Amelie by Gail Doane

22nd March 2019

Gail Doane has had a life-long love affair with handmade, classic children’s clothes. ‘I still have magazine clippings from when I was a teenager (100 years ago!) of beautiful things for children.’ This love became a passion for not only making children’s garments but also designing them herself.

‘A new project is always exciting because the possibilities are endless, and every aspect of the design is up to me. I love every part of the ‘making’…choosing and sourcing supplies, pattern design, pattern drafting, cutting, stitching, embroidering, pressing. Every bit of it!’

Gail’s enthusiasm for the design and making process carry through to teaching, and ‘Amelie’ from Inspirations issue #101 is one of the gorgeous designs Gail taught at Beating Around the Bush last year. This enchanting baby set of matching bloomers, blouse and jacket is as pretty as it is practical.

Amelie has the finishing touches that Gail is renowned for – elegantly piped and bound edges, and enchanting touches of embroidery.

As Gail says, ‘a bit of hand embroidery on a baby project ALWAYS elevates it from ordinary to special.’

An embroidery design to embellish clothing doesn’t need to be complex or use a lot of threads. The trailing design of pastel flowers on the Amelie jacket uses only four stitches and five colours chosen to coordinate with the Liberty cotton lawn print of the bloomers. Apart from colour choice, a factor in making even the simplest of embroidery designs so eye-catching is attention to detail when stitching.

As you stitch, try to be as consistent as possible in the size and placement of the stitches. Taking the time for attention to detail can add a great deal of pleasure to both the making process and the results of your work, and this is something that Gail emphasizes in her classes.

‘There is no substitution for accuracy. Anyone can learn to be more accurate in their cutting, measuring, stitching, trimming and pressing.’

‘I am always telling my students that a beautiful project is just a huge compilation of tiny, accurate steps.’

Being as accurate as possible in the first step leads to the ability to be more accurate in the next step and so on, making for more pleasure in the process and the best possible result for your hard work.

As often as possible, aim to enjoy every stitch, even if you can only fit in a small amount of work on your project each day. ‘There is great satisfaction in completing a beautifully stitched and embroidered baby project – even if ends up on a spitty baby!’

The pattern pieces supplied for Amelie in Inspirations are for 12 months size to fit a baby of up to 10kg (22 pounds) and detailed construction information for the blouse, bloomers and jacket are on the lift-out pattern sheets.

If you’d like to see Gail demonstrating some hints and tips that might be useful for making Amelie, see HERE for transferring circles for a floral embroidery design and HERE for cutting bias strips for piping and binding.