Baby Love Getting All Stitched Up

The first thing I want to show you is the pleated fronts, before I did any smocking:



I have to say that I really love the way this cotton twill pleats up. It is a nice and firm fabric, yet soft and lightweight. The pleats stand up nice and straight like little soldiers. Once I started smocking it, I loved it even more. I think I will be extremely happy with this project's appearance once it's finished.

I have almost all the smocking done, except for the boullions. I'll save them for last. Here you can see the sewing progress so far:




I have attached the fronts to the bodice pieces, attached the back to the back bodice, piped and added the collars, and applied the bodice facings.

See the nice spread on the back? This will be a nice, full little romper.




And the front is nice and full, too.

A close up of the bodices:

In the comments, Candle has asked why I have the long embroidery threads hanging off the end of the smocking. That's very easy to answer. I'm paranoid. I have Fear of Cutting. I always leave my ends like that, although I do run them through the extra fabric so the smocking doesn't loosen up. When I am Absolutely Positive that I don't need to loosen up the smocking, or tighten up the smocking, or heaven forbid, take out the smocking, I zigzag over the ends and use Mr. Scissors. Until that point, I play it safe and ignore the thread ends. In a way, they are a Great Comfort just hanging there.

Believe it or not, my SweetHeart just came upstairs to tell me that we are under a tornado watch.

Surely, not again. I can't do it again.