Maddie’s First Dress
In the beginning, there was a woman. Her favorite dress was sewn from a lovely piece of single bar dimity - pink stripes, light as air, and adorned with lace. She made...
Maddie’s Wardrobe
Maddie’s Underthings Completed
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." I heard this on a sports program last weekend and it resonated perfectly with regards to Maddie's slip. Because there...
Perfection, Thou Art a Heartless Mistress
As I neared the final few stitches attaching the skirt to the bodice of Maddie's slip, an awful truth dawned. Something was very wrong. The skirt didn't so much hang in beautiful...
Maddie’s Underthings Part III
Calculating the spacing between tucks, so that they’re perfectly even and so the hem appears to be one of the tucks, is a mathematical nightmare riddled with second guessing and the occasional...
The Peace of Quiet
“What on earth do you think about all that time?” My husband is nothing if not astonished by his typically impatient wife, painstakingly sewing row after row of tiny tucks, without the distraction...
Maddie’s Underthings Part II
There’s something very sneaky about a mother’s words - they ring in your ears forever, even if you plug them up with your fingers and drink a lot of wine to forget....
Maddie’s Underthings
Maddie’s drawers were finished quite some time ago, so I hadn't really looked at them in months. But now that it’s time to make a matching slip, I pulled them out and...
Maddie’s Fancy Stockings Project Part III
Tiny stockings are a joyful thing! It’s surprisingly satisfying to look at them splayed out in a little multi-colored fan. It was slow going at first - about six hours each for...
Maddie’s Fancy Stockings Part II
Who amongst us hasn't drooled over the wondrous collection of stockings made for Chiffonnette by Sylvia Mac Neil? If you haven't seen them, or if you'd like the pattern she provided to...
Maddie’s Fancy Stockings
Several years ago, I was digging through a bin of odds and ends at a tradeshow and discovered a rare treasure: antique clocked stockings. They were child sized! And Lavender! With flowers...