Generations of Lace

Good  "Weaver Wednesday morning, Family Trails. 

This week I want to begin sharing with you my love for lace.  

As long as I can remember, I have loved lace. I grew up watching my mother, Nancy, and my grandmother, Ivera, sewing clothes and doll clothes for me. I wanted to learn how to sew like them so much. They taught me how to sew, and they passed on fabric scraps and bits of laces to me to use in my little projects. I learned how to make cloth dolls to give as gifts for my friends. This began what I will call "my saving lace" phase. I kept every little piece of lace they gave me and continued to look for more.  

When I got married, I wore my mother-in-law's wedding dress. She had made it for her wedding in 1955. I loved it for many reasons, but especially because of its cascading ruffles of lace. As you can see in this picture, her dress was sleeveless. 

(insert picture of Brook in wedding dress)

Since I would be wearing this dress in December, we decided to add sleeves to her dress, and yes, I chose lace for the sleeves.  

If you have been following Family Trails for awhile, you may remember the post,

 The Story of a Wedding Dress.  

                                         

It is a story of my mother's dress. Reading this story will help explain why wearing her dress when I got married was not an option. But it goes on to tell how the lace from her dress was used years later for a jacket my mother wore to my daughter's wedding. Then I sewed the remnants of lace from that project into a ring bearer's pillow.

It is hard to tell in this picture from my daughter's wedding, but some of the lace in her veil came from the lace from the sleeves in the dress I wore when I got married. I had saved a remnant of lace from that project in 1981, so we cut little lace motifs from those remnants. Then we appliqued them onto her veil for her wedding in 2007.

This fascination with lace has continued as grandchildren came into our lives.
Daughter, Rebecca, and I designed the baptismal gown for her children that I would sew in time for the first baby's baptism. We chose yards and yards of lace. Knowing her first child would be a boy, we kept the gathered ruffles to a minimum. But let's be honest…. he was a baby, so he still wore plenty of lace!
 Some of the lace came from "my saving lace" phase mentioned above. I was able to use it on the bonnet and the sleeves.

Here are the "3 Wise Men" on each of their special Baptism Days.

Raughley with his Pop!

And Raughley with his GiGi, Nancy Harper DeWine.

Then along came Liam, and here he is with big brother, Raughley. It is a bit hard to see the detail in  the gown in these pictures because there was a lot of hugging going on…a very good thing! 

So when baby boy # 3…the third "wise man" was photographed, his mother put her photography skills to work and made this photo which shows off baby Marshall's precious face and the gown that survived all three baptisms.

 As you read Family Trails, you might be picking up on the goal that I set for myself when I started this blog: 

To learn from the past, embrace the present, and step boldly into the future.

 It is interesting that beautiful lace has accompanied me along the way.

Love,
Mariellan