Silk beauties, silkki-ihanuuksia

One of my biggest treasures is a lace petticoat of my grandmother’s. It has sumptuous Chantilly lace inserts, an embroidered monogram with her initials and is absolutely beautifully hand sewn. I renewed my old silk nightgown (which somehow had shrunk in the cupboard) by adding a tatted lace edging to the neckline and copying the embroidered monogram. My daughter is named after my grandmother and happens to have the same initials so the nightie will end up in her wardrobe. As for the petticoat it’s part of my future museum collection 😉

The old petticoat comes down to the knee and drapes beautifully as it’s cut on the bias except for the top front where the lace inserts are. The colour is a very light beige to match the luxurious lace.

The cross seams and the lace are both sewn with a decorative double stitch, a kind of hemstitch and makes a pretty little row of holes in the seamline. The raw edges are finished with a whipstitch.

The French seams at the sides are sewn with tiny backstitches. In my twenties I wore this underskirt as a party top and took in the upper part of the side seams for a better fit. The material started to wear thin in many places so the slip had to be moved into the memento department.

The original monogram and my reproduction on the right. For the embroidery I had some old Gütermann silk thread. Unfortunately the ink from the marker pen didn’t wash off completely so I’m hoping it will fade!

Here’s the renewed nightgown. It’s made of very similar silk and also cut on the bias, hence the extra triangles at the hem. It’s nearly full length with a slit at the side front where the little bow is. The narrow tatted lace edging is an old handkerchief lace pattern. For thread I used my grandmother’s old tatting cotton (DMC Cordonnet 70) which was suitably discoloured to an off white so as to match the silk.

Two simple hankerchief lace edgings from Free Vintage Crochet.

Isoäitini vanha alushame, jota joskus nuorena käytin juhlatoppina on suurimpia aarteitani. Se on todella upeasti käsin ommeltu silkistä ja ylellisestä Chantilly-tyylisestä pitsistä. Miehustaan kirjaillut nimikirjaimet ovat sattumoisin samat kuin tyttärelläni, joten hänelle lahjoitan vanhan silkkisen yöpaitani, jonka tuunasin alushameesta kopioidulla monogrammilla ja kapealla sukkulapitsillä.