Tag Archives: effner

“Sweet Summertime”

Yay! It’s time to celebrate summer! June has been nothing but warm, or hot, and sunny, sunny, sunny! It seems like we’ve had more blue sky days this month than we’ve had all year. It sure is glorious seeing the sun shine all day long! I hope you’ve been as fortunate with sunshine as we’ve been, here in northern Illinois. If not, I’ll bottle some up, and send it to you. (Don’t you wish that could really be done?)

My Little Darling, Gina, is here to celebrate summertime with you. She is dressed in sunny yellow, flowery pinks, and of course, blue sky blue.

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The cotton Japanese print I used for this dress is both pastel and bright, perfect for summertime. I originally made a deeper aqua cardigan for this dress, but thought the sunny yellow accessories were a better choice. The dress is decorated with warm white English cotton Cluny lace and hand dyed soft yellow hand made silk bows. A matching silk ribbon sash ties around the waistline.

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The knitted lace capelet, crocheted headband and drawstring purse are made with buttery yellow bamboo thread. (Please excuse Gina’s messy hair; it’s a very windy day.)

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The lightweight capelet features lace stitches all the way around and closes with a pearl bead and loop.

The drawstring bag is decorated with a bright pink resin rose and hand beaded sepal at the rose’s base. Inside is a fringed hanky made out of white cotton lawn and folded into a triangle.

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Gina’s headband is crocheted with tiny pearls and ties at the back of her neck.

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“Sweet Summertime” will be available tonight (June 11, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

“Dainty Darling”

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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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