dress from a dress I had here Its history will add to Florences story.
I know the age of the dress as it was a baby dress made for me confirming it as 87 years old, made by mother who was Florences second owner, the gown is all beautifully hand stitched, soft cream silk with inserted lace. It also means that it would have been worn two years later by Joan, the third owner of the doll. I'm not sure why one baby dress survived all these years, it certainly did not fit any of our dolls. But do know I added it at some stage to my fibre collection, and have shown its fine needlework to others over the years. I’m now truly aware of those tinystitches as I unpicked each one ready to make the dress.
I needed to know what Joan and Vicki wanted the doll to look like so after much researching and finally giving them three to chose from that I knew I could make from the dress this was the one we all liked
Stage one before the final lace frill added
First an update to her story Vicki and I were able to work out when she received Florence and we came up with 1971 which was after Paul and I came home from Australia in January that year Vicki’s sixth birthday was May that year.
Florence is 48cm tall and has a very long solid bold, so different from the dolls I am use to dressing
This photo is Florence as she was when I first undressed her after she arrived, I know her pantaloons are old and I wonder if her socks are from when she was redressed 50 years ago, surprisingly with a wash they came back into shape and I added elastic lace tops to them.
Don’t you love the title of this post, yes this post is all about Florence’s pantaloons, but first a little explanation about my plans for Florence’s new outfit. I want it to include something old, something new and as much past history in connection with to those who have been part of Florence’s 140 years that I can possibly stitch into the garments.
Her pantaloons are possibly as old as she is, although I don’t think they were what she wore originally. I have bleached them and pleased with how they came up although some repairs are needed, on examining them I decided that there were definitely two different needle women's stitching to be seen, at this point I realised they had been made from part of another garment and it was easy to know where they came from as I had a similar garment here a baby gown from the 1880's. (note the feather stitching on the sleeve band, same on the pantaloons.)
This is the sleeve of a christening gown known to have been worn in 1887 by Charles Reginald Westfield ( and again in 1968 by his grandson Barryn Westfield)
The sleeves of a baby gown had been used to make here pantaloons. Turning them inside out the original seam of the sleeve is a tidy French seam with hand stitches so tiny I needed a magnifying glass to see them and the rest of the stitching includes some rather large back stitches that have definitely been done by a different needlewoman. I needed to unpick the waist stitching in order to make repairs and now the shape of the original sleeves can be seen.
My plan is to leave as much as possible of those stitches as part of the history of the garment and just mend the waist and put it on a proper waist band with a button fastener.
Research found this example of a child’s pantaloons from the same era as Florence’s.
Mending the damaged fabric, I could see where holes had been made to thread elastic through and there the fabric was in pieces, I was tempted to to treat them as would have been done in the past, which was what was done when a child grew a piece of fabric was inserted between the top of the pantaloon’s fabric and the waist band. In my research into pantaloons I found examples of this.
In the end I decided just to re-enforce the fabric with patches and add a waist band with a button closing, this extra fabric of the waist band made them a better fit as previously they had not come up to the waist on the doll. Florence has quite a long body.
Next garments will be to make her a chemise and petticoat.