I, too, learned hand embroidery at a young age - long, long ago. Have not done any in years. I need to do some though. I am the 'keeper' of the family Christening gown. My plan is to hand embroider all of the children's names and birthdates on the gown. There are currently 3 generations to do. I'm expecting that the next generation will be just around the corner so I really need to get moving on this. Just haven't figured out how to go about it.
Thinking I will just type up some of the names/dates in my Word program in various sizes and fonts and hold behind the gown to see what seems most appropriate. Then I suppose I could lightly trace everything in pencil onto the gown?? Any thoughts as to a better method?? I think I'll use an ecru colored thread so it's not overwhelming. The gown itself was hand stitched by a friend of my grandmother's for my uncle's Christening. He is now 74.