Birthday Skirt

I had enough of the blue fabric left from Niamh's dress to make a skirt for Veronica. I therefore put the smocked dress I had intended for her on hold and launched into the skirt. I wanted to see if I could use the geometric weave of the fabric as a guide for smocking - a bit like counterchange smocking, which uses the lines of gingham as a guide.

I began with a line of stem stitch around the top in blue, then three rows of half-space waves.

It wasn't too difficult to do - but the effect was much more ruched than traditional smocking where there are sharp pleats. Nor did it give the tight effect of counterchange smocking.



I added a band at the waist, leaving a small plaquet on the side, which I secured with velcro. I didn't think there was sufficient elasticity to put on and off comfortably.







You can see the ruching effect here in truer colour.

I felt it needed a bit of complementary hem decoration, so used the same pink thread to embroider a line of open chain stitch around the bottom.

It is a simple, colourful, easy skirt with a bit of texture interest. It is not an heirloom piece, but will get a lot of wear over summer.

Veronica tried it with a couple of pre-existing smocked tops before settling on a tshirt (good choice, I reckon). My phone battery went flat before I could capture her twirling!

Brigid's Christmas skirt

I wanted to make a skirt for Brigid that was a bit more sophisticated than those I have made before. I used the pattern Born to Shop in Designer Smocking for Tots to Teens. The smocked panel in this is decorative, rather than functional (that is, the smocking does not serve a purpose of holding gathers in place, rather it is attached to a panel that itself  forms the shape required - in this case the hip-piece). I usually go for patterns that use the smocking functionally, but thought this one might really suit Brigid.

As the skirt component of this pattern is a full circle, it requires 150cm wide fabric. Nothing in my stash quite fit the bill, so I bought some spotty fabric from Hetty's Patch and set to.

I kept the smocking colours as close as I could to the fabric colours.

The pattern is an unusual and attractive set of interlocking diamonds.






I joined the front and back before pleating and smocked it all as one panel.


In constructing I varied a bit from the suggested method. Rather than attach the smocked panel and lining together to the skirt, I attached the smocked panel to the skirt and used the lining as a facing.

I edged the skirt frills using a small , close zig-zag right on the edge, so it formed a tiny roll-over.

The waist looked a bit big to me, and I couldn't try it on, as it was a present, so I ran soft elastic through the waist. I'll remove it if not needed.

It looks a bit odd on the coathanger, but will hang OK on a Brigid I think. I don't have a photo as yet, but will add if I get one.

Veronica's Smocked Skirt

Here is the second of my Morris Meadows smocked skirts, this one for Veronica.

Once again, I chose the thread, then followed the prompt of the gathered fabric to design the smocking. For this one I stuck to two colours - the blue and the pink, and worked zig-zags, blue at top and bottom, two sets of pink in the centre.

This one was very simple - but quite effective I think. The density of the smocking off-sets the predominance of green in the fabric.


As always, the tricky bit is gathering and attaching the frill, but it caused no great dramas.



I hemmed this one with a small turn-over - didn't need to bind the edge.

As these two girls get older, I shall miss the gratification of gift recipients stripping off their clothes to immediately put on an outfit I have made!

Niamh's Smocked Skirt

I can post this (and a few more too!) now that Christmas is over , but I did the work in late November The fabric is Morris Meadows that I bought from Country Bumpkin when it was on special. I bought two different colours - Veronica's will be posted in a day or two.
I used my old favourite pattern from AS&E 71 but joined the skirt back and front into one piece to pleat. I would rather smock the whole than join two smocked pieces.

I also wanted to work out a smocking design to fit the fabric, so chose my thread colours then worked it out as I went along.




The only tricky bit was achieving some filled diamonds in gold in the centre of the panel.

It is much less work to smock lines from one side to the other!

I was pleased with the result, however.







I wanted to maximise the length for this one, as Niamh is tallish, so bound the hem with some gold bias binding that Helen at Hetty's Patch helped me find.



A blue Tshirt completed the outfit.


  
This was a hit on Christmas Day as you can see from the photos, however blurry!

Tshirts to go with skirt

I had trouble buying the right sized Tshirts in colours I thought matched the skirt I smocked for Brigid. In the end I settled on three, one a size bigger than she is at the moment.

I appliqued a flower motif from the skirt fabric on to each. I think they will do the job.

I made a bag as wrapping for the skirt and Tshirts.

The present was a hit, looks great and will be used - what could be more satisfying?

Smocked skirt in Morris Meadows fabric

I bought some Morris Meadows fabric recently when it was on sale at Country Bumpkin, with the intention of making a skirt or dress for Brigid for her birthday. I spent a bit of time looking at my magazines and books. I wanted something with a flounce, or tiers.
I found it a lot easier to search my blog than to browse indexes and magazines! This will only work, of course, for things I have  made, but I am a pattern reuser, and found what I wanted in the end using a key word search of my blog. It has been worth adding those labels and key words! Indexes are only as useful as their access points,  the name of the project isn't enough.

This pattern is easy to adapt to a larger size and I am hoping it will do justice to the fabric as well as being something a ten-year-old will want to wear in 2013.

I was able to cut the fabric so it will only have one seam - nice for construction but a bit of a trial for pleating.  I ended up replacing one pleater needle and breaking one thread!

I chose threads that blended, debating whether to include only a touch of pink, as in the fabric, or blue, gold, green and pink in equal proportions. I went for the latter.

I wanted a simple pattern that caught the colour lines of the pleated fabric but let the pattern of the fabric show through in places. In the end I opted for the simple trellis of the original pattern, although that was reflecting a rick-rack on the hem that I didn't intend to use.


It is really interesting to see how you can use a stitch to quite different effect on different fabric.

I'm pleased I stuck with the pink. It provides a depth and blends with the gold.  I added a five-step trellis at the bottom to help define the fall of the fabric.





Blocking took a while because of the stretch over the length.

Gathering the frill wasn't too bad - I neatened the edge and hemmed the bottom before putting in the gathering threads, then marked it all out in eight sections before actually gathering.



The waist has elastic. I made it a bit tighter than the standard measurement for a 10 year old, which seemed big, but built in an extra loop that can be expanded.


The result is as I had imagined it. Finding and embellishing some matching tshirts will be the next blog post!

Smocking up a Storm - skirt 2

I promised Niamh a skirt like her sister's. As it is a quick and enjoyable project, I thought I'd do it sooner rather than later.
I had enough of a bright fabric with cherries on it, so I pleated it up and chose some thread.

This time I stitched the top panels for the front and back together and pleated the whole piece, rather than smocking them separately as suggested in the pattern. This is neater and I prefer smocking the long rows .


It worked really well.

Again, my efforts to find a suitable blue tshirt failed and I ended up with a reddish-pink one.

It is such a great pattern - a real pleasure to sew and a hit with 4 year-olds!

Smocking up a storm - skirt

Deciding to smock "Babe" for Niamh, a dress her sister already has, left me with a bit of a dilemma. What could I make for Veronica that wouldn't lock me into a difficult 'catch up' cycle? I had a kit for Sweet, Sweet, Rose (AS&E 71) but decided that while it might be desirable to both twins, it wasn't a great match for either.
In the end I came up with a skirt, using the pattern " Modern Girl" from AS&E 71. If it proves popular, and Niamh wants one too, it is fairly quick to make another one.

I chose a piece of fabric from my stash, purchased from a One Stop Fabric Shop sale. It is a bright, animal print with words of animal sounds.

It is a great pattern, deeply smocked in a zigzag around the hips, with a gathered tier added below and a simple elastic casing waist.

I decided against ric-rac around the hem. The fabric is bright in itself and it seemed wrong to cover up the fabric.




                                                                               
I intended to get a blue or yellow Tshirt top but couldn't find the either colour with the right intensity, so settled for a red one.

I'm glad I went for simplicity. Veronica really likes the skirt and I have promised to make one for Niamh too!

Another smocked skirt

I have been working on a skirt I promised Brigid last year when her original could be repaired no more. The replacement is the same black featherwale cord, with braid chosen by Brigid from my stash of braid and trim.

The pink and green braid is from Eastern Silk in Adelaide - fabulous silks and trims. This was one of their few non-beaded trims.The other black braid with red roses came from Cleggs in Melbourne.


I wasn't sure they would go together, but Brigid was - and we worked out I'd match the smocking to the zigzag braid.




You smock a cable row and then add the points below and above before finishing off with the lower row of border cable.

The top border of green is added after the skirt is attached to the band.

The pleats sit on the hip and the band goes from waist to hip.

I stitched the black flowered braid on by machine and the pink and green zigzag trim by hand. I couldn't see a way to do it neatly on the machine as the picots needed to sit flat.

I found it very difficult to keep the braids running straight even when pinned.




I used large heart-shaped buttons, one pink, one green to match the thread. The points on the hearts look quite good with the points on the zigzag smocking.I really like this pattern. It is simple and effective, with lots of possibilities for variation.

It is also much liked by the serious wearer!