Perfect Lady(s) For The Easter Parade

The little Colorado granddaughters needed Easter dresses from my stash of fabric this year. I have wanted to use some old pink/blue plaid fabric for a new kind of smocking for many years, and have never quite gotten to it, so this was the year. 

But, first I thought I'd grab some fine white cotton and make a fancy lace embellished dress for the little one. I've also had this fabric for several years and it has woven striping and kind of a French entredeux running down the fabric every ½ inch or so. It is really cool fabric.

I also have some Swiss embroidery insertion that I bought about 22 years ago. This was a time for me when I had just learned the basic methods of old fashioned heirloom sewing and I purchased several yards of some of my favorite types of laces and insertions, and I just looked at them once in a while when I was sorting through my sewing notions.
The picture below shows a close up of the dress bodice. Here the lined fabric runs horizontally whereas the rest of the dress fabric runs vertically. The cotton val lace and embroidery were put together without entredeux and I used the point de paris stitch (#1229) to mimic the look of entredeux. This Bernina 830 machine does such a good job and I starched the fabric making it easier to run through . Turned out great.

I sent the dress to CO with a blue satin sash, but I had to actually go to the store and buy it before I felt like the dress was finished. By then I guess I was over the pictures.

Herre from the back of the dress. I lined this with a lightweight cotton and then added a 6 inch gathered pettiskirt chiffon to give it some lift.

The base of the dress is finished with more lace and pre-embroidered insertion. The ⅛ inch blue satin ribbon adds a little more blue for nice effect.
This French val lal lace is pretty easy to sew together. I just slightly gather the top line of the 1 ½ wide lace and then put it next to the ⅝" lace and set my machine on a small zig zag and go. The wearer has to be a little careful when playing in a dress like this, and I always tell their mother to take off dresses like this before feeding little faces. Then you don't have to wash them each time they wear it.

The corkscrew ribbons and some more of the embroidery tape to mimic the dress made a cute little ribbon for her hair.

Now onto the plaid.

Like I said this plaid is needing to be turned into a new kind of smocked dress.

 

You don't have to pleat the fabric to start with, but rather you use the lines of the fabric to make a geometric design in the bodice. I found this heart pattern and went with it. 

Of course I had to make another hair bow to match this dress too.

The white collar and cuffs are a heavier solid white cotton pique. Now that the dress is gone, I feel like I should've put a little heart embroidered on the collar and cuffs. Maybe I'll add something when I go visit these cute little ones next month.
These little females also have a 1 year old brother. I made him a simple tie out of the plaid and so they should all match for the big Sunday celebration.
Maybe they can even walk (i.e. parade) down the halls at church showing of their finery.
Happy Easter.

Something's Fishy

Little girls can wear smocked dresses until they are 6 years old, or there about. After that, they seem to outgrow the look. Therefore I feel the need to make at least one dress of this sort each year and this cute little sundress was my choice most recently.

I started and basically finished the smocking last fall, when I then set it aside for finishing in the spring. I didn't get it out until after our big wedding, and it just took me a few days to get it all wrapped up and finished.

 The pink and orange fishy has fun blue french knot dots to set it apart from all the other fish in the ocean.

 The purple fish should be a favorite of my little granddaughters too. I especially love their bright red smackers.

 The pocket on the front has the same orange piping surrounding it as the line that sets apart the top bodice from the smocked piece.

The back of the dress is drawn up with elastic to make it adapt to the small little backs that it must fit around. (I am watching a rendition of Mansfield Park right now, so I am perhaps sounding a little 19th century British as I write.)

I waited to enter these pictures for want of receiving a picture with the little Ellery wearing it, but I thought I'd now go ahead anyway. Maybe later.

(Update: When we went to SoCal for Thanksgiving, Cossette wore this cute little dress. Below are a couple pictures from that day.)

 Her from the back showing off the fancy hair bow I made to go with the dress.

Now the cute little 3 year old is telling quite a story, and we can see the front of the dress pretty well.

Smocked Skirt

I wanted to make something a bit more grown up for Lexy this Christmas, yet still have it go along with a dress that I had made a couple years ago which Lena was going to wear this year. So... I decided to still use the same type of smocking and have it go along the waist line of a dupioni silk skirt instead of a little girls style dress.
I took it to Hawaii in November and worked on the smocking while we were on vacation.

 The smocking matches the older dress beautifully.

Because it is for a little larger child and I thought ruffles in a bustle down the back would be cute, I just had the smocking go 3/4 way around the skirt and then I added the ruffles with elastic at the back waist.

 Here is the cute girl now in the skirt with a ruffly black sweater and silky shell underneath. I made a little yo-yo pin out of the silver dupioni to put on the sweater.

And little sister is precious in the cranberry silk dress that the skirt goes well with. I added a couple of grow strips on the dress, because her legs are a little shorter than her older sisters and the dress was too long.

Cute girls all wrapped up in Christmas attire.

Red, White, and Cute

This little babe is showing off a new dress that GramVi made for her.
I guess I always revert to the smocked items when I'm looking through my books for ideas.

This is a little sundress that has just a few rows of smocking under the round yolk, and then some flowery type circles at the junction of the up peaks in the design. The blank areas between the obviously smocked ones are back smocked from the wrong side of the garment so that the pleats stay put.

Then a couple of red ribbon widths are used for detailing and waalaa, you have a dress for the 4th of July.

And her moms toenails even match. Bonus!

Easter Sewing (6)

Moving on to the second youngest little granddaughters dress, I am still using the Camille Roskelly and her mom's designed fabrics called "Bliss".

Here is the main floral fabric pattern of the dress.

This dress is smocked on the entire bodice and is a typical square yolked dress. Using a white pique for the collar and sleeve cuffs gives the dress a little flare.

The baby cord piping around the collar and cuffs is a sage green/white checked fabric

and I also put a little ruffle of the checked fabric around the bottom of the dress.
There is a built in slip with an eyelet edge on the very bottom.

The smocking is done in aqua and red with a few rows of blank pleating that is back smocked (smocked in straight rows on the wrong side of the fabric) so as not to lose the shape of the pleats on the front.
Notice also the little red flowers hand stitched on the collar.

The double sided satin bow is the pretty aqua color and ties in the back.

Here is the finished front.
Happy Easter "E." Send me a picture!!!! Go here to see the girl wearing the dresses.

Easter Sewing (4)

To see the dress on the baby go to this site.
Finally a dress to go with all the accessories. This is a size 6-12 month dress.

 I used one fabric throughout the dress and did just 4 rows of smocking with some loops of cotton floss to put diagonal rows of ribbon through.

 This is a basic square yoke dress with little cotton white pique collar.

The back of the dress is the same except the placket that runs down from the buttons is out of a contrasting fabric that the panties were made from.
When we receive a picture of the baby in the dress (and booties, bonnet, & panties,) I'll be sure to post it here. Thank you for your cooperation.

Bishops Collar For 2 Y/O

Last spring I knitted a little lavender sweater and hat for LK.  She looked so cute in it that I thought I'd quickly make her a little dress to wear with it.  Well, ...... it is about 8 months later and I finished the dress. It has just a small amount of lavender and purple to be brought out by the purple sweater and I learned how to make a different type of hand-stitched flower to adorn the neckline.  They are made by using the same type of loop that I make when "casting on" a needle for a knitting project.
Fun, Fun!

This type of neckline is called "Bishop" and is gathered around the back, to the sleeve head, front, other sleeve, then last half of back. I smocked this in various stitches then made 4 colors of flowers in the center of the neckline.  The final touch is tiny little buttons for the center of the flowers and elsewhere.

I put larger buttons all the way down the back to match the smaller ones.

Kitten Dress

Just another shower post. The gift I made for her actual present at the shower was a little square yoked dress to go with the onesie that I made for the example at the shower.

New mom apparently likes cats, and the baby is going to by born under the sign of "Leo". It is the Chinese year of the Tiger, and so I thought I'd make the dress out of kitty fabric.
I just did a simple, no collar, short sleeved dress.
The geometric design of smocking on the front and back is just a 4 row pattern. I think I went across the bodice about 6 times with my needle (4 on the right side, 2 on the wrong side to hold the pleats)
Not terribly time consuming, but cute non-the-less.

It matches the onesie, so she doesn't get cold wearing it in early spring (It's a 6 month size)

BTW  ....   The Lakers Won!!!

Old Fabric, New Dress

My friend Christa decided a few months ago that she wanted to learn how to smock, so she asked me if I would help her in that task.  We set up a time to meet and she brought fabric for her project.
I have hundreds of patterns in various magazines and books that I've accumulated over the last 20 or so years, so I had chosen some simple ones to have her start her first project. Truth be told smocking is a very easy form of stitching, far easier than most embroidery or other handiwork. I think if I had to compare it to something else that had the same scale of difficulty, I'd have to say cross stitch. Yes, cross stitching is about as hard as smocking, and that is pretty easy.
After our first session/lesson she went home and finished the hand smocking portion of her project and then we met back at my house a month later with our sewing machines for a lesson in dress construction.
I will post my friends finished project later on when I get a picture of it, but for now I'm going to show you what I made alongside her as I was showing her how it is done.

The solidish pink fabric is the smocked section of the dress. I did some simple waves in the same light pink tone, and some accents in the brighter pink and blues that are in the body of the dress fabric.
The bow up on top will be for the little girls (Lena's) hair, and I made matching ones for socks if her mom wants them. I made some for baby socks a couple weeks ago, and although they might be too much for some people, I really think they are cute, so I made some more.

Here is the finished size 2 dress laid out on my couch. The little sleeve caps are in the "Angel" style, because I honestly ran out of fabric for the sleeves. They'll still be cute.
Oh, I didn't tell about this fabric. I bought it to make a quilt for my DIL before she was married. I think the main fabric for the dress was supposed to be the back of the quilt that would not be seen much. There are a couple of other small pieces of matching fabrics that go with it too, but I think it turned out nice as a dress. And ... already paid for is a pretty good price.

The hem is done with a contrasting fabric in Madeira Applique. Nice finishing touch.

The dress from the back  with The Hubby making adjustments for me. He is my photography cheerleader.

Christmas Dresses

Two adorable granddaughters graced my home today for a picture taking session.
I had made them their Christmas dresses and their Mom was thanking me by making me feel they were worthy of some poses.

I started these dresses in October thinking I'd get them finished by turkey day, but I always bite off a little more than I can chew. (Do you want me to recite a cheer from the 70's about that very thing?)

Here is a close up of the smocking and beading on the 4 years old's dress. 

...and on the two year old's. Notice the beautiful fabric. It is a silk dupioni and when I was working on it, I told everyone in the room to "Look at the amazing sheen", every time they talked to me. Pictures don't do it justice.

I made a little belt on the larger one, with two covered buttons. The corded trim around this, the bodice, and the collar, really make the dress look finished.

The back of this one has a lovely bow. Kara says she is never untieing it, she will just have Lena step into it. She actually kind of has to, because I made the zipper too short. I'm used to making button enclosures on little girls dresses, so when I opted for a zipper I underestimated the length needed. Live and learn, right?

On the front of this one I used silk ribbon embroidery. I haven't ever made a wearable item with silk ribbon embroidery before, and it was just right for this dress. A little Christmas poinsettia and mistletoe.

Finished front of the burgundy one.

....and with a beautiful little girl in it. She's just the cutest 4 year old I know! Lexy is very excited about the  puffiness of the skirt. "It's like a gown."

Her little sister looks like an angel. Notice the matching headband to go with her blond little curls.

Here they are in front of the tree in my Living Room. I photoshopped one smile into this picture from another of a similar pose. It only took me about 2 minutes. I can't believe I can do it that fast.


Just in case you were wondering, I think I WIN for the cutest granddaughters. 


I have one more, and I didn't even make her dress.

I did make the bow on top of her head.  Isn't she a cutie too?  I am missing her for Christmas.  "Enjoy Grandma Renee, Ellery!"