Baby Love, Oh Baby Love

Next up is this delightful little bubble from Issue 26 of Australian Smocking and Embroidery, aptly named Baby Love:



Yes, this is the same issue I seem to be stuck on. The more I look at it, the more things I find that I must absolutely make! I have already used two smocking designs from this issue. The designs for Purple Passion and Little Miss Sunshine came from it.

But this time I am not only going to use this smocking design (called "Confetti") I am also going to use the pattern. This will be the first time I've used one of their patterns, so I have my fingers crossed. I know several people who have used AS&E patterns and they seem to love them. So, here goes!

This is the fabric I am using, a soft cotton twill that I bought at Sweet Treasures:




The background is a beautiful medium shade of aqua with little tiny orange and white flowers. I hope it's as pretty on your monitor as it is on mine!

And why yes, I have already cut it out. And started to smock the fronts. See?




I want to quit work and stay home and work on this. Anyone else ever feel that way, too?

Now For The Last Row

Although it's been slow progress, progress there is on Little Miss Sunshine. Only one row left, and it's the fun row--the scalloped wheat stitch at the very bottom:

I've been thinking of using contrasting piping in a little blue gingham check on this dress, but now am not so sure. I would use it on the bodice seam, sleeve edges, and neckline. Or I could use the dress fabric for the piping and use white entredeaux and white lace on the sleeves. I need suggestions. What do you think?

We have one more day of school, then the Glorious Spring Break begins. What do I plan to do? Smock. Sew. Cut Things Out. Buy More Fabric. Win On EBay. Cook at least one meal.

Up next is a trio of fabrics from my recent retail adventures. I'm calling this group Limeade. What I have in mind is a tiered, ruffled sundress. Very full gathers. Maybe cute buttons to echo the dot design:

Nice random people from all over the world continue to mail me More Stuff. Here's a recent arrival:

Love it, love it, love it. What more can I say?

And I have two more ideas kicking around inside my head. I'm calling one of them a Drubble. And I'm calling the other one Button Up. Those are good clues. Now we'll see if anyone can guess what they might be....

Long Time No See

Gee, it's been a long weekend! It was Prom for us this past weekend, which entailed decorating on Friday after school and late into the evening, doing more of the same all day on Saturday, changing clothes to go back and chaperone, and then staying late into the night after the dance to take all the decorations down and pack them away for another year. Just typing about it makes me tired.

But it's worth every second. The young ladies in their beautiful dresses, like a mass of spring flowers in full bloom. Gorgeous. And yall know how I feel about pretty dresses! I look forward to it every year.

This year I sat with a friend and co-worker who also sews, and we spent quite some time discussing the different dresses. She had altered quite a few of them for the girls. Brave soul, she is...hemming chiffon layers and beaded fabrics is difficult and time consuming work. We had fun.

By late Sunday afternoon I had recovered enough strength to work on Little Miss Sunshine:




I'm getting close to finishing the smocking on this one. And I decided to use two shades of blue for the main panel of smocking, instead of just dark blue. I like the effect--click on it for a larger picture. I also have an idea for a different sleeve treatment on this one, but I need to give it a little more thought.....

And this came in the mail. It's a size 1, perfect for The Princess. I think I have the perfect piece of fabric for this one around here somewhere (or more likely, I have about 6 perfect pieces of fabric).



Here's the back:




Since our summers are so hot here, I like the little blue pinafore. It would make a cute little sundress, I think.

And even though I haven't done much actual sewing/smocking, I have had a couple of ideas percolating around in my head. For the upcoming idea I'm giving you fair warning that I CANNOT DRAW AT ALL. Here's evidence to that fact:





The sketch (gee, I'm embarassed to even refer to this thing as a sketch) on the left represents a pair of outgrown blue jeans that have been staring at me for a while. They do not want to go to the Salvation Army. At all. And since the Salvation Army store we had here is now scattered over 38 squares miles on the north side of town, they can't. So they have no Spoken To Me.

They want to be converted into a sundress for a young lady. Due to their size, they would best work in a size 8 to 12, I think. On the right side is my idea. I could use the front for a bodice piece, hopefully incorporating the pocket detail. I could use the legs for the back bodice and straps. And as I was finishing this masterpiece up, they Spoke Further and insisted that the back pockets be reused as front pockets. I shaded in the parts that would be denim.

What do you think? Has anyone done this before?

A-Smocking We Shall Go

Here is a progress photo of the smocking on Little Miss Sunshine. The first row is cable and alternating cable. The second row is wave. Of course, I have taken out the first row and changed the color. Funny how I always do that, isn't it?

At first I had a paler pink for the alternating cable, but after working the waves the pale pink wasn't showing up. So out it came, and in went dark pink. I'm happy now.





We are now three weeks post-tornado, and I am still going through the mail. This pattern is one I fought dearly for on e-bay even though it doesn't fit any of my princesses. I adore the eight gore princess seaming on this one, and the flare of the skirt is to die for. My problem? I really, really want this one in a size 1. If you've seen it (or one similar) anywhere, please tell me where! Otherwise, I may find myself trying to redraft this. Lots of work, there.

The more I look at this, the more I like it. Hmmmm......since I have a size 1 bodice, I could use that and shorten it a bit......fold out the excess in equal amounts in all the gored skirt pieces so it would fit the bodice.....adjust the armhole......shorten the length......respace the buttonholes.....This is doable. Without too much effort. Sunday afternoon, maybe? We'll see.

Here's the back.

Nice possibilities with this pattern. You could pipe all the seams. You could make just the jumper (the blouse is separate) for the hot summer. You could put the sleeves on the jumper and forget the blouse entirely. I really like the button closing in the back, and of course, I would use the sash. And the buttoned cuffs on the sleeves. Oh my!

Meet Bluebonnet. Isn't she lovely? The background is the color of a Spring afternoon.

She brought a lot of friends home with her from the fabric store.

What would you do with her?

Little Miss Sunshine

Something weird is going on. I keep hearing whispering.

I made a quick run up the road to visit Miss America and the children today, and I took Corn Field and Golden Tulip along for the ride. Who's Miss America, you ask? Why, she's our Number One Daughter, that's who. Not only did Corn Field and Golden Tulip wish for some fresh spring air, they were ready for a try-on!

The Blue Eyed Bombshell just adores Corn Field. They will be very happy together. Now that I have the hem pinned up, they will soon be living happily ever after. And her older sister, The Heartbreaker, is a little darling in Golden Tulip. After a couple of minor adjustments and a hem, Golden Tulip will be ready to move in, too.

As for their little brother, the Duke of Cute, he's mainly interested in something called "play."

And I now present...........Little Miss Sunshine:




This one is for The Princess. It will be smocked in blue and dark pink, with perhaps a little green thrown in for good measure. I posted a picture of the fabric and embroidery thread a couple of days ago. The background is a dark lemon yellow; for some reason the scans and photos look a little orangey. I'm using this smocking plate from the same issue of AS&E that I used for Purple Passion:





I really like the look of the scalloped bottom row. So sweet. And I have some ideas for trim, but I really can't concentrate because of all that whispering....

I'm going to reuse the Baby Square Yokes high yoke design for this dress. And just for the record, I always use a full 45" width of fabric for the dress front, and the same for the dress back. The pattern calls for a 36" cut, but I think the extra fullness really adds to the finished appearance of the dress. This pattern really fits The Princess well at this point in her reign.

As I got Amanda The Super Pleater out of her box, I noticed she looked a little bruised. As if she had been pinched or something. Strange.

I removed all except 11 needles and was thrilled that I didn't shed any blood in the process this time. Is someone in here whispering?

I threaded all the needles with quilting thread and got out the Magic Stick and the tape. I used three little pieces of tape to anchor the edge of the fabric to the Magic Stick. Do you hear the whispering, too?



Now we're ready to run through the rollers. Who is doing all that whispering???????

We start out going through the rollers. So far so good. Is that whispering coming from that big bag of fabric over there?????



Almost finished. If you look closely you can see the tape on the Magic Stick. I remove the tape, of course. I don't run it through the pleater, although it's hard to keep my mind straight with all that whispering I hear.....

This comes out of Amanda PERFECTLY the very first time! Yeah, baby!

And that's when I knew for sure about the whispering. Because when I did The Happy Dance, all the fabric in the bag started to applaud. The noise was thunderous.

After an hour of intensive water-drip torture with a bright light shining in its eyes, one of the fabrics in the bag ratted on all the others.

Seems like they had ganged up on Amanda and gave her a little roughing up. Made her promise to be nice to me. Told her they would pull out her needles with a pair of pliers if she stabbed me again. In short, they promised her a good old butt-whupping if she gave me any trouble at all.

They know a desperate woman when they see one.