English Smocked dress

 Izzy really wanted me to make her a dress, an English smocked dress. I meant to have it ready for Christmas 2023, but ran into a lot of problems. I had such a difficult time seeing my guide threads.

She loves her dress!

I think the color looks really good on her too.

I piped around the Peter Pan collar, making the piping myself. 

I used vintage buttons too.

I piped the yoke, the sleeve band, and the back drop yoke.  I thought of adding a sash, but they're really difficult to tie with this cotton fabric.

You can see the smocking design better below, a heart design.

The construction of the dress was very easy for me, I have made countless little girl dresses in the past. All of the seams are French seams, encasing the raw edges. I'm so happy that Izzy loves her dress! The pattern is Basic Square Yoke dress by Children's Corner.

Christmas Secret sewing progress

 I didn't get much English smocking done last week!  I was hoping to get the stitching completed but life and Christmas planning intervened. I'm a little slower than I used to be and need really good light to see. 

I thought the smocking would show up more too.  

I've been collecting Lella Boutique fabric from the Christmas Eve line.

I am planning to make the pattern Reindeer Xing in the new year. I want to make the version with a little bit of red and green, not just grays. 

I've seen this quilt in person, and the blocks are pretty big.

The pattern calls for 3 yards of gray dot fabric but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  I searched on Etsy and googled the name of the fabric but no luck. One person on Etsy is selling the fabric for $25/yard, but I don't need it that badly. The fabric is used for the background on the reindeer blocks.

I bought 3 yards of some fabric online that is Lella Boutique (from another line) but when I matched it with my other fabrics, I see that it isn't the same tone of gray. I'm not sure if I should use it, or look for another gray that will match better.

Do any of you follow All People Quilt? They do something fun before the new year.  They make available a wish list for quilts you want to make in the new year. There are 12 lines.  Every month they post a number and you are supposed to make or complete that quilt.  I fill it out but don't follow their numbers, I just pick which project I want to begin or finish.  I already have a wish list for the new year and a lot of them are Halloween quilts 😂

 I also want to learn how to do Adobe Illustrator on the computer.  I've wanted to learn for years, I need to set off schedule for myself.

Thanks for following and reading my blog!  I'll see you next week.

Heirloom sewing

 

I'm doing some secret sewing.  I'm making some English smocked dresses for some of my grand daughters. It's very slow going though, so I'm not sure if I'll have them done in time for Christmas 😬 I'm going to do the best that I can! 

Setting the pleater up was a big deal, because I haven't done it in 8 or more years! I put my quilting thread in this container from Target that I use for storage. I threaded each thread through a hole and then threaded the pleater. The needles in the pleater have a bend in them so that they will go around the rod.

It took me so long to thread all 16 needles.  Then I realized that I only needed 15, so I just didn't thread the last one.  During the pleating, one of my needles broke.  I had to unscrew the rod, take out all the needles and start over again. The second time worked, thank goodness! It took me a whole afternoon though. I have my pleater propped on the chevron tin so the needles don't fall out as I'm threading them.

Success! I did a wheat stitch at the top, and had a really pretty peach thread for the second row.  I had to unstitch it because it didn't show up at all.  Now I'm using yellow which is my grand daughter's favorite color anyway :)

Here are the pleating threads, I tie them together taught against the fabric, two at a time. Then I take them all and tie them together loosely.  If I need to untie them, it's not too difficult as the quilting thread is a little stiff and waxy.

I'm using this pattern, but will have two extra rows because I'm making a size 10 and it requires 13 smocked rows.

In the empty space in the middle, I will have all these embroidered bullion roses. 

I haven't made a dress for my grand daughter Isabel yet, she's 8 years old.  She was telling her mother that she really wants me to make her a dress because she only has her blessing dress that I made for her, and she really wants to have another dress for her own daughter in years to come.  Isn't that adorable?  Yes Isabel, I'll make you a thousand dresses!!! 😂

I love it when they appreciate what I make for them 💗 It fills my journey with joy.

See you next week!