From The Editor –

FINALLY FALL HAS ARRIVED – It is the 21st of October as I write this and I was beginning to think Thanksgiving would better be served as a deck picnic! Along with yet another hurricane, cooler temperatures are making for much more seasonal sewing ideas. That said – I decided to change courses a tad and focus this month on Christmas embroidery, particularly collars. We all get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Sometimes an event sneaks up catching our guard down, and ‘lil Susie’ just has nothing to wear! Collars can be added to a store bought dress or blouse for a quick and easy fix! I hope the enclosed article helps with last minute holiday dressing. Also, I have given a holiday nod to someone from whom most of us have not heard in a long time. Wendy Lee Ragan of Peter Pan and Wendy published an absolutely GORGEOUS book in 1990 that inspired us all to try to perfect our shadow work skills. Many of her designs were for Christmas and a couple have been photographed here.

Finally, we take this time of year to say how much we appreciate each and every one of you as customers and readers. Let us say thanks, not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day for all we have. May the holidays be Bright, and filled with Peace and Joy! Merry Christmas and Happy Stitching,

Sheila

Bear in Mind An electronic newsletter from Bear Threads Ltd. Volume 10 – Issue 11-12 November-December 2018

CHRISTMAS COLLARS Collars come in all shapes, sizes, mediums and are made for any season or occasion. They may be smocked, embroidered, lace or appliqué, or simply just be a gathered edging with a bias band. They may be attached or detachable. They may be traditional or funky, but always the focal point of a garment, as it surrounds the cherubic face of a child! Sadly, children grow so fast, it is a rare instance that a garment made for a particular occasion or season can span a year and repeat its’ performance 12 months later. However – “collars to the rescue”! The collar is likely the most time consuming portion of the garment and deserves some special consideration. While a dress may become hopelessly too short or too small, a collar can usually be manipulated to go on a garment a size larger or in some cases smaller, as neck circumferences can easily be adjusted. That beautiful embroidered collar on last years’ Christmas dress that now is too small, could be removed and placed on a new dress - same color, different color, print of co-coordinating colors or maybe even a plaid. If you have a non-seasonal collar that you love, move it from Christmas velveteen to batiste or pique dress for Valentine or Easter. We have several examples here.

Our first two collars are courtesy of Kathy Stipe who is a dear friend and one of my earliest students. She has just been blessed with a granddaughter and these will soon be put to use 35 years after they were made for baby Finley Kate’s mom, Andrea and her sister Carla. The ecru lace collar will be the first to be used as the neck is smaller and more easily adjusted. 1/16” ribbon or DMC Floss can be woven through the entredeux holes to cinch the neck to fit tiny Finley Kates’ neck. She is so petite that the simplest of dresses is all that would be needed. If you would like to add a bit of color for a particular season, just change the ribbon. I always teach my students NOT to sew ribbon into a seam on the machine, as ribbon, no matter its’ composition, is the first thing to disintegrate! Don’t say you were not warned! The second of Kathy’s collars is a beautiful white batiste Heirloom collar with all the components thereof. Puffing, tucks, lace and entredeux are all included in this beautifully stitched example! This collar would be gorgeous on velveteen, or moiré or batiste –it is seasonless and timeless!

Our second set of collars is courtesy of Mollie Halle. She too has been blessed with granddaughters – now there are two! One just born in October and the other is 12 months old. The smocked Heirloom collar is perfect for any season and can go from velvet to corduroy to batiste… It, too, was made detachable, and what a smart idea. It has been exquisitely executed with Maline laces and has been wonderfully brought back to life for our photo shoot!! Congratulations, Mollie! Mollie’s second collar is actually on a commercially purchased dress. This collar is simple, small and perfect for a 12 month and under. Removing the collar from the current dress, if you desired, would be easy. Making a new yoke dress is the most simple of garments to sew and the collar can be adjusted in neck circumference by adding or releasing the ‘back smocking’ on the current collar.

Our last examples are courtesy of Cheryl Davidson of A Frayed Knot in Lakeland, TN. She has been a frequent guest of Bear In Mind and you may have seen one of these garments before. However, considering the season and subject of this article I think they bear (sorry!) repeating! The green corduroy dress features a lovely round bertha collar with lace inserts. The beautifully embroidered shadow work is a lovely example of how perfect Cheryl’s free hand embroidery is. If you look closely you will notice that the pleats on the corduroy are accented with red embroidered flowers and those flowers are repeated on the back of the collar, while the yellow stars continue around as well. The green dress with white front yoke features a machine embroidered insertion vertically down the front. Cheryl has replicated the design in hand embroidery on the collar.

Finally, Cheryl’s dark green plaid yoke dress features embroidery on the collar replicating the embroidery from the smocking. And cleverly, having chosen tatting for the trim, it closely resembles the white waves of the smocking pattern. I hope these have inspired some ‘quick’ solutions of Holiday sewing dilemmas. Editor’s note: Please remember that when you are dealing with vintage garments, and even those only 5-10 years old, if they were not properly cleaned and stored, they could have ‘aged’ leaving the whites difficult to match to ‘new’ white fabric. I highly recommend you read my article on caring for Heirloom garments and linens. NOTE: EVEN THOUGH YOU DON’T SEE A STAIN, IT MOST LIKELY IS THERE ON A CHRISTENING GOWN, COLLAR OR ANY OTHER GARMENT. WASH BEFORE STORING, RINSE UNTIL YOU CAN DRINK THE LAST RINSE WATER, AND DO NOT STARCH IF STORING FOR MORE THAN 6 MONTHS! (Do any of us really know what we will be doing more than 6 months down the road?) Sheila T. Nicol Copyright 2018

Fun Facts about Christmas Ornaments 1. The origins of Christmas wreaths remain mostly a mystery. There are two theories about the origins of Christmas wreaths. One is that they are an "adaptation of the ceremonial wreaths of ancient Greece and Rome." Another is that they developed from the "advent wreaths of medieval German Christians" who would adorn the wreaths with four candles to indicate the four weeks before Christmas. 2. Americans did not immediately adopt the Christmas tree. According to The History Channel, German Christians displayed decorated trees in the 16th century during Christmas time. Paradise trees, as they were known, were adorned with fruits like apples to represent the Garden of Eden, and candles and sweets as time went on. When German settlers brought their tradition to Pennsylvania, Americans did not immediately adopt the practice as they considered the trees symbols of paganism. By the late 1840s, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert decorated a Christmas tree that appeared in the London News, signifying that the custom was officially en vogue. 3. Many Americans decorated their trees with imported ornaments up until World War II. Before World War II, many ornaments Americans purchased were imported from Germany. But once World War II started, Corning, an American glass company, started making ornaments out of a light bulb machine. They made 300,000 ornaments a day! 4. The legend behind stockings involves a sweet story about Santa doing something really nice for a poor family. The common legend about Christmas stockings tells a tale of a poor, widowed man who had three young daughters that he worried would never marry due to their lack of wealth. St. Nick overheard people chatting about this family, so he slid down the man's chimney and placed gold coins in the girls' clean stockings that were hanging to dry by the fireplace. 5. Thomas Edison invented the first string of electric Christmas lights. Edison brilliantly displayed a string of lights outside his workplace, the Menlo Park Laboratory in New Jersey, in 1880. The first people to see them were train passengers riding by the building. It was Edison's partner, Edward H. Johnson, who took the idea and applied it to Christmas trees. He was the first person to hand wire 80 colored light bulbs and wrap them around his Christmas tree. Prior to this idea, people would try to light up their Christmas trees with candles.

SHADOW WORK MADE EASIER!

Many of you ‘seasoned’ sewers remember the lovely Wendy

Lee Ragan, who published numerous plates and a beautiful

book entitled “The Bunnykins Heirloom Sewing

Collection”. She was authorized by special permission to use

the Royal Dulton Bunnykins figures in her designs

Throughout the years of her teaching and publishing she

repeatedly came to BEAR THREADS, LTD for her fabrics

and trims. She, without a doubt, did the most perfect shadow

work embroidery I have seen to date, and she attributed it to

stitching on our LINED SWISS PIQUE! Now, first of all,

most would not think of using pique for shadow work

embroidery. One usually would think of organdy, or

certainly nothing more opaque than Swiss Batiste. But

Wendy found our pique with its’ very fine lines, to be the

perfect fabric, as she could use the lines as a ‘marking’ tool

for her stitches. I tried her method and she was absolutely

correct. Generally, after allowing for ‘compensation

stitches’ in curves, stitching over 2 ‘ribs’ was the perfect

stitch length for the delicate small Bunnykins figures, and

made for much easier defining of stitch length!

At the time of her book publishing, in 1990, she sent me

many photos to share with my customers using our lovely

fabrics and trims. Unfortunately, they were put aside and

lost for a few years. During my research for this months’

newsletter, I found them. Here I share one of the sweetest

embroidered round yoke dresses from that collection of

photos. I hope you can see the fine lines of the pique fabric

on which the shadow work embroidery was stitched. I am

also sharing two of Wendy’s Christmas designs that I

thought you would enjoy for the Holidays. They also are

stitched with shadow work on our Swiss Pique.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to ascertain if her books

and patterns are still available. But perhaps these will inspire

other ideas for your Christmas collars! And perhaps one of

my readers will share if and where any of her publications

may be still purchased.

Ed. Note: The pink round yoke dress used our Bearissima

Appliquéd bows in pink along with our Tulle Bow in pink

around the yoke and sleeve. Stock # E-40 and E-300

Copyright Sheila T. Nicol

2018

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