{"product_id":"blush-pink-1930s-embroidered-baby-dress","title":"Patient Hands · 1950s Embroidered Blush Baby Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlush cotton lawn · hand whitework in padded satin stitch · pin tucks · hand-rolled picot edge · 1950s · AU 000 · newborn to 3 months\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCotton lawn so fine it is nearly transparent, blush pink and softer still across seven decades, and across the yoke a field of whitework: white thread raised on white cloth, legible only in the way it lifts and shadows the surface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhitework is the umbrella name for a whole family of white-on-white needlework, Ayrshire work, broderie anglaise, shadow work and Mountmellick among them, and it is among the most demanding embroidery there is: thread and ground share a colour, so there is nowhere for a clumsy stitch to hide. The motifs here are built up in padded satin stitch, the thread laid down first as a foundation and then covered with a second, denser layer so each shape stands slightly proud of the cloth and catches its own small shadow. On christening gowns and best frocks of the 1950s this level of handwork was still an expectation rather than a luxury, worked at home by women, often by lamplight, often for a child they loved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo further hand techniques share the dress. Pin tucks run in narrow parallel folds from the yoke, each one creased, stitched and pressed by hand, a method used both to shape a garment without darts and to leave cloth that could be let out as a child grew. The hem and cuffs are finished with a hand-rolled picot edge, the raw edge rolled to a fine cord between the fingers and whipped closed, a finish that survives decades of washing precisely because there is no machine seam in it to fail. Three separate disciplines on one very small dress, each asking something different of the hands that made it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe garment is tiny: made for a newborn, for one occasion, for a photograph that was the whole point. Dresses like this were wrapped in tissue after. They were kept.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44083955302534,"sku":null,"price":140.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_2426_a5a3e3fa-33c6-428e-a82d-ea3442ca6f3a.jpg?v=1782092632","url":"https:\/\/checkout.caitiedid.shop\/products\/blush-pink-1930s-embroidered-baby-dress","provider":"caitiedid","version":"1.0","type":"link"}