Spreading the love...

Now that the Christening gown is complete, Sarah had one last request...

She wanted to share a little of the gowns with other family members....the cousins

First she thought of making handkerchiefs out of the fabric that was left....handkerchiefs? some exclaimed, what will we do with those?....no, how about something else...

I suggested the idea of keepsake pillows, and showed her pictures of the ones I had made the previous year.  She liked that idea, but since she'd be handing them out at Christmas, she thought, how about "pillow ornaments" in the shape of a heart!

Sounds perfect to me!
So, I was asked to make 6 from the fabric of the grandmother's gown (champagne satin) and 2 from the fabric of her mother's gown (sheer white organdy and french lace). I also made Sarah a special pillow of her own, incorporating all three fabrics (including her jacket lace), as a surprise! And I wanted her pillow to be an absolute surprise, so I took a piece of fabric, serged the edges (neatly finished), wrapped the pillow in it and tied it with a bow - with the same ribbon that was used on the Christening gown.
I just wish I could be there when she opens that up!!!

12/10/17
Finally complete!....well...almost

As a final touch, knowing that these will be going on an airplane before distributing, I wondered "how can I package them individually?" I wanted to put each in its individual bag, but that wouldn't work as the bags would get crushed in packing...hmmm...it was the morning that they were being picked up and I thought - maybe I have enough fabric left to make a stocking!!!! Wow....I did. I took the bodice of the mother's gown, and made a stocking, using the cording from the grandmother's gown on the edges. Great idea! All the little pillow ornaments fit, they will now be easy to transport, and to distribute she can just pull one at a time out of the stocking!!!

         

          Pillow ornaments made from extra fabrics left from the christening gown created (below)

Grandmother's Silks

I recently was asked to use some delicate (meaning very old) silks and jewelry, which belonged to a friend's grandmother, to create keepsake pillows for her 16 grand and great-grand daughters which will be given to them at a family event in June. Most of the fabrics are adorned with lace and in good condition for their age (they were part of her trousseau from 1938), while some had to be treated with interfacing to keep the delicate fabric intact. 


She has had these fabrics in her possession for some time already, so has been referring to them to her daughters as "Grandmother's Silks".

The fabrics and jewelry were brought to me on February 14 of this year.

I don't consider myself a "crafty" person, but do enjoy the creative process, so I knew this would take some time to first, examine all the fabrics, purchase a tool to separate the jewelry into usable pieces, and then think about the design. I used a lightweight, flexible interfacing on most fabrics because they were starting to disintegrate, and I needed to keep them intact.

My friend said they could be different shapes, no heart shapes though. So first I looked to see if I could purchase small pillows to cover. No luck, so I designed rectangles, circles and triangles.

I really had fun designing each one. They are all unique. I was so proud to show my friend the finished results. I can't wait to see the pictures of them with their new owners!!!

What a fun and creative idea for a family treasure!!!


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