Birthday Dress

I have just taken a bit of a plunge and made a dress that isn't smocked for a granddaughter's seventh birthday. I have had a kit for a smocked dress, size 7, for several years, chosen for Veronica because of her colouring. I had, however, no kit in hand for her twin sister.

I've been looking for a few years (well, just over 30 years) for a dress to make with a piece of vivid blue cotton. The fabric was given to me when my own daughters were about the same age as the twins are now, by a cousin in England. She gave me several pieces. I used the others, but this piece remained.

It has an unusual weave. The warp has an openwork stripe that creates a tiny pleat effect, which is reinforced by a fine elastic thread running in stripes across the warp.  It is in remarkably good condition, given its age, with the elasticity still fully functional.

I've always had a notion to see if I could smock it. However, I decided to finally use it, and to find a very simple pattern that would give full effect to the texture of the fabric.





I came up with Simplicity 2377. It is an easy pattern, and I had some braid I thought might enhance it.

The pattern proved to be very straightforward. I went for sleeves. It has elastic around the sleeves and neck. I decided to add elastic under the bodice as well.

It will be very simple to put on and off.

The braid proved a little tricky - do you put it on the stretched fabric or the unstretched? I went for stretched around the bottom, using the machine. It produced a slightly flaired effect - not bad, but I rejected a second row of braid around the bottom (photo is washed out - the blue below is true).





I added braid under the bodice, but did it by hand.

I like the simplicity and colour of this dress. There is enough fabric left over to make a skirt - watch this space.

Penny, I do hope you are as pleased as I am that I finally got around to using your last piece of fabric! Niamh was certainly happy.

Smocked Denim Dress

 A couple of years ago I bought a piece of figured denim at a Spotlight 'end-of-roll' sale thinking it would make a dress for Brigid. I liked the butterflies and asterisk-like pattern.
I have just made it up for her 9th birthday, using the Gypsy Dance pattern from AS&E Issue 86 that I had already made in original fabric .

I should have figured out before I started that denim doesn't pleat that well!

I destroyed 5 pleater needles in the effort - the first time I have broken a needle in the 15 months I have had the pleater, so I guess it was time to learn what to do. The needles didn't like the figures on the denim. I ended up with four broken rows of pleating out of 17 and picked them up by hand.



I used the figures on the denim to select thread colours, including some variegation to assist the grading. Perle thread would have been best, I think, but I got better gradation of colour using stranded.






Given the pleating difficulties I decided to stick with the same smocking pattern as the original Gypsy Dance design, which is a two-needle cross-over diamond pattern that only stitches into the pleats every second row. This made it easier to deal with some of the bumpy bits than a finer pattern would have.


My original intention was not to use binding strips or piping between the tiers, but I changed my mind as the dress progressed. I bought some mauve piping from Hetty's Patch and found a piece of batik fabric in my stash that seemed perfect.
Making up the dress was not difficult - just the usual yards and yards to be gathered to achieve the tiers. I remember the watermelon-pink dress with a three-tiered skirt my mother made to please me when I was about 8. She shed more than three tears getting the three tiers in place!

Orange star buttons pick up the asterisky pattern.  As all the bias strips and the hem had to be stitched down by hand, it was quite a lot of hand-stitching, but I find that quite relaxing.





The project was completed with a calico bag to cover the dress, rather than fold and wrap it. I figure it will be useful somewhere along the way for transporting a costume to school.








Brigid was happy, and one of her sisters was entranced.

Smocked silk dress

While I am on a roll with the much-handled McCall's pattern and my Indonesian ikat, I took the plunge with the second piece of fabric from Singaraja.






This piece is silk and woven as a sarong, rather than a continuous length.  I tried to cut it to maximise the use of the pattern. I did lose a little from the top edge but managed to centre the large birds both front and back.

I stitched in the sleeves using a narrow French seam and again pleated it like a bishop. It pleated like a dream.


I went for 9 half-space rows, including 2 holding rows.

I chose a very simple trellis in graded colours matching the fabric, using two strands of DMC.
I was hoping to get a bit of a bargello effect so shaded the colours pink, through purple and blue then back again.

I couldn't get a long enough bias strip for the neck out of the fabric, so I used a purple bias binding, then feather-stitched around it to give a bit of texture.

I'm pleased with the finished effect.











I debated turning a hem or leaving the selvage. The piece was designed to wear as a sarong, with the border at showing at the bottom, so I have left it for the moment. If it seems too long I will take up a hem.

I like the simplicity of this - a little bit of smocking, a little bit of sewing and the fabric speaks for itself.

Smocked dress from my versatile McCall's pattern.

This is the second top from my McCall's pattern. The fabric is Mali cloth that I bought from Weavers of the World a year or so ago. This time I thought I have a go at smocking from this pattern.


I cut out a dress, adding about an extra 18cm in the front and the back -  a bit of a guess based on the first top I made from the pattern.

I then stitched in the sleeves and pleated it as I would a bishop. It pleated quite well although it was a lot of cloth!

 I pleated 9 half space rows and chose a smocking design that gave me a bit of an echo of the circles, while opening out at the bottom to the gathers. I used three strands of DMC - pretty sure it would have been easier to stitch in perle, but it worked.

I realised when I came to gather and stitch the frill that I hadn't added any fabric to the frill to compensate for the additional fabric front and back for the smocking. It was,however, quite enough of a frill! I seem to have spent quite a lot of time lately gathering and stitching frills!

I also cut the neck binding a few centimetres shorter than the original top. It still fits over the head easily but comes a little higher on my shoulders.

It worked. I feel a bit like Mma Ramotswe when wearing it. It's been great in our current weather.