I want to make a garment with this beautiful bamboo, but to think about wearing white on the streets of New York in the summer makes me shudder. I've decided white is a nice color for a nightgown, only to be worn indoors.

A picture of a lightweight white cotton dress with crocheted borders my mom wore in the house when it was hot comes to mind, but I'm changing the neckline to a V-neck with spaghetti straps and making the skirt an A-line.

The straps need to be made with a sturdy stiff yarn to support the weight of the skirt.  I was all set to make the straps in linen and picked Euroflax Originals 100% linen yarn in champagne, because I wanted the colors to be very natural-looking.I played around with some crocheted borders I found in a booklet of knit and crochet stitch patterns my grandmother gave me.  I settled on one that was simple but feminine-looking, but then . . .

I totally fell in love with a fussy, frilly crochet pattern I found while looking through books at Purl.  Piecework magazine made a reproduction of a turn-of-the-20th-century magazine call Weldon's Practical Needlework. I have always loved flipping through it and admiring the drawings of each of the projects.  The titles of the projects, like "Gentleman's Mitten" and "Opera Cape with Pineapple Pattern," captivate me.  The intricacy and precision of the pieces interests me, as well as the idea that these pieces came from a time when some people had to make clothes, or else they might not have had any, is fascinating in a time and place where ready-made is the norm. -- Leah