A few weeks ago, I was prowling through my Yahoo boards, and found a few knit/crochet patterns on my Bleuette Sewing Board that I thought I'd try. The first one was a slipper--the same kind of slipper I had as a kid! So...I had to make up a pair.
(I really need to de-clutter my sewing table when I take pictures...)
I was tickled with how these turned out, and immediately made a pair to send to my mom. The yarn I used here is "Willow Tweed" by Louisa Harding Yarns...lovely stuff: 40% Alpaca, 40% Merino, and 20% silk. This is kind of a light greenish-teal/fern with cream-colored slubs/nubbies. I have planned a robe and nightgown around some beautiful fine cotton shirting I got at Fabric Depot (aka Fabric Mecca) in Vancouver, Wa. It has a pretty striped pattern in fine lines of fern green and white. So...the nightgown is the 1915 Chemise de Nuit (pictured below), in white swiss batiste with coordinating feather stitching details (as the pattern shows) . I was going to do the bathrobe Robe de Chambre 1911, but the pattern I have is missing the belt, and the collar doesn't fit the back of the robe properly as written, so I need to do some tweaking before I make that up. The robe would be in the stripe, with white collar and cuffs with the chain-stitch embroidery indicated. (I just checked the original pattern...and discovered that the belt is not a pattern, but simply instructions to embroider a particular length of fabric with the wavy pattern and stitch it into a belt...I guess it would help to read the pattern, huh? Then again, it is in French, and I only know French sewing terms, not the language itself!)
There is a prettier robe de chambre later, in the 20's I think, that I may do instead. I don't know...most of the early dressing gowns were pretty utilitarian. And the embroidery on the collar and cuffs is a pain in the thimble, let me tell you!! I have embroidered three sets of them so far (one for my mom's Christmas Bleuette Trousseau, and two to sell), and it is some finicky work. I did it on batiste with a single strand of 6-strand DMC floss...will have to post pictures of the embroidery sometime. Hmm... Maybe that will be my next post--embroidery for dolls. I like it!
Anyway...love the little slippers...will definitely have to make more.
Until later...
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