A Dress To Dance In

A Princess came to see us, and she has a new dress!




Here's a back shot. It's very difficult to take a picture of a dancing baby, but we tried:




The dress is the perfect length on her. It just looks long due to the angle of the photos. It was being taken by a very tall Number One son.

Here she is again, and that's her Grandma (me) in the background, laughing at her:




What?????? You don't let your babies dance on the kitchen table? She can do anything at Grandma's house.

I have the next project underway. I'm using this pattern, Woodland Fairy, from issue 49 of Australian Smocking and Embroidery:




I will probably use a different smocking plate, and I am going to lengthen the sleeves to 3/4 length if I have enough fabric.

I'm going to challenge myself a bit on this project, by using this almost ugly, almost boring, almost unsuitable fabric. Meet Stormy Night:




The background is an intensely dark midnight navy, with gold flowers and dark green stems. I hope to "baby" it up with embroidery, maybe some piping, maybe some ribbon, maybe some lace. If you have any suggestions on how I can pretty this up, leave a comment! We'll see what develops!

Thanks to all of you for the kind compliments on Frolic. I really appreciate all your encouragement, and your comments keep me going!

Finished Frolic

I didn't get in any sewing time yesterday after all. I had forgotten that I had to sell tickets at the football game. But college football games on TV and sewing were made for each other, so I finished this up during the Georgia vs Auburn game. Go Dawgs!


Here's the official On The Hanger shot of the front:





And here's the official On The Hanger shot of the back, with a wonkily-tied bow, I might add:






I love this little dress! And since I didn't show this to you yet, the pattern name is Tea With Isabella from issue 50, 2000, of Australian Smocking and Embroidery:





I made the size 18 months. The only pattern change I made was to shorten the length by 5 inches, simply because I didn't have enough fabric. So my version doesn't have the double tucks at the hemline. They show this smocking design on a bishop dress (that's the cover shot) and also as a square yoke, which is what I made. But I can see one of these little bishops in the very near future.....

I need to go cut out a new project!

Still Frolicing

Today I finished construction on the sleeves. Here's one of them, posing on a tailors ham:





And then I worked on the neck finishing. First I narrow hemmed the short ends and one long edge of the frill. Then I gathered it and pin-basted it to the neck edge, like so:




Well, yes, I do believe in using lots of pins! I hand basted the frill to the neck edge, then hand basted the piping, then basted the bias binding on, too. I stitched through all the layers, trimmed it, turned it, hand stitched it down, and I had this as the result:




I'm in love. Tomorrow--sashes, side seams, setting in sleeves. At least that's what I'm shooting for.

Have any of you made this dress before? Or one with a neck frill like this?

A Poufy Little Sleeve

Is "poufy" a real word? Well, I'm going to pretend it is, because these little sleeves are certainly going to be poufy!

I started the sleeve construction by running double rows of gathering stitches on the sleeve cap and the sleeve bottom edge. Then I measured and cut piping the length of the sleeve bias band:





The bottom edge of the sleeve is gathered, piped, and bound with a bias strip. This sleeve is constructed in its entirety, then set into the armhole "in the round." The bottom gathers are pulled to fit the piping, matching the center and the outside edges.

Notice how the gathers are concentrated in the center of the sleeve only? This, in conjunction with the sleeve cap gathers, is what creates the "pouf" effect. There are no gathers in the underarm part of the sleeve, which also makes it more comfortable to wear.





This sleeve is already taking on the pouf shape.

I pin this together with the piping on the bottom. One thing I do when I adjust my gathers is line them up straight, as if they were pleats. I have found that if I adjust the gathers so that both rows of gathering stitches are visible (and by that I mean that they sit on the top where I can see them), I get nice even gathers instead of little pleats. If you click on the picture above, you will see the double row of gathering stitches are visible.

Here's what this looks like when I flip it over (the pins are on the bottom).



Then I use basting thread to baste it from the piping side, basting over the stitching line of the piping. This is one of the places where 5 minutes' worth of hand basting makes all the difference. Here it is all basted:




Now I stitch it with the machine, sew the underarm seam, and attach the bias band. And I have two adorable little sleeves!

I Love Piping

As planned, I got in some good sewing time today. First I blocked the smocked front, then zigzagged around the armhole cutouts. Then I used the scissors. See?




Before I do the armhole cutouts I always straight stitch with a 2.0 stitch length along the cutting line. Then I stitch over that with a teeny zigzag--that's just my extra insurance that the smocking and pleating won't fall apart on me.

Then I made piping and basted the bodice front to the front skirt. Next I put the back together, including the placket. I didn't add piping to the back bodice seam allowance since the bow sash would just cover it up. This is how far I am now:




I interfaced the entire front and back bodices, as usual, with my favorite interfacing, Fusible Knit. Adding interfacing to the bodices really does support the weight of the full skirts, and they always look so fresh and crisp, never droopy.

Next up is the little puffed sleeves. Maybe tomorrow!

Smocking Done, Let The Sewing Begin

I finished the re-smocking on Frolic, and I'm happy with the results. I hope it is as pretty on your monitor as it is on mine:




I ended up replacing the three double red bands in the middle with double bands in apple green. The green is almost the same shade as the ground fabric, and the sheen of the embroidery thread adds a bit of luster to the center. I'm much more satisfied with this now.

I have all the pieces cut out and marked for the remainder of the dress, except for the bias strips for the piping. So I'll cut those tomorrow and start putting this together.

Have a good evening, I'm off to bed.

Unsmocking

We had another gorgeous day here today, and I spent it cleaning and doing laundry. Once I got sick of that, I loaded up several Random Teenagers and we headed out to the movies. If you haven't seen "American Gangster" yet, go. Denzel is The Man.

Tonight I unsmocked most of the red in Frolic. I decided I liked a little of the red at the very top and at the bottom, so I left it. For now, anyway. Sometimes you just have to set a project aside for a day or so and just think about it. I have resmocked one row, using the same green as the background of the fabric. Hopefully you can see it in the picture below:





Is this looking any better? I really wanted to get this done this weekend. More tomorrow!

Thinking Out Loud

November is here at last, and maybe a little bit of fall is headed our way, too. At least we're not in the 100+ degree temperatures anymore.

I haven't made any more progress on Frolic, simply because I'm not 100% sure about the smocking colors. I'm trying to decide if I need to replace the brick red with a green that will blend into the background. If I do it that way, the navy embroidery will really shine. Right now I feel like maybe there's just too much going on with all the colors. If you can jump in here with a comment or suggestion, I'd really appreciate it!

I'm hoping for a really good weekend, sitting here with my fingers crossed hoping my fabric orders will arrive tomorrow.

Thanks in advance for your help with Frolic.

A Picture Of Frolic, Finally

Here's my photo of Frolic that I didn't get to post yesterday:





All that's needed now is the little cable flowerettes in the little navy diamond shapes. Hopefully I'll get those done tonight. For some reason the green looks quite faded in this photo. In real life it is a beautiful shade of apple green.

Fall Fashion Fling Recap

Even though I don't have a lot of finished garments as a result of my nine glorious days of fall vacation, I still feel as though I accomplished quite a bit. I managed to:

• complete one garment (no final photo yet, I know)
• alter and fit three top/blouse patterns
• buy fabric in person
• order fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics and Fabric Mart
• pleat and smock a dress for The Princess!

I think I done good, yall!

Day 9--A Little Frolicing

Frolic

This has been another lovely day to wind up my Fall Fashion Fling vacation. I spent it hanging out with the Random Teenagers and with Frolic. See?





I have another repeat to work, then a bottom scallop design. And last of all I will add cable flowerettes. I'm really excited about this one. The colors are nice and I've decided to make tiny navy piping for the bodice, sleeves, and neck. Oh, and did I mention there's a big fluffy back sash, too?


And From The Comments:

Yes, lilymarlene, smocking is addictive. It is also very easy to do. And it's portable. I do all sorts of needlework and embroidery, but there is something about smocking that just grabs me. If you have a chance to learn it, do it. You'll give up everything else! I love it.

Back to work tomorrow! But I have two fabric orders on the way from Fabric Mart and Gorgeous Fabrics. Mr. Postman, leave me some mail.....

Have a nice evening. I'm off to frolic a bit more and watch the World Series.

Day 8--Smocking And Football, A Great Combination

I've tried to post several times today but Blogger wouldn't cooperate. But anyway, since you weren't here to enjoy it with me, is my afternoon sky, as seen from the back porch.







What a lovely day! Perfect for smocking and college football.



One of the things I enjoy most about smocking is the actual pleating of the fabric. It's sort of like Forrest Gump said, it's a box of chocolates. You can see in the next picture that after being pleated, the pattern repeats in this fabric are much more obvious:








Notice how there's just a bit of the navy showing? A thing like that can change your choice of embroidery thread. After this was pleated, I decided to use the navy as the main emphasis of the smocking in order to "spread" more navy across the smocked bodice. The color distribution is more obvious in the next picture:

This photo shows the pleats after blocking. Although some books instruct you to use spray starch on the pleats and then steam them, I don't do that. I have found it more difficult to smock if the fabric has been starched. I just pin the bodice down on the smocking board to the size needed, then steam the daylights out of it. This serves two purposes: one, the pleats are nice and even and easier to smock, and two, I get a free facial.

The next photo shows the front bodice guide overlaid over the blocked bodice. I always double check the size after steaming and I also baste around the armhole areas. That area will be cut away after the smocking is completed.

And here's where I was earlier today. I'm using navy and brick red. The fabric came from my favorite smocking shop, Sweet Treasures. Great ladies and more fabric in one place than you can imagine!

Back to football and smocking!

Day 7-Having A Blonde Day

I started the day with a new haircut and new highlights. I love being pampered at the hair salon and it put me in the mood to make something special.

I'm cutting this up, so it's time for you to meet Frolic:




And I'm using this pattern:




Won't this be perfect for frolicing in the fall leaves?

I'm shortening my version quite a bit, since The Princess doesn't really want to sweep the floor with her dress. Actually, I didn't have quite enough fabric, so I had to shorten it by 5 inches. This should work out well, but I doubt I'll have enough length for the hemline tucks.

Hopefully I'll get this pleated so I can sit on the back porch and start smocking a little while I still have daylight. The floss colors usually look different once you start the actual embroidery and I find that natural light helps me make color decisions. The smocking design is very geometric and I love the little neck frill.

There is also a skirt pattern and a pants pattern calling out to me, so we'll see what develops later on....

Enjoy your afternoon!