Clothes from Yesteryear 6

 

Sarah Lynn, 16, Senior picture - 1977

At Kenny and Annette's wedding.  I made Dorcas' little suit out of the leftovers from mine.  Mine is a Vogue pattern.  I also sewed Keith's suit and ringbearer pillow, and Hannah's flowergirl dress.

Sailor dress

Keith, Teddy, Hannah, and Dorcas

Only Hannah's dress was handmade.

Teddy, just learning to crawl

This simple little peasant dress only took an hour to sew.  I made each of the girls three of them in one day.

Only Hannah's dress is handmade

Clothes from Yesteryear 5

In May of 1994, we were going to take a trip to Mexico, and the children needed more pajamas and nightgowns.  So I pulled out some pieces of coordinating single knits and some thin cottons, and, working all day and all night, made Keith, 4, Hannah, 3, Dorcas, 22 months, and Teddy, 9 months, four sets of pjs or nightgowns apiece.  Here are Teddy and Hannah:

Teddy loved to suck his thumb whilst holding a favorite blankie and rubbing it between his fingers or on his face.  Here, we were bringing all our things into a motel room, and his blankie was still out in the car.  He made do with a sock.

Clothes from Yesteryear 4

 Here are four of the very earliest dresses I made.

Sarah Lynn, 12, and Sparkle, a German Shepherd/Collie mix, at Echo Lake, halfway up Mt. Evans, Colorado.  My Uncle Don said, "That dog is smarter than you! -- because... you taught her everything you know, and the dog knew something in the first place."  😂

My friend Martha and I with Sparkle at Lake McConaughy, western Nebraska.  We made our matching dresses together, starting a years-long tradition of sewing together.

Here I am at age 13 with my little Sunday School class, the 4-6-year-olds.  A poor picture, but I love it just the same.  

The shawl collar on the dress I'm wearing was the first one I ever attempted.  I had to have a little help from my sister-in-law Janice to get it right.

The third boy from the right -- the blond one resting his chin on his fist -- is my nephew Robby, aka Robert Walker, now the pastor of our church.  He's a little taller now -- he's 6' 3", to be exact.

Sarah Lynn, 14, 10th grade.  You can't see much of this one... but I can tell you that I was pretty proud of that double collar, and you can see that I loved ruffles from the beginning of my sewing journey.  The skirt was yellow, and there was a wide yellow sash.  Can you see all the tucks in the bodice?  

The fabric is single knit.  The Singer machine my brother Loren gave me when I was 8 years old did a fairly nice job with knits, if I used a ball-point needle.

Clothes from Yesteryear 3

 

About age 15

About age 16

Larry, age 17, in the suit and shirt (satin Western) I made for him.  About ten years later, since Larry had long grown out of the suit, I cut it down to a size 4 four Teddy.  I still have that little suit.

I gave Larry the watch fob, too.  Here's the set.  He used the pocketwatch so much, he wore the finish off:

Engagement Pictures

Clothes from Yesteryear 2

Fourth of July, 1997

Clothes for our annual Fourth-of-July church picnic were always my favorite clothes to sew.  I loved mixing and matching, and it was just plain fun sewing, with not quite as much pressure to create something spectacular as there was when it was Christmas or Easter attire.  

Almost like quilting!  heh heh

Lydia, 6, was tickled pink that we found fuchsia shoes the same color as her dress.

Teddy, almost 14

Joseph, 12

Hester, 8

Caleb, 3 1/2

Dorcas, on her 15th birthday

Keith, 17; Victoria, 4 months; Esther

I didn't make Victoria's dress; it was a gift from a friend.

 

Clothes from Yesteryear 1

 I am in the throes of a large project:  scanning my old photos.  I have over 350 big albums, some of which contain 700-800 photos.  This is going to take a while!  I'm finding many photos of the children in clothes I sewed, some of which I'd forgotten all about.  

This first post is a random set of scanned pictures from framed shots.

Back row:  Joseph, Dorcas, Larry, Sarah Lynn, Hannah, Bobby, Esther, Keith, Teddy

Front row:  Caleb, Victoria, Lydia, Hester

I sewed the purple dresses and Victoria's flowergirl dress.  I don't recall if it was Hannah or me who sewed the Caleb's ringbearer's pillow.

June 25, 2000

Dorcas, Teddy, Joseph, Keith, Hannah, Hester, Victoria, Caleb, and Lydia

I did not sew Hannah's fuchsia top (or the boys' suits); we found it at a Goodwill somewhere.  We liked to call those stores 'GW Boutiques'.  😂

Autumn 1999

Dorcas, on her tenth birthday, July 4, 1992

Dorcas, Teddy, Hester, Joseph, Hannah, Keith, and Aleutia the Siberian husky.

I sewed Dorcas and Hannah's outfits.

Autumn 1990

Joseph, 7; Teddy, 8; Dorcas, 10; Keith, 12; Hannah, 11; 

Aleutia the Siberian husky; Lydia, 1; Hester, 3

July 04, 1992

Joseph,7; Teddy, almost 9.  I liked sewing boys' shirts; I could do two or three in a day, even when adding piping, western yokes, pockets, and shoulder epaulets.  Joseph always asked for a little slot in his left pocket, so he could carry a pen like his Daddy did.

July 04, 1992

Joseph, Hannah, Hester, Teddy, Esther, Keith, Caleb, Larry, Victoria, Sarah Lynn, Dorcas, Lydia

Norma gave me the fabric for Hester's, Lydia's, and Victoria's dresses.  Hannah's and Dorcas' dresses are of taffeta.  I didn't make my suit; my sister Lura Kay gave it to me.

March 1999

Hemming a Dress

Today I hemmed a dress for Joanna, who's 16.  The dress is made of a soft, thin, stretchy single knit.  After cutting off the right amount, I serged the edge, then folded it under once.  Into this fold, I slipped long, narrow pieces of lightweight Pellon.  I adjusted the pressure of my presser foot to medium, tightened the top thread tension quite a lot, then stitched on the back 3/8" from the edge.  Without the Pellon, that hem would have been the most stretched, bloopy (should be a word) thing you can imagine.