Benjamin's Button-On Suit

I can't believe I got it done! 

I am so excited about finishing Benjamin's blessing outfit :)

I love how it turned out, I hope his mom will be happy with it.

I sewed my heart out....

Did I mention that the last time I sewed this pattern, it was for my now 19 year old son?  Lol...He was 3 when I made him his last smocked outfit. 

 We lived in the South so it wasn't uncommon to look like "Little Lord Fontleroy".

The pants are little knickers.  (cute!)

I used six antique buttons to attach the pants to the shirt.

The fabric is Swiss cotton.

I added a little label to the inside of the shirt.

This is a view of the back of the shirt.

I used antique pearl buttons and only two are the same.

I thought it added character to have them all just a little different.

Benjamin's blessing is on Sunday.

I will share photos of Benjamin in his outfit next Wednesday.

I hope it fits him okay, keep your fingers crossed :)

Progress!

It's midnight and I have finished Benjamin's blessing shirt.

I am so excited that I have this much done!

I just have to make the lined knickers and sew about 14 button and buttonholes!!!

I blocked the smocking insert.

I cut the bias strips to sew the piping.

Here is a close up of the shirt.

There is piping around the collar, the top and bottom of the smocked insert, and the sleeve cuffs.

I sewed the buttons under the ducks, aren't they cute?

I really like the knife pleats too, they add a masculine touch.

On Tuesday, I will sew the lined knickers andhopefully sew all the buttonholes.  See you then!

Smocking

I am making my little grandson a blessing outfit.

I'm making the button on suit with the pleated front and knickers.

This is my pleater.

For this project, I threaded 10 needles.

Some of my little dowels that hold the spools of thread have broken over the years, but I can still get it to work :)

I rolled my length of Swiss Cotton onto a dowel and gently pulled it through the pleater.  

It's so easy to break a needle when I do this, so when I say I pull the fabric through gently, I mean it.

If I break a needle, I have to take the whole thing apart and start all over again.  I've done that many times, and it is a pain!

Yay, I didn't break a needle and the pleating is straight.

I smocked 2 rows on the top and 2 rows on the bottom.

I want the pleats to hold their shape in the front, so I had to back smock 4 rows on the back of the inset.

I finished the little ducks.  This is called picture smocking.  

When I pull out the pleating threads, the pleats will hold their shape because of the four rows of smocking I did on the back.

Notice the trellis smocking in between the two top rows and the two bottom rows.

I finished the little pull toy ducks, aren't they cute?

I just have to sew l/4" buttons to the bottom of each duck.  

People are always asking me how long it takes to do a smocking inset like this one.

I counted this time and it took an hour to do each row and each duck, stitching over approximately 250 pleats.

  That comes to a total of 13 hours!!!  

I will be sewing the little blessing outfit this week and will show you the results :)