Antique Hand-Appliqued Linen Napkin Dress Finished

This little dress is perfect for SPRING!

Here is the completed dress that I have made using antique hand-appliqued linen napkins as the collar, sleeves and the front section of the skirt.  I have, as you can see, also hand smocked a panel for the bodice of this little dress.  The grandmother who ordered this dress wanted a pastel for her little dark haired granddaughter. O ised ,y favorite color combination of yellow, purple, and green in their pastel shades.  I have had these napkins for a long time and I've been dying to use them.  This gave me the perfect opportunity.  As you see, I pieced the napkins together to make the collar and sleeves.  I had extra napkins and decided the skirt needed a little something extra so I stitched two of the napkins, points together and filled in the diagonal triangles on their sides with fabric from the dress.  The fabric is a fine cotton pique that I purchased at Gina's in Knoxville.  As I have stated before, this store is a little pricey, but I think it was worth it in this case.  the color match was perfect.  The grandmother also asked that this be a light weight dress since her little granddaughter lives in sunny California.  I made the piping from a bias strip of the fabric.                                                          

I love sashes on little girls' dresses.  I decided to use white grosgrain ribbon on this dress.  There is white on the napkins and the background of the smocking, so I thought I'd add just another little touch of white.  The buttons on the back of the dress are round, unlike the ones on the smocking, but they are also the exact color of the napkins and the fabric.  I love buttons on the back of little dresses.  The heirloom techniques I used on this dress other than using the antique napkins are French seams, feather stitching the abutted napkins together, the hand smocking, of course, and using my wing needle to add little touches around the edges of the napkins where I needed to stitch.  A wing needle is wider than a normal needle and looks almost like it has wings on the sides (hence the name) which make a little hole in the fabric that adds a little touch of heirloom.                                                    

This is a close-up of the bodice which shows the collar and the smocking a little better.  I had these adorable little buttons that were the perfect color. They were the perfect shape, too, turned diagonally.  They mimic the shape of the collar and the points of the napkins on the skirt.  For the smocking, I wanted it to sort of look like a flower garden.  I stitched the green across the bottom as if it were the grass.  Then, can you see the leaves and stems?  The purple and yellow represents the flowers.  I made lots of little French knots to add some texture to the flowers.    

This dress was lots of fun to make.  Now, to get it packaged and in the mail! Then start on Big Sis and Little Sis dresses for our almost 3 year old and her little sister that hasn't been born yet!

My brother will probably go home tomorrow.  It depends on whether they were able to set up the Home Health Care folks to go to his house every day.  Since it's a holiday for lots of people, they weren't sure if they would be able to set up the visits today.  He is ready to go home!!!!

My mom had a wonderful evening yesterday, and she was still ok at lunch time today.  The pneumonia is under control, and she has been very calm for several days!  I'm hoping that this is a sign that the medicine adjustments really did work!!!