Antique French Acadian Short Gown

 Thankyou, Mary for sharing your gown with me!

This wonderful little Gown was made in South Louisiana.

It is the French Acadian Style that was popular here beginning in  early 1900.

Every stitch by hand.

This dress has some different features from the one I made into a pattern.

To copy Mary's gown is on my "hope to do in 2015" list.

my French Acadian Christening Gown pattern

All Designs Are Copyright Protected copyright 2014 Jeannie Baumeister

White Vintage Baby Bonnet - Pretty!

This lovely Bonnet was stitched by hand.

This is just the sort of bonnet I love to copy!  It is entirely French Hand sewn.
You must Bonnet Train a Baby!  Put bonnets on them from the day you bring them home and every time you go out. After all, if it is cold you must protect their little head from the wind.  And if it's hot, protect them from the sun.   No excuses!!

It is lavishly embellished and has fabric ties (or strings as they were called).

The fabric ties have a tiny rolled and whipped hem.

Tiny Pintucks and lace insertion grace the Bonnet Brim. 

 Gathered lace edging is stitched along the front and back of the Brim.  A baby looks so pretty with her face framed in a lace Frill.

The Bonnet Crown is just as fancy as the rest of it!

Lace edging is gathered and whipped around the Bonnet Crown for an extra frill.

Close up of the fine work.  See the tiny Featherstitch!  Also Satin Stitch embroidery.

View of the inside of the bonnet at the back neck edge. 

 The fabric on either side of the lace was hand rolled and whipped to finish.   The back seam is stitched in a French Seam and the neck edge is finished with a tiny bias binding before the lace edging was gathered and slip stitched to the binding.  Several hours of loving stitches went into this Beautiful Baby Bonnet.

This is my White Wednesday Post!  To see links for more lovely white go to Faded Charm!!

Hemstitch Baby Gown/Class Sample

This is my Class Sample for "Hemstitched Baby Gown".  The class is SAGA approved.

I have been showing you snippits of the article I am doing with hemstitching, but can't show you the dress!!  So I thought I would show you a different dress with hemstitching so you can see the beauty of hemstitching as it is incorporated in a garment.

Another cold day in front of the fire.   I began my day with oatmeal (Old Fashioned, of course), Cranberry juice and Tea!

Good thing I have lots of hand work to do or I would not be able to indulge myself with such wonderful days in front of the fire.

What I am stitching.

Close up of my Hemstitched Baby Gown class sample.

Hemstitching lace to fabric.  On my Lessons for my Sewing Room list of to do's!

Close up of part of the hem.

One of the neatest stitches on this gown is the flower I have named the Irish Rose.  It is an eyelet surrounded with Bullions. You see it on each side at the bottom of the design. I did not invent this flower.   I found this flower on an antique dress, figured out how to do it and wrote the instructions for it.  You can find stitch instructions for these embroidery stitches in my Embroidery Book.  The hemstitching will be in the book I am working on.

A Nice Morning Stitching

Steaming Lady Gray Tea in my Grandmothers fancy Teacup!

I had such a nice morning.  I spent most of it sitting by the warm fire, sipping tea and stitching.  I did a little reading too.  And I didn't get out of my Flannel Nightgown until noon!

Tomorrow I will give you a little lesson about gathering lace evenly and stitching it.

Snail Shirring Bonnet Class

Snail Shirring Bonnet

This cute  little Bonnet features the unique method of gathering fabric that I call "Snail Shirring".  I named it Snail Shirring when I needed to call it something for an article I was doing for the  Creative Needle May/June  issue in 1992.  It was the second article I did for my column "The Old Fashioned Baby" (named after my business).  I named it Snail Shirring  after finding it in an old sewing book.

Swiss Batiste, Baby Entredeux, Silk Satin Ribbon, Mother of Pearl Buttons and fine Swiss Edging.

Ready to  go into the kits.

Getting the kits ready  to teach the this Bonnet Class for the French Hand Sewers SAGA guild.  You can see more of this stitch by visiting the pretty things on The Southern Matriarch blog.

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What's Jeannie Doing?

Jeannie is not doing what she should be doing!

I am however progressing on my baby gown!

Actually, I am thinking about new SAGA class submissions so you could really call this working.  What a life!

I am making this little gown by hand and have decided to use the "Eula" method of Tucking.  It is a challenge to me because I am not Eula with her 60 odd years of practice at it!  She does not mark her tucks and does not pull threads to mark them.  She eyeball's them!!  I am not a great eyeballer but am improving and cheated a little.  Stay tuned  to see what I mean.  It will involve more photos and can't do that right now because I am actually going to work today, getting ready for the Jan. Birmingham market and I must clear my desk and hope nothing is past due! Until Later....

What's Jeannie doing?

I am using antique lace from my "collection" (stash).

I am  unable to work on only one project at a time!

  I will tell you that I admire people who finish one project before beginning another.  There was a lady who would come into my shop and buy fabric & lace for 3 daygowns.  She would go home and make them.  Then, she would come back for more fabric and lace.  Can you imagine?

The picture you see above will become a little hemstitched baby gown. You can see that I have already removed the threads to begin the hemstitching.  I am using Swiss Batiste and some of my old lace that I have collected or been given over the years.  I never use it because it is just too special.  What am I waiting for?  With another birthday looming, I figured now was a good time to begin using all my special laces!

SAGA Class "Circa 1920 French Handsewn Baby Gown"

Gown from SAGA French Handsewing Class.

Click on Photo's to enlarge.

This is for all you ladies in my  two day class French Handsewing Class, who wanted close ups of the Baby Gown we were making.

This gown was stitched entirely by hand.

Didn't we have a real good time?

Embroidery on Yoke. Closeup of where yoke is attached to gathered skirt.

Skirt

 

Hem embroidery and Snail Shirring Ruffle.

The lace on this gown  has been Pinstitched to the Snail Shirred ruffle.

Genuine Certificate you will receive if you complete your gown byApril 1.

Same goes for Antique Bonnet Class!

If you have any questions, leave a comment for me and I will get back to you.

Antique Christening Bonnet Class

One of the classes I'm teaching for the National SAGA Convention this year is "Antique Christening Bonnet".  I've decided to make up the bonnet in the same materials I will be using in  the students kits for this year and I  couldn't help myself, I re-designed it!  Well, I drew up a new embroidery design, anyway.    I am now ready to cut out the pattern and begin stitching.  I can't wait...my fingers are itching to get going on it.

  Before I print out the pattern for the entire class, I want to see it finished to make sure I still love it as much as I did on my  design board.  I think I will, I like it even better than Bonnet #1. I will give my students both designs.   It's a pretty design and the antique lace is lovely.  The fabric is a soft ecru Swiss Batiste.

Lovely Antique Lace for Kits!