I have a brand new granddaughter and of course I had to make a few things. As I have mentioned before her great grandmother recently passed away and I was asked if I’d like her fabric stash. I wanted to use as much of her fabric and notions as I could for these makes.

I found this really lovely pink spotted cotton in the box and thought it would make a lovely romper. The fabric is clearly vintage and it had this stamp on it, which I couldn’t decipher unfortunately.

I took the pattern from a Smocking and Embroidery magazine which was given to me by my friend Jenny and began attending a smocking group to refresh my memory a bit. I am really pleased with the way this piece of smocking worked out.

The back is supposed to be shirred, but I decided to use a honeycomb stitch, which I really enjoy doing.

I have previously reported the fact that I made labels to show that this was Oma’s (my SiL’s grandmother) fabric and I’ve been putting them on everything.

The new little one needed a Christmas stocking to match her brother’s so I used a tablecloth from the stash. I dyed part of it red and the only part of it not from the stash is the little green parcel. I used beads and ribbon which were also in the box. The white dog is supposed to be their dog, which is brown, so we are pretending she fell in a snowdrift@

The back of the stocking, and there is a label, but I forgot to take a photograph.

Finally I used a pink cotton blanket, the type you find in hospitals, to make a dog using Kwik Sew 4392. The blanket was not in the best of shape, so I had to navigate around the damage. Here are a couple of examples.

I couldn’t eliminate all the worn bits completely so after I had constructed the dog, but before I stuffed it, I decorated it.

I used embroidery and most of the threads came from Oma’s stash. Unfortunately there was a bit of damage at the nose which hadn’t been apparent when I cut out the dog, so I added the bee. Even the velvet bow tie came from Oma’s stash.

I really enjoyed doing my very unsophisticated embroidery.

I added a label

She had her initials sewn on to the blanket, so I cut them out and appliquéd them back on in a heart shape.

My favourite parts are the bees, I’ve scattered them around the dog.

There will be more coming and will be reported on in due course. In the meantime here is a photo of new baby’s big cousin making orange juice, she insists on doing everything so has to be carefully supervised.