I kept some of my patterns for little girl things
from the time my first was born. I still use them to this day for
making baby gifts. One of my favorites is a little pinafore with
a scalloped bottom and I used to make rosebuds out of bias tape.
But now I do silk ribbon embroidered flowers instead. Both ways
are cute though. Of course my own daughters both had these and I
made hundreds of them for gifts in my lifetime.
Close-up
I also love a little dress that Martha Pullen showed in her Sew
Beautiful magazine about 5 years ago. There really wasn't a
pattern for it. A woman wanted her daughter to have a lovely dress
for her 2nd birthday and they were very poor. So, she cut up her
nightie from her wedding trouseau and made it from the lace and
fabric. This little dress was handed down for about 60 years or
so for every little girl in that family to wear on her second birthday
for a photo. Of course the dress was shredding badly so the next
mother took it apart and figured out how to sew it. She posted some
instructions and I made two of them. Actually, the fabric is just
two rectangles. The lace is just a lot of widths of lace sewn together
in very long strips and when you are done, then you use some for
the yoke and the sleeves.
