Gather up the Sewing Projects

Well, the fall garden is in and growing pretty well. We have the firewood in, split and stacked, and a few more outside projects to do as fall is closing in on us. However, I am getting excited about cooler weather and wintertime. Why? Well....let me tell you. During the spring and summer I have very little time to sew. I love to sew and I love to sew heirloom type things for my children. Heirloom sewing is time consuming and tedious, but the outcome is absolutely beautiful. I guess it is more time consuming for me because I do all of my heirloom sewing by hand. I am saving my pennies for one of those fancy schmansy machines that will do the embroidery and all sorts of little things for me. However, right now I am doing it by hand. I guess I really don't mind. I have several old ladies handkerchiefs that were made by my great grandmothers by hand. The workmanship is beautiful but still there are those tiny little imperfections that to me make something special. So I have gathered my list and checked my supplies. I have made a list of what the children need as far as clothing. I will get started on new Christmas dresses soon so I won't be crazy by Christmas morning. I use a lot of lace, tatting and embroidery and I am well stocked in these areas. I really lucked out when it came to my lace. A woman that my mother in law knew passed away. Well, the woman made custom wedding gowns for a living so had tons of supplies for this venture. Well, the husband knowing that my mother in law made crafts asked her if she would like all of the lace, ribbon and fabric. Boxes and boxes of lace, ribbon and fabric were brought to my home. My mother in law figured I could use it. The funny thing is that at the time I didn't sew much and I had never attempted to do any heirloom sewing. I decided that I had better learn. So, with Martha Pullen's help and websites and sewing tutorials I have learned quite a lot in the few years since I got those boxes. Yes, I still have several boxes of all that stuff. I love it. My children don't wear too many heirloom things as each piece usually takes me several weeks to complete. I told you I am slow and do this by hand. However, they always have heirloom's for church and a couple to wear to nice outings. So, in gathering all my ideas and my list of what the children need I usually like to take a look around the internet to learn something that I don't know. I did that this morning and I found the most awesome blog. She has some great links to heirloom sewing supplies, tutorials, and patterns. So definitely check out The Handmade Dress blog, it is really great. Now for embroider techniques and lessons I don't think you can beat Primrose Design for lessons on specific stitches. Thanks so much to both of these ladies and there hard work helping the rest of us sew beautifully!