More Heirloom Dabbling

What makes something an “heirloom” garment? When recently asked this, it took me a bit by surprise. I had to answer truthfully with,
“Quite frankly, I’m not really sure.” My original thought was that it must be a heavily embellished garment made of a lightweight cotton fabric. Due to the vagueness of that response, I was hesitant to give it.

So; what is an heirloom garment? In order to figure this out I turned (as all millennials do) to google, which quickly took me to wikipedia.

According to my interpretation of the wikipedia definition….anything can be an heirloom garment. A child’s dress, bubble, johnny, anything. The key lies in using a light-weight cotton fabric and pulling out all the “decorating” stops.

So; for my most recent “heirloom” creation I used this gorgeous Swiss Nelona and the Sarah Howard Stone Museum dress. This is my new most favorite fabric. It is so thin but has fantastic body and irons like a dream. This fabric was then “embellished” with a variety of laces, insertions, beading and entredeux.

The part of heirloom sewing that has always been the most intimidating to me is the creation of the “fancy band.” This is the portion of the dress that has all the joined laces and pintucks. Suprisingly; this proved to be the most fun part of constructing the whole thing. Joining insertions/beadings is considerably easier than it seems, you just lay them right next to each other, and zig-zag them together. Making sure each stitch hits the “header” of the insertion (the more dense part toward the edge.) It gets a little tricky when you add gathered lace to insertion but I have an entire post on that here. The best tip I have for this process is to get your hands on stitch and ditch stabilizer and use it any time your fabric or lace tries to get wiggly.

One of the things I learned while constructing with this fabric is that it cannot be torn. You must “pull a thread” and then cut along the line created. If you’re not sure what this is, check out this video.

I also re-learned the value of a slip. This dress would not have been nearly as flouncy had I not added a slip. I used the same Nelona and basically just lined the dress by treating the dress and the slip as one at the neck and armpits. The slip is hemmed with a blind hem and while the dress fabric is finished with lace.

For Robby’s heirloom garment I melded a couple of patterns. Not going to lie, I don’t love real button-ons. I love the look of a button-on outfit, but I don’t actually like dealing with the buttons in real life. So, by using the bloomer pattern from Children’s Corner Basics for Boys III with faux buttons and the Alex shirt pattern, that problem was eliminated. The shirt (which is pretty long) can just be tucked into the booomers. The bloomer probably isn’t technically “heirloom” as its made from a velvet. The top, definitely counts though!

In order to add the pintucks, I cut out a rectangle of Pima Cotton Batiste large enough to accommodate the shirt front piece, plus about three inches. After finding the center and creating my first pin tuck along the center line, I added seven more pintucks to each side of the center. Fifteen in total. He was born on the 15th…It was a fun detail to add. I then refolded my fabric and cut out the shirt front piece.

I made pintucks using a double needle and foot similar to the one linked here. Each machine has a different pintuck foot, so find one that goes with your machine. This is one time during heirloom sewing that you will not want to use stitch and ditch, as it won’t let your tucks really puff up.

Last, but not least, you’ve got to add the right accessories. I matched their shoes to the lace and had them both wear knee socks :). Hope y’all enjoyed these…they were SO FUN to make. They’ll likely be wearing them for Easter as well.