Baby vest with bird (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
My husband’s youngest son and wife are expecting their first baby and as I just love those now ubiquitous baby vests that popper underneath and feel you can never have too many, I thought I’d embroider a few as a present. To be truthful, I had intended to do this for my own grandson, now almost 9 months, but you know how things are with babies, all sorts of other distractions got in the way. I have just hung this alphabet quilt in his room so I don’t think he’s going without. It was hanging in one of our spare rooms at the vicarage and he was diplomatic enough to be fascinated by it, so I was only too pleased for him to have it. Fortunately he still loves it and dutifully lets his eye roam over it and gets jolly excited by the different animals.
Hand embroidered bird (Mary Addison)
The embroidered birds on the vests are inspired by those little birds seen all over the place in Scandinavian folk art, but especially in embroidery.
Hand embroidered bird (Mary Addison)
I have borrowed bird shapes and ideas for embroidery from a couple of books on my shelves : Clare Youngs’ Scandinavian Needlecraft & Karin Holmberg’s Scandinavian Stitchcraft.
Hand embroidered bird (Mary Addison)
Red embroidery on white seemed a good idea as they’re not 100% sure of the sex of the baby and anyway red is bright and cheery and makes a good contrast with the white. Fingers crossed that it will wash ok at 60 degrees without the colour running.
Embroidered birds (Mary Addison)
Embroidered bird (Mary Addison)
8 Comments
Such a sweet idea – all your little red birds have a character of their own. I have also been to have a look at your exquisite Alphabet quilt. A beauty indeed. There is something so special about the tiny stitches employed in quilting – the minute hills and valleys they create – a real treat for the nursery.
Over here there is slow progress along the stem of the Jacobean flower. I have been sidetracked by the rather guilty purchase of some embroidery scissors from a remarkable scissor maker in Sheffield. I blame my brother who has ordered two pairs for himself!
Thank you Lydia. Love to know more about the remarkable scissor maker in Sheffield – does he have a website?
Try and make yourself do a little bit of sewing every day, that way you’ll get into the habit and then you may find at some point that you don’t want to stop!
Hi Mary – the scissors are made by Ernest Wright – http://www.ernestwright.co.uk
Thanks Lydia, these do look excellent – glad to know we still have Sheffield scissor makers.
They are experiencing a massive spike in orders since the Company has been featured by the BBC and embroidery blogs like Mary Corbet. As a result there is now a huge backlog and the poor scissormakers are toiling day and night to fulfil the orders…. wonderful that so many people appreciate craftsmanship if a little daunting for the scissor people!
How interesting. Good for them!
Oh wow! Lucky baby. These are really fun and, like you say, you can never have enough baby vests.
Glad you like them, Naomi.
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[…] and along with him will go his Chinese wife and their baby of 9 months. I have made the baby some embroidered vests and a knitted jacket but I suddenly realised I hadn’t embroidered her a monogram and that I […]