Not an heirloom — An Elegant Sufficiency

We are not a family with heirlooms. We don’t have christening gowns handed down through generations and neither are we in the habit of creating them. So when we learned we are going to become grandparents, though I looked forward to making things for (and with) our grandchild, I didn’t really consider making something that might be regarded as an heirloom. Everything would be special of course, hopefully well-loved and cherished. But it would be practical and most certainly something to be used, the more often the better.

When I saw a series of posts on the Bernina blog with the title Hello Baby, I paid particular attention, especially when I noted the use of cotton double gauze, which is the softest, snuggliest fabric! I began keeping an eye out for some cotton gauze in suitable patterns and when I was passing Higgs and Higgs the other day, I dropped in to see what they had.

I really didn’t intend to follow the colour palette shown on the website quite so slavishly but how could I have left that polar bear design behind!? Whilst looking for fabric in the shop, a couple of ladies asked what I was going to make. My reply of “a small quilt for my grandchild” prompted several suggestions from them, together with raised eyebrows when I rejected their choices of crisp quilting cottons or ready-quilted panels. It seemed that this Grandma was not meeting their expectations in that respect.

And when it came to choosing a contrast piping cord, the complementary orange was clearly the one that looked the most effective and would probably have prompted more raised eyebrows from the ladies in the shop! Sadly Higgs and Higgs had only a peachy colour in stock, but thankfully On Trend Fabrics provided an excellent mail order service via Ebay and since I already had a piece of organic cotton quilt wadding in my stash, I had no excuses but to get on and sew.

The method on the Bernina blog made use of the overlocker and thinking that it looked to be a good choice, I began by getting my machine out and giving it a try. But I didn’t have a piping foot for it and even a small sample didn’t look very good. I decided it was time to get my superduper fancy machine up and running and hoped I had the piping foot in my collection. It was a while since foot #38 had been put to good use, so I found the information sheet with details of how to use it too!

Creating a piped seam involves several runs along each edge and even though I wasn’t creating an heirloom, I wanted my sewing to be respectable! I carefully pinned things in place, relied totally on that Bernina foot to keep things in line and discovered the most valuable feature of my sewing machine.

The speed controller. However hard I pressed my foot to the floor, my machine would go only at walking pace. I know to my cost that it’s easy to race ahead with a line of straight sewing but also knew that on this occasion it was important to keep it all together.

Thankfully, that #38 foot worked like a dream and the heritage on which it was designed, described in my information leaflet as “sewing native Austrian costumes which are plentiful in braids and trims”, resulted in a great outcome. The ridge underneath the foot kept the needle in exactly the right place to secure the cord with a line of closely worked stitches.

Not only that, but the three lines of sewing all lined up exactly along the same path, even on the curved corners! I really couldn’t believe my eyes when I checked, especially since the double gauze fabric proved to be far from easy to manage. It’s similar to the cotton cheesecloth which was fashionable for shirts and dresses when I was a teenager and I remember my Mum complaining how difficult it was to iron. “But there’s no need to iron it!” I’d cry…for there was nothing worse than a perfectly pressed cheesecloth shirt when it was meant to be crinkly!

Anyway, a quick change of foot to secure the wadding in place and neaten the edges before turning the right way out.

Tra la! Just a line of topstitching and it would be done! Except that after a few inches, my Hero and I both took a look and decided we didn’t like that last touch. Better without.