Bleuette has cold feet

Ok...just a quick one, because I want to go to bed before midnight.

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...

Getting into gear

Now that I'm off for the summer, I have been working on multiple little projects, kind of getting myself primed for bigger projects later.  We're going on a trip to Idaho in 2 1/2 weeks, so I don't want to get too involved with any big projects. 

SO, with that in mind...here are some things I've made in the last few days...

I love Bleuette dolls, and have recently purchased a doll bed for my girls.  I thought I'd make the bedspread/blanket published in La Semaine de Suzette in both 1906 and 1917.  The translated instructions did not give me any guidance regarding yarn size or hook, so...I had some lovely rose-colored Cascade Yarns Heritage sock/fingering yarn, and used a size 3 steel hook (although a US C hook would have worked, it seemed a bit large for the yarn).  I happily crocheted away, and when I got about halfway through the main part of the blanket, I realized that there was no way this would be long enough for my doll bed, let alone be useful for a Bleuette.  Sigh...  Me and wanting things to be delicate and not "hurky".  But rather than give up and toss it, I finished it (although I made it longer than the pattern calls for...it was just too short), and decided to see if it might work on one of my other doll beds:

And it does!  This is a Strombecker doll bed (actually half of a bunk bed set) that has no bedding on it.  I keep meaning to make bedding for it...hmm...  Maybe this is the excuse I need?  I thought I'd make the second bed's blanket in cream (I have that colorway in the same yarn), and then run ecru/cream ribbon through the pink blanket, and pink ribbon through the cream blanket.  Not matching, but coordinated. 

Here is the original pattern image: 


And here is my finished blanket:

 

I have not yet blocked the blanket--I will do that soon.  I've got too much crap on my ironing board at the moment to do that.

As for my Bleuette bed, well...it is a double-sized bed, so the blanket looked completely ridiculous on it!  I think I'll find a nice DK yarn (hmm...an excuse to go yarn shopping!) and maybe enlarge the central section of the blanket to fit the bed's dimensions.  The Strombecker furniture is for 8" dolls, like Wendy, Ginny, and all my little Kish girlies. 

Sigh...must clean up the sewing room...I've got too much stuff in disarray again...