Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Stitchery from my Sicilian Grandmother

I've always wanted to copy the pattern on the dress my Sicilian grandmother Rosaria is wearing in this photo from 1924; she is twenty-three.

She is with her first three (of ten) children, in Milwaukee, where her family had immigrated when she was a little girl.

I assume she made all these clothes herself, coming as she did from a family of tailors and seamstresses.

I always thought it would be complicated, but looking at her dress more closely today, I see the embroidery pattern is fairly simple: 
a curly S and a loopy back-and-forth design. 
(The S's look like one of her SOS cookies [recipe].)

I'm going to embroider the design on the little cell-phone bag I'm making for my Auntie Vi-- Rosaria's forth child, born in 1925. (My father was the seventh child.)

4 comments:

gz said...

and look at the childrens' outfits as well...

The Crow said...

I echo what gz said! She dressed her children beautifully!

bink said...

That will be a great present for Vi! And it's such a wonderful photo! Which kids are these?

Fresca said...

Yes, the children's clothes too!

BINK: That's Mary (eldest) and Carmella, with Robert in Ama's arms.
I did the math--Mary was born Feb. 28, 1919, when Ama was eighteen---Bob in 1924, when Ama was 23.