Baby vests with embroidered birds

Baby vest with bird (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

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)

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)

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)

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 birds (Mary Addison)

Embroidered bird (Mary Addison)

Embroidered bird (Mary Addison)

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

8 Comments

  1. Lydia Sage
    Posted September 29, 2014 at 1:55 am | Permalink

    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!

    • Mary Addison
      Posted September 30, 2014 at 7:45 am | Permalink

      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!

      • Lydia Sage
        Posted September 30, 2014 at 10:10 am | Permalink

        Hi Mary – the scissors are made by Ernest Wright – http://www.ernestwright.co.uk

        • Mary Addison
          Posted October 2, 2014 at 10:35 am | Permalink

          Thanks Lydia, these do look excellent – glad to know we still have Sheffield scissor makers.

          • Lydia Sage
            Posted October 3, 2014 at 11:47 am | Permalink

            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!

          • Mary Addison
            Posted October 3, 2014 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

            How interesting. Good for them!

  2. Naomi Tiley
    Posted October 2, 2014 at 7:50 am | Permalink

    Oh wow! Lucky baby. These are really fun and, like you say, you can never have enough baby vests.

    • Mary Addison
      Posted October 2, 2014 at 10:36 am | Permalink

      Glad you like them, Naomi.

One Trackback

  • […] 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 […]

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*
*

  • September 2014
    M T W T F S S
    « Aug   Oct »
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  
  • Photographs & Media

    Please attribute any re-uploaded images to Addison Embroidery at the Vicarage or Mary Addison and link back to this website. And please do not hot-link images!