Flower Child

This is the pattern I am using for the little smocked dress that has given me so much trouble. It is the Flower Child design:

I may or may not use a contrasting collar. At this point it depends on whether I have anything suitable in the fabric repository. This design is in this issue of Australian Smocking and Embroidery, No. 86:

 This is the fabric I am using, a soft as butter 100% cotton that is firmly woven yet still has a luscious softness. This one has lived in the repository so long I can't remember exactly where I got it.

And here is the smocked little devil so far. I cannot explain the trouble I have had with this little thing. I am still going to add more to it, maybe little bullions, maybe little buttons, just not sure yet. It is still talking to me. For the smocking I used DMC 155, 333, and 3815.

The smocking pattern itself is completely made up. After putting in a total of six rows, taking it out, putting them back in again, and taking them out once more, I realized that the second row had too many wave stitches.

I pondered (for 15 minutes, I tell ya) on whether or not to just cut the thing into teeny tiny little pieces with my giant scissors and then chew the whole mess up in the garbage disposal.

Then I decided that a little bitty dress was not going to defeat me. So I just left the wave stitches as they were and winged it.

So, there, little bitty dress, I will win in the end.

I hope.

More later.

At Last

I'm back. Been a while, hasn't it?

Busy today washing fabrics (8 pieces!) for little dresses for little girls....several of them hang around here......

Found a cute little dress in Australian Smocking and Embroidery, so I picked a freshly laundered fabric, pressed it, matched up three shades of DMC for the smocking portion with assistance from the Number One Son (who has really good taste, by the way), cut out the dress front, and then....

Six hours--6 hours--6 Total Hours--trying to get the durn thing pleated.

I managed to break ELEVEN smocking needles--ELEVEN!!!

After a serious round of really bad language I have called it a night. You know it's bad language when even the cat leaves the room.

Still unpleated little dress front.

Need to find extra needles for the pleater (here's hoping I have some, otherwise a road trip will be required).

Sewing is not supposed to be frustrating. Smocking is supposed to be fun. I am frustrated and not having any fun.

There's always tomorrow.

Any readers still out there? Let me know, if you will.

I'm off to charge up my camera.

Almost Done!

Stormy Night is almost done! It needs buttons sewn on, one snap at the neckline, the bias neck facing whipped down, and hemming! Hopefully I can knock this out tomorrow afternoon.









I've pretty much worked out all the drafting techniques to use for the twirly dress. My mind has been working on this one all week and I've made a whole page of notes to myself. So I guess really I've been working double time--working at the J-O-B and working mentally on the D-R-E-S-S.



One odd thing I've noticed is that I manage to solve most of my sewing problems at night while I sleep. For several days I've been trying to figure out one little detail on the twirly dress (the elastic on the back bodice) and I woke up about 2 a.m. this morning with the answer in my head. I promptly went back to sleep, but the solution is perfect. Many people think my mind is out of control (just ask my children), and I guess that can be a good thing sometimes. Has this ever happened to you? Or am I the only weird one?



At any rate, here's another piece of fabric from my little excursion on Monday. This will become a little dress, of course, but I'm undecided about which one:

I'm a sucker for sweet little flower prints. Speaking of which, I'm on the hunt for a black cotton print like this one, so if you've seen it available online anywhere, please leave me a comment.

I can't wait for the weekend!

Of Course, I Went Shopping

Yall knew I would, didn't you? And I had a great time, and some good luck. Why is it I always want to buy 50 yards of fabric? I didn't, though. Only fifteen yards. Honest.

I adore this one:



And this to go with it:



I've pretty much decided that I'm going to use this pattern, Natalie, by the Childrens Corner:





I'm planning on using the black dot for the fold back flaps on the back and the pockets, red piping, and red buttons. Any guesses as to what I'll name this dress?

Of course, there's more fabric lurking in those bags over there...and some patterns, too...and the latest issue of Australian Smocking....

I've done a bit more work on Stormy Night. The smocking is all done and I have the back closure ready for buttonholes. Then the neck binding, sleeve and side seams, hemming, and it's done!



I'm not particularly happy with the way this smocking pattern ends in the back. I may spinkle a few flower buds around, sort of random like. I'll be better able to tell when I get the buttons on it.

I'm anxious to get through with this one so I can draft out the little purple number. It is my intention to have it drafted and done in muslin by nightfall Friday night. If so, I'll head out to Joann's and grab me up some purple and orange fabric early Saturday morning.

Thanks to all who have left suggestions and hints as to how to finish off the bottom of the ruffly parts. You're a great help, and I'm glad you stop by!

A Three Day Weekend

Here I am in the middle of a three-day weekend, and some may think that I have nothing to show for it yet. Not so. Yesterday I spent four hours straightening up the sewing room so I could actually sew in there. During the holidays it seems as if everything in the world wound up piled up--on the ironing board, all three tables, and heaped up in stacks on the floor. Who made that awful mess? Me.

I inherited two bookcases from my mother, and they are perfect in the sewing room. Here's one of them, the one I mentally refer to as "The Dress Cabinet":





All of that is my little girl dress fabric. Yeah, I know. I don't have enough, do I? Maybe tomorrow.......

At any rate, I finally did get to smocking on the sleeves for Stormy Night. Here's a very unflatttering photo of one of them in progress:

I'm off to cook some Italian Pork Chops for She Who Is Pregnant With Twins. We're up to 23 weeks and 2 days, and things are looking good. And this evening? Sewing, sewing, sewing. I've got my groove on!

Smocking Diamonds

Thank you for the nice comments on this little baby dress. It is really starting to grow on me!

I have begun the diamond shapes on the bishop smocking. Like I said before, this is a very simple design that gives a lot of punch if worked in one color. Here it is so far:

I hope to finish the smocking this afternoon while the laundry goes round and round. I also need to smock the sleeves, which shouldn't take very long.



The actual smocking design is from this book, The Best of Australian Smocking and Embroidery:




I love this book. If you don't have it already, put it on your Christmas list. There are 40 smocking designs from the first eleven issues of AS&E, along with sections on color, victorian color schemes, smocking on florals, and much more. I want to make everything in this book. It is worth buying simply to look at the beautiful dresses even if you don't smock. There are no dress patterns, but each design is based on a square yoke dress or a bishop, and the smocking patterns are interpeted for each style of dress. Perfect if you have a baby girl with an older sister. I bought mine from the lovely ladies at Sweet Treasures. Yes, they will mail order. (No, I'm not affiliated with them, just a delighted customer.)

All Pleated Up

This has been a very busy week at work, finishing up on loose ends before the start of our Thanksgiving break. That's right, kiddies, I'm out for the entire week!

I cut out Stormy Night on Wednesday, and got around to seaming it up on Friday afternoon. It made a trip throught the pleater late Friday night, with seven rows of pleats. Yesterday I went and did a bit of Christmas shopping with She Who Is Pregnant With Twins.

Right now the dress is being blocked, like so:




I'm very happy with the way this pleated up. I really do like this fabric now, and I think it will be a sweet little old-fashioned dress. I've said before that the pleating is one of my favorite processes when sewing, because the fabric can look entirely different once it's pleated.

I'm going to put a row or two of smocking on this tonight to see how the smocking pattern and thread colors I've picked will look. Somewhere I've picked up a nasty head and chest cold, so I'm sort of dragging around. Hopefully it will go away soon because I have a LOT of sewing planned for this week!

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!

Good Things Come In The Mail

This is a gorgeous little thing, just look at that darling little hat, won't you?




This one (and another!) showed up in my mailbox from the lovely Amanda (thanks!). She had these and their condition was such that she couldn't use or sell them, so now they have a new home. This one is missing most of the parts, but you can see the shape of this little bonnet quite well on the line drawing. Here's the back:




Click on it to get a larger view of the pattern pieces for the bonnet. I just may have another bonnet pattern around here in the pile that is similar enough in style that I could actually recreate this one. I know that whoever had it originally must have loved it to absolute pieces. Go check out Amanda's site, Butterfly Blue--she's into all the same things I am. And an etsy shop to boot!

Thanks again, Amanda, it's already in its very own little protective sleeve....

And I'm still muslining along, trying to get those sleeves just so......

I really, really want to get this perfected by Friday night because we have NO SCHOOL next week. Nine wonderful days to cut, and sew, and smock, and cut, and sew, and smock.....

I can't wait!