Saturday, March 28, 2009

It's good as new!

This is my daughter's blessing dress that I made 8 years ago. I pulled it out of the closet to use it for a talk that I had to give, and to my horror there were yellow spit up stains all over the front of it. I know I put it away clean, but over time the stains began to reappear. I've been soaking it in the laundry room sink for literally 3 weeks. After all of that patient time, the stains have finally come out, and it looks as good as new!
This was my first attempt at French hand sewing and smocking. I think it turned out lovely. I thought I would show it to you all before it goes back into storage.

This was a very enjoyable project to do. I loved working with fabric, batiste, and learning how to use my machine to make the little pin tucks.

My son was having a "late nighter" party last night. It was a little wild with six, twelve year old's, having a nerf gun war on my stairs (inside the house mind you!). Somehow, I was able to get a little stitching in. Honestly, it's probably the only thing that was keeping me sane during the chaos! I'm going to try and finish this block today, and move on to some of my other March goals.
Have a great day! Thanks for looking, and posting your comments. I love them!

5 comments:

Deb said...

That gown is absolutely beautiful. I always wanted to try hand smocking because it looks so vintage when done. Yours is wonderful. Glad that the stains came out! And I just finished Block 2 of Shores. Isn't it a fun stitch????

Siobhán said...

Oh, WOW! The blessing gown is just fabulous. I've had that happen to a lot of the kids' clothes that I KNOW I put away clean--finding the yellow stains reappear. Ack. I'm glad the stains came out of the gown, it's too pretty to not keep and treasure.

YGG on Shores! I'm slogging through block 5 and loving every stitch. 12 year old boys... there is a reason why I try to hold every party I can OUT of the house! ;)

Tammy said...

Your cross stitch is looking great, but OH MY that dress!!! That is just so beautiful in it's white cotton goodness! What a talent you are-it's truly beautiful.

tara said...

A have always loved smocking but never tried it. I have even thought I needed a smocking machine. The dress is a real heirloom piece.

Heather said...

I love that dress, it is gorgeous. I am glad the stains came out of it.

Your Shores is coming right along, are you stitching on 32 count? I haven't been working on mine too much lately, spring break threw me off my schedule :)