Tag Archives: Alice

“Dainty Darling”

Hello all, from grey and wet northern Illinois. I heard yesterday that we’re having a wetter than normal spring, no surprises there. Anyway, I’m all for pretending the sun is shining brightly. 🙂

Without further ado, here is my Little Darling, Alice. Alice wears a sunny yellow dress made out of one of the Little House on the Prairie 2016 prints from Andover. This print has a formal colonial look to it rather than a country calico look. This style of print must have been intended for “Sunday’s best” dresses. I’ve used two other prints from this collection; these were dark calicos. You can see those two ensembles here and here.

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I highlighted this sunny yellow ensemble with the warm pink shade found in the roses. Pink can be seen in the crocheted rose hair decoration, drawstring bag, bracelet, bows on the shrug, and waist sash. Doesn’t pink look pretty with the yellow?

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Here’s a close up shot of Alice’s tiny accessories. The tiny hanky is made with cotton lawn, has a fringed edging, and is folded and pressed into a classic triangle. (Just like my grandma taught me to do.) The hanky fits into the drawstring bag, which has lots of room for extra pretties.

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Alice’s shrug is like a whispery soft spring breeze. It is knit with lace weight mohair/silk, and is dyed to a light ecru. It has tiny pink bows on the edges of the sleeves. I’ve also hand dyed the rayon knit tights to a light ecru.

Where do you think Alice is headed in her new ensemble?

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“Dainty Darling” will be available tonight (May 24, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me today, my lovely friends.

This and That, and Hello

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I hope you all had a great weekend regardless of any “yucky” weather that may have come your way. Our weekend weather, here in northern Illinois, was grey both days, but only half wet. (The Sunday morning sunshine disappeared quickly.)

When I look out my sewing studio window on this brand new day and work week, I see endless blue sky, which I am very grateful for.

Last week I started a new ensemble for Gracie. While looking through my laces I found this tatting lace. Even though it’s gorgeous, and I wanted to use it, I wasn’t sure how to apply it. This fabric, though, is too PERFECT for it; the little circles on the lace mimic the faint honeycomb design on the background of the fabric. Even the color is perfect. I took some time to think about it, made a little sample, and found if I applied it by hand it would work out. Sometimes the sewing machine needs to be put aside.

I applied the lace to the underside of the skirt. I found that the lace “fit” in the space right under the hemline’s seam allowance. I used a very fine (#11 straw) needle and matching thread. I found that putting a tiny vertical stitch through the base of each circle kept the lace in place the best. I made sure to end with a full circle, so I could stitch the first and last ones together. It didn’t take long at all, but I definitely needed my reading glasses for this task.

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Here’s a closeup of the underside after hand sewing. My thumb looks gigantic! This is very tiny lace.

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By sewing the lace to the underside, it looks as if it’s peeking out from the hemline when seen from the right side. I am very happy with the result. Isn’t it the perfect fit for this print?

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My brown-eyed Little Darling beauty, Alice, (painted by Nelly Valentino) wants to wish you the loveliest of weeks. I took this photo of her last week while she was loving on her poodle. I soon put Alice to work, however. She is now wearing a brand new ensemble that she is modeling for me. I will share those photos with you in a day or two.

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I want to wish you a lovely week as well, my friends. Thank you so much for stopping by today. ❤

A Shivery Hello

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Hi all. I hope you are enjoying the weekend. Right now I’m sitting in front of a cozy fire. I don’t want to get up to do anything, so it’s a great time to write to you all. Outside it is raining quite heavily, and it’s not a warm rain, I might add. Our wind chill is 29°F (-2°C) degrees on this April 29th! Ugh! I’m dreaming of last weekend and earlier in the week when it was beautiful.

I find that I sleep better at night when I’ve been out for a walk (probably because it wears me out-ha), so I’ve been trying to walk daily. I took some photos last weekend and earlier in the week of how things are looking here in northern Illinois. I want to share them with you.

I often walk down this country road; it’s very peaceful and quiet. This crabapple in front of a little farmhouse was very colorful; I had to capture it with my phone.

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This is just a fraction of violets that covered a huge expanse of someone’s front lawn. They don’t last long though. When I walked past today, the flowers were almost all gone. I do love violets though. Even the heart-shaped leaves are pretty.

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Back at our house we had tulip quadruplets in bloom.

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The brilliant red violet lilacs have started blooming.

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Gina found this nest which fell out of one of the tiny lilac bushes. She inspected it, and will be putting it securely back for mama robin to return to.

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We have carpets of lilac phlox blooming around our property.

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Our apple tree is in bloom now, too. I brought some branches inside last week, when they were beginning to bud, and they bloomed inside.

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The daffodils looked pretty for a couple of weeks around Easter time. Now, this is how they are looking. I kind of like how they all dried up and seem to be stuck in this state.

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I couldn’t resist showing you this next photo of our backyard. I know dandelions are weeds, but sometimes I find them kind of cheerful.

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Back in the studio today, my sweet Alice wanted to say hello. Alice is painted by Nelly Valentino. I think I only had to wait a year for her to arrive, she arrived last June. Don’t you love her brown eyes!

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Also, today I rinsed and preshrunk this bunch of fabric. There are a couple here that I will be using next. Even though it’s an extra step I like to preshrink all fabrics and cotton laces because I often dampen when ironing and I don’t want some things shrinking more than others do.

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