lace knitting | Cindy Rice Designs

My Little Darling, Alice, is forever contemplating life and the world with a positive attitude. Actually all three of my Little Darlings are like that, and they remind me on a daily basis to do the same. Really, though, how can one be gloomy gazing at their beautiful and sweet faces!

Our latest blast of springtime hasn’t made it difficult to have a rosy outlook either. Spring has been here in the Chicago area for a good many days now, and I am spoiled beyond being spoiled, if that’s possible. The warmth and sunshine feels heavenly, and I am enjoying every second of it!

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Just like our weather, Alice’s new ensemble is all warmth and sunshine. The dress features the tiniest pink roses in shades of warm pink and pretty green. The background is a deep ivory or light maize color. Ivory scalloped French lace edges the hemline. A hand dyed rayon ribbon sash ties in a bow at the back of the dress.

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The wool sweater is knit with panels of lace on the center back, down the center of each sleeve, and a narrower panel along each front. Tiny bullion stitched rosebuds mingle with the knitted lace on the sweater’s front.

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A beret that matches the sweater is knit from my beret pattern. A pair of embroidered rosebuds and a hand made pom pom embellish this tiny beret.

Accessories to complete this ensemble include a crocheted flower basket filled with a paper wrapped bunch of blossoms, a bracelet, and tights.

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Alice’s “A Rosy Outlook” ensemble will be available tonight (February 21, 2017) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

BTW, I am so sorry about the technology problems last night which made me unable to publish my website at 7:00. I stumbled upon a work around which will hopefully prevent it from happening tonight.

I hope you all are having a great Tuesday! Thank you so much for visiting with me today. Bye for now! ❤

Gina is back to modeling for me and is as happy as can be. I’ve been working for a while now on this very involved 8-piece ensemble for the beautifully sweet Little Darlings.

I am so happy with how this mohair/silk lace hand knit sweater turned out. It is knit from the top down, then I added lace edgings with a 3 needle bind off. I wanted the scalloped edge of the lace edging, but still wanted to make the sweater from the top down so this was my solution. Lots of math involved as the lace had a specific number for the pattern and then the sleeves and body had to be the exact same number of stitches as the edging that would go with it. Yikes, I could feel the burn as my brain worked on this one!

I encircled the eyelet neckline with lots of delicate hand embroidery; roses in pinks, some blue and yellow golden flower clusters, and pretty green for the meandering stems and leaves.

After I completed the sweater I was able to see the kind of dress that I thought would be pretty with it. I found this very soft washed blue cotton chambray in my fabric collection. I added some tucks to the skirt along with a rose bouquet motif and white tulle that barely peeks out from underneath the skirt. I repeated a smaller rose bouquet motif on the bodice just under the strap on the opposite side to balance the embroidered motifs. The entire dress is lined in white cotton lawn with all of the seams enclosed to make the dress beautiful inside.

A low back and angled straps show off these dolls graceful arms, pretty back, and slightly sloping shoulders so well. I love how Dianna sculpted the body of these dolls, so graceful and elegant.

I added a crocheted drawstring purse with a cotton voile hankie (embroidered with the L.D.’s initials), some crocheted ballet slippers, a bracelet, bow headband, and panties and the ensemble was complete.