Tag Archives: shrug

“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.

“Strawberry Season”

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Did you know that May is National (U.S.) Strawberry Month? I just found out from this list at national calendar.com. Fortunately, I have a strawberry themed ensemble all ready to go for this holiday. (ha ha) It is kind of fun to be tuned in to the minor holidays though, planned or not.

Our strawberry season hasn’t kicked in yet. Here in northern Illinois, mid June is when our berries will be ready to pick. My Kaye Wiggs Gracie is all ready to go picking, and somehow even found a few early strawberries. Hmm, wonder how she managed that.

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Gracie’s basket of berries is hand made by me. The fabric berries are stuffed with poly fiberfill, so are very light weight. The berries are machine sewn; the wool felt berry tops are hand embroidered. I found white flower beads in my stash that look like strawberry blossoms! A yellow seed bead for the center completes the strawberry blossom. The stems are beaded loops so that Gracie can hold them. The basket is woven with strips of mint green scrapbook paper, and it holds the berries perfectly. I made a little hand written tag with the name of the ensemble on it; it dangles from the handle.

Even Gracie’s bracelet is berry themed. White berry blossom beads, yellow seed beads (blossom centers) and green seed beads (stems) are strung on stretchy jewelry cord. The tiny red heart bead (to show that this set was made with great care and love) even looks like a strawberry!

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Gracie’s cotton dress is of the palest cool pink. The berries and mint green leaves have a hand painted look to them which I find very pretty and delicate, despite being brightly colored. The white blossoms and doily shapes are subtle, but add to the delicateness of this print. The white inset cotton English Cluny lace I added to the skirt is the perfect accent.

The hand knit lace shrug is made with bamboo thread. It has a crocheted ruffle edging.

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The wide brimmed hat is embellished with a band made from the dress fabric. I appliquéd a wool felt strawberry to the hat that coordinates with the handmade berries.

All in all, I think Gracie is looking ready to celebrate National Strawberry Month, don’t you?

“Strawberry Season” will be available tonight at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

“A Lovely Blossom”

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Hello everyone. First of all, can someone pretty please send me some sunshine. I am having a hard time waking up on this wet and dreary day; I just cannot seem to get going this morning. Ugh!

I finished up another ensemble for Gracie . . . again. I must say she is quite enjoying all of the attention she’s been getting lately. All of this modeling is perfecting her look, practice makes perfect. Some days her beauty takes my breath away. *sigh*

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Gracie’s new dress was made out of the final colorway I purchased of this print. If you’d like to see the others again, here are the links. The first was Gracie’s “Beauty and Blossoms” and the second was “Happiness is Pink” made for Patience. I almost put this fabric away for later, but my pink mohair/silk lace yarn somehow got placed next to this piece of fabric. I heard the angels sing, that’s how beautiful the yarn and fabric looked together. a lovely blossom 555

I did something a little different for this shrug. To make it extra lacy and delicate I went up a needle size and still used one strand of yarn. It is extremely “light as a feather”! Because the shrug is so delicate, I made the dress’s neckline wider, so the bodice would be more delicate, also. The look is really pretty on Gracie, no?

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I concentrated on the cool pink for the accessories. I had to dye the two laces and cotton Lycra for the tights, but I had another perfect yarn for the hair decorations. I discovered this blossom charm in my stash. The sparkly stone in the center is the most perfect shade of pink for this ensemble. The basket I found at a thrift store; I’ve been unable to part with it, but it went so well with this set that I decided to let it go. (The pink flowers on it are just perfect.) All in all, this ensemble was a LOT of fun to make, and even though there were a lot of steps to it, it came together painlessly.

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