Christening Dress

I finally found the thread, & finished my first Christening dress! It was easier than I thought it would be. I used Aunt Lydia's #3 thread. My goal was to make something worthy of entering the NC State Fair in October. I would love some feedback on whether this is good enough or any tips from someone who has entered a fair before. The bonnet has flowers on each side like the ruffle on the bottom of the dress. I will take some better pictures of the dress off the doll so you can see the dress better. I am wondering about the off white thread. Do Christening dresses come in off white? Or should I make another one in white thread? Thanks to all who respond!

Johnny Cash Blanket

Well, my oldest son left for Marine Boot Camp on Mother's Day (sigh). He plans on being in the reserves until he graduates college. A while back he drew this picture of Johnny Cash. We all liked it so much that I had it framed. Recently, I saw some crochet portrait afghans that other people had made so I thought I'd give it a try with this picture. I uploaded the drawing on knitpro:
http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/
This site will make any picture into a graph then you can cross stitch, needle point, crochet---whatever! The blanket is not perfect--but it was my first attempt, and more importantly, kept me busy the first 2 weeks he was gone.

Vintage Baby Sweater

Lately I have been hard at work on a Christening Dress which I hope to enter in the State Fair if it is good enough. It is taking much more thread than I anticipated & all the stores around here are sold OUT! So...I had to take a break. I bought several vintage crochet books off ebay & figured I would try one of the easier patterns to take up some scrap yarn. Here is the book and original pattern photo, along with my version:

Vintage Pattern Dress & Bonnet

Mom just celebrated her 82nd birthday! For part of her present, I crocheted a vintage-looking dress & bonnet for one of her old dolls. I was hoping to bring back memories. My mom was raised in a large family during the depression & didn't get her first doll until she was 16! This is what lead her to be such a doll collector in her later years. She said it did remind her of the old days, which is what I was going for. The stitch pattern I borrowed from a 1940's pattern for a baby sweater (free on the internet). I have searched & searched to find the link, but it is now gone. The thread came from Camilla Valley Farm in Canada. It is mercerized cotton, probably meant for weaving, but was much more cost effective than what I was using. Here is the link: http://www.camillavalleyfarm.com/knit/mcotton.htm I used the 4/8 thickness. BTW: Yes, she desperately needs a slip--Do babies not wear them anymore?? I raised boys, but I do know my modest mother made us wear slips! I couldn't find one for this dress in time for Mama's birthday.
ADD NOTE: Here is the link for the bonnet, booties & sweater for the dress:
http://www.freevintagecrochet.com/baby/no101-baby-set-pattern.html
This is a FREE pattern from 1950. I altered it to make the dress & bonnet you see here. The pattern is very easy to follow (not all vintage patterns are) & fairly quick to make. 4/29/08

Crochet in the Movies

Did you know that Bette Davis crocheted in many of her movies? Rent a copy of "The Letter "(a good classic flick) and watch a nervous Bette crochet away. Joan Crawford also crocheted, but was more known for her knitting. In her movie "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", with Bette, she can be seen knitting for much of the movie.

• Joan Crawford and Davis had feuded for years and during the making of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Joan Crawford’s affiliation with Pepsi. (Joan was the widow of Pepsi’s CEO.) Joan got her revenge by putting weights in her pockets when Davis had to drag Crawford across the floor during certain scenes.
• On her tombstone is written “She did it the hard way.”

•From a Christmas card Joan sent Betty in 1976:
“I am so at peace with the world, that I’m even having good thoughts about Bette Davis.”

Website Link: http://www.bettedavis.com/about/facts.htm

Doll Dress w/ Homemade Ribbon Flowers

My mom rescued this naked collectible doll from my niece's toy box and asked me to make a dress for her. I wanted it to be nice, since I was making it for mama :). I purchased some yarn called Peter Pan by Wendy that I'm told is a popular baby yarn in England. I couldn't get it in the US, so I won some on ebay. It is very nice, soft yarn, but reasonably priced. I was nervous about using it at first because it has a lot of nylon in it, & I usually use all cotton. It might have been better used for a sweater than a dress, but I wanted to use something special for this particular project. For the yellow ribbon flowers, I followed a technique for ribbon embroidery I saw on show on DIY. You can find the directions on this link:
http://www.stitching.com/CDA/stitch/stitches/petal.html
I'd love to hear your comments.

My First Button-holes

I have no idea if what I have in my head will come out through the hook. This dress was soooo easy. I decided to put button holes in this one. I can't believe I have been so intimidated by putting in button holes before! I added twice as many DC to make the skirt fuller than the bodice, but somehow those extra stitches got "absorbed". The skirt wasn't as full as I would have liked, but oh well. The bodice is a sc, but the shell pattern for the skirt goes like this: Row 1 of skirt (after putting 2 sc in each sc of bodice): 1 sc in next 3 sc, ch 3, skip 2 sc repeat to end of row. Row 2: 5 dc in the ch-3 space (shell), sc in middle of the 3 sc set, repeat Row 3: 1 sc into each the middle 3 dc in the shell, ch 3, skip next 3 stitches, 1 sc into ea of next 3 dc in middle of shell repeat.
Hopefully you get the general idea :) I suppose I should have made booties, 'cause her feet look awfully cold, don't they?