HI everyone,
Our dear Sofa Sister was in surgery about 2 1/2 hours and her doctor said it went well and was pleased with the outcome. That was the only update I received today, but I will let you know more when I hear something else. Thank you for your prayers!
Joy, I’m glad Sara made it into your house safely… even though there was a slight delay on the porch! :o)
Charlotte, Yes, I’m already a member of the Featherweight 221 and 222 forum…and 2 others! I’ve already ordered a new LED light bulb and some new oil from The Featherweight Shop! The tin of oil that came with my machine had NEVER been opened, since 1956, I’m guessing… so I decided to spring for some that was a bit newer!
Yes, Linda, this little dream of a machine is a working machine and I hope she likes to work, because to earn her keep she’s going to have to sew straight stitches for me! When I bought her, she wasn’t just for display, but for working! :o) Isn’t she cute?
So you have a 1930’s Featherweight, Kathie? I’d love to see a picture of her! Send me a picture of her serial number on the bottom… it’s 2 letters followed by 6 numbers… I can tell you when and where she was made. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know you had one, or I would have been hounding you with questions about them.
Barbara, the friend whose bridesmaid dresses I made, said she would send me some pictures of the wedding… maybe that will ring a bell in my memory… She said they weren’t digital like they are today, so she’d have to find them. I saw a treadle Singer sewing machine the other day at a yard sale… and it was $130. My hubby was certain I needed it, but I had to keep saying no, I didn’t!
Terri, the history of the Featherweight sewing machines is incredible… and speaking of fixing them yourself… I totally plan to do that. With all the videos provided on the 3 forums I am now a member of, I see no reason not to be able to. My hubby, who is Mr. Fixit already, loves that idea… I love that Singer kept records of most of the machines and you can find out what year yours was made. I’m very happy to have her in my sewing room. :o) I’d LOVE to visit your fabric/sewing shop…sounds fun! Next time I’m in Arizona, let’s go together! :o)
Two weeks ago, when we went to my hubby’s family reunion, his niece gave me a little girls dress. She is a realtor and was cleaning out a house and found it but didn’t want to throw it away! There was so much going on at the moment, I just took the dress and put it in my car, …not really looking at it.
Well last night, I took a good look at it and it is worn out, the delicate cotton is stained, torn, there is blue paint at the back hemline, but it’s still INCREDIBLE! I’ll show you what I mean…
For starters, it is ALL handmade… every single stitch of it…EVEN the lace is done by hand. I mean it’s the REAL McCOY!
You might want to click on the pictures to see the stitches up close!
The stitches used to hold this together are nothing short of perfection… so evenly spaced and so delicately sewn. I’m guessing this is probably from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s! It measures 20 inches from the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the lace, and it’s tiny… probably about a size 2 or so.
Look at how the little hooks and loops are sewn on…
As I looked at the dress, I wondered where did this lady start… did she make the lace first? Did she draw out what she had in mind first?
Did she just start cutting? Was this just an every day dress, or for something special? We’ll never know, but it sure is fun to speculate!
Look at the gathers… (I wonder if she basted 3 rows and pulled them up?) :o)
…and the stitches holding the sleeve cap on.. (well, sort of…it’s loose and the lace is coming off too.)
Look at the tiny whip stitches on the inside holding down the facing for the waistline lace.
When I look at this dress, I see HOURS and HOURS of time spent making this. This wasn’t something she whipped up on one evening or even two!
That’s why I’m going to display it on my wire dress form for now… for inspiration!
Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you Monday!
Blessings, Jeanne
Thanks for the update on our Sofa Sister, Jeanne. Keeping her in prayer…
Oh, my, what a Treasure you were given!! Those tiny, even stitches were obviously done by a woman with years and years of experience. And, yes, the dress took many, many hours to construct.
Now that skirt….it almost looks pleated, and I remember Martha Pullen (had an heirloom-sewing program on PBS for many years, and I also took Expo classes from her and attended her traveling School of Art Sewing many years ago) telling someone (who was showing her an antique garment) that at the turn of the last century that there actually Was some kind of machine that did those tiny pleats. Whether this skirt was pleated that way, or by very regularly-spaced hand stitches we will never know, but it’s fun to speculate!!
Those covered eyes were wonderful! I saw the hooks easily, but had to really look for the eyes!!
Joy, I’m so happy another dolly adventure came to a good conclusion! I so enjoyed reading about your adventures!!!
Barbara, congratulations to your daughter on her award!! You must be so proud!!
Terri, thanks for telling us about Mulqueen’s. I didn’t see any Featherweights on their website (but plenty of fun FW-related things!), but if I ever get to AZ again, I know where I’m heading!
Thanks for the congratulations for Andrea. She has always made us proud with her incredible accomplishments. She graduated in the top 5% of her class and won most of the speech and drama awards at the awards banquet. In her junior year she won Best Actress at district, area, and regionals but missed at state because the two that played Romeo and Juliet took those honors that year. Andrea won all four levels in her senior year. In her junior year she played a harassed handicapped girl in “And They Danced Real Slow in Jackson”. She wore braces and was in a wheelchair once falling out of it and having to get back in not using her legs. David overheard a member of the audience saying how wonderful it was they found a part for a handicapped girl. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw her walk across the stage to get her award. In her senior year she played the part of a woman who escaped the Holocaust in “A Shayna Maidel”. Both very emotional plays and she was so convincing she had me crying. We thought her award-winning days were over so this was a big surprise.
But probably the one surprise that I loved the most was the Sunday on Mother’s Day when they called all the women to the altar area and she sang “Momma A Rainbow”. I was crying so much I had her sing it for me later in the day so I could catch all the words.
Oh, Barbara….WOW!!
Thank you, Jeanne, for letting us know about the good news from our Sofa sister, and I will continure to keep her in my prayers.
Wow, that is a treasure of a dress! Yes, it WOULD be interesting to meet the sewer and to ask all those questions! For sure, she was an accomplished seamstress and her work is incredible! So it is doll sized? That would be so neat if you could re-create this dress, using modern techniques and a sewing machine! Come to think of it, it looks like something a prairie girl would wear for a special occasian, like Kirsten! (hint, hint!)
Come to think of it, my Kirsten is now wearing Addy’s Kite Flying Dress, that is very similar to this one, minus the lace. It is a pretty blue and very delicately sewn.
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful heirloom saved for so long. How fortunate that it was rescued. It makes me sad though as those growth pleats were never let down. Perhaps, it was a memorial dress as in those times many children did not live to adulthood. I do love the styling. It would be fun to see something similar recreated.
I’m determined to open my Featherweight machine and take a look at the date. I have the original instruction book that came with it as well. 🙂
We’re finally having some days without fog which means warmer temperatures and of course, more sprinkling the beds. However, the anticipation of cucumbers and zucchini later on will keep me on task.
Have a nice weekend everyone. 🙂
Dear Joy, I missed the blog yesterday and just went back to read your comments. Pshew, another safe caper! I think you could write spy novels (smile). Congratulations!
So nice to hear lots of good things happening. I wonder if the antique “dress” might actually be an undergarment? I noticed that it has similar styling to Sunflower Charmer, especially the bodice. I think we’d all love to see a Jeanne recreation (pretty please 🙏 ?). So glad our sofa sister is doing well.
So happy to see our sofa sister came through her surgery well. Now praying for a swift recovery and no more problems.
What an amazing dress. And seeing all the tiny stitches was very interesting, especially after you mentioned the size of the dress. It’s too bad it wasn’t taken better care of. I snagged back the dresses I “loaned” Dionne for Jaiden when she was little, especially the smocked dress I did for Easter when Jaiden was about 15 months old. I also have several of the dresses Andrea wore when she was little. I have them packed in an heirloom box with acid-free tissue. They’ll probably go on eBay once I pass on but at least I tried to pass them down in good shape.
I’ve been out trying for the umpteenth time to clean up the flower beds out front, but it is already so hot I had to come in to cool off. We want to take one of them out. We did a narrow bed on the other side of the walk never dreaming that people, including the mail lady, would walk across that rather than go up the walk. It is a raised bed and my heart is in my throat every time I see someone do that because the blocks around it are not that stable. I told David that one has to go but so far it’s still there and collecting weeds because every time we plant anything in that bed the moles get it. If it isn’t cleared out by the fall when it gets cooler, I’ll do it myself since every time I mention it I’m told there are other more pressing matters to tend to. I thought maybe I could interest the grandkids in helping me weed the bed when they came out this week but they are both now in middle school and helping Nanna doesn’t have quite the same allure it once had. Even offering to cross their palms with silver didn’t work this time. I’m chalking this up to having to transition from going to school to being off for the summer. Time will tell.
I don’t know what is going on in my town but it is crazy right now. It seems they are crying broke when it comes to many things. All I know is my taxes are still going up. First they cancelled the July 4th celebration that has been going on since before we moved here and that was 33 years ago. Then they closed down access to the place where you drop off tree limbs and with the storms we had in May, those are piling up everywhere, and now they are not opening the swimming pool for the 2023 season. And they are not forthcoming as to exactly why, only they don’t have the money. Since the grandkids do not have a pool in their subdivision and no access to any other, they looked forward to coming out here to swim. We have a great, small waterpark south of us so I will take them there a couple times but the pool was a whole lot cheaper and closer.
I forgot to mention this yesterday but to all the Mini Sara mothers, Kathy Trantham of Kathy Anne Designs is creating a dress for Mini Sara. She wrote me yesterday that she compared her to her Ginny, Muffie and Madam Alexander dolls and Sara is a little taller and smaller around than those. She said the dress she is creating will be Mini Sara specific but she doesn’t have a Ten Ping so I reminded her that Mini Sara is on a Ten Ping body so she can advertise the dress will fit her too. She said she’d let me know when the pattern was ready.
What an interesting post. Glad the sofa sister came through the surgery and hope the follow up treatments keep her healthy🙏🏻
Joy…so glad your latest doll got delivered…successfully👍🏻👏🤭
Barbare… took back some dresses I smocked for nieces and granddaughters too. One was easy to tell had never been worn. I may put it on a big compo Mama Doll🤭 Another one had been worn by three nieces☺️☺️ 😗😉😗
Many congratulations on your daughters accomplishments…she is amazing but as we know the parents should get credit too👏
Jeanne that little dress is just so adorable… do you think the sewer did the waistband decor? I would love to send you an antique doll if you want to make a doll dress out of it… you need to own at least one antique doll don’t you think?
Loved your post. From gardening to no pool. Maybe they will have a change of plans. Hope so. And please let us know about the latest Little Sara pattern. I would love one. 🙂
So glad to hear our Sofa Sister came through surgery and it went well. I read the post and prayed for her, but had no time to comment.
Congrats on getting mini Sara in successfully, Joy, even if she had to wait a little while on your porch.
How wonderful for Andrea, Barbara. You must be so very proud.
Oh, what a darling little dress. It looks Civil War to me with that wide bateau neckline and the sleeves that dip slightly off the shoulders. The padded stitchwork is amazing.
Dear Jeanne, the dress is beautiful. You might want to take it to the local historical society to see if someone there has an idea of the exact period. There are probably books there that could give some hints.
There are also fashion museums that could help you pinpoint the date. There is one here in PA at Shippensburg University.
The Antique dress is a thing of wonder!
Jeanne, this dress is definitely something special! I took one quilting class years ago and decided hand stitching was not for me! And yes, next time you are in Arizona I would love to go shopping with you! Hopefully, it will be during the winter months, ha ha!
Charlotte, although Mulqueen does have a great online website I don’t think they put the Featherweight machines on there but truthfully, I have never looked? When I talked to their technician he said the older Mr. Mulqueen, who is definitely getting up there in age, was originally from New York, and that was where he was able to buy so many of these machines. So maybe they like to sell them in a more personal way? I will ask, next time time I am there. I have no idea how old the owner is, but he is there whenever I go in and has at least two sons working there. They are all very nice and make sure to greet their customers! I love family owned businesses!
Thank you, Terri. It would be interesting to know. Not that I “need” another Featherweight, you understand…I already have one, plus four other sewing machines and one serger!! But you never know…!!
WOW Jeanne!!! Thanks for sharing!!