smocked dress
 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]605603[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]605604[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]605605[/ATTACH] Here is the last smocked dress I made. It was my granddaughter Easter dress last year, made off of the Frannie pattern, by Especially For You. I am new here and when I posted on 'Introduce Yourself' someone wanted to see my smocking. (I finally resized small enough to upload these photos. Hope she sees this post.)-Toogie

i have difficulty sizing my photos & have given up posting here. but i love the dress! i used to smock by hand ..my smocking bars haven't been used in many many years ...& i only did home dec things. you do beautiful work. and welcome to the board!

Very beautiful!! Smocking is so pretty but sadly not seen much anymore. I've smocked a bit and I once taught smocking to a class of seventh graders. My MIL does stunning smocking and makes my daughters lovely dresses.

Welcome to the QB!

nicely done

both sides, front and back. Wow. it is lovely. i've never done smocking.

Very pretty smocking.

I tried smocking when my girls were little I just couldn't get the hang of it.

Very nice, good job !

I know what you mean by sadly not seen much. My oldest grand daughter is 18 now but when she was 6 she told me she had enough dresses. However, when my youngest daughter had her girls, she said as long as I made them she would dress them. She loves to dress them as much as they like to be dressed up, so it works out good for me, too.u

I was self taught and when I first started, I had no pleater, so every time we were in the car I was stitching from dot to dot, to make my pleats. My husband asked me on the way to a wake one time, (yes I was stitching on the way-lol) how much a pleater cost. When I told him, he said order one. He didn't have to tell me twice. That was my last dot to dot gathering-lol

Thank you all for looking and the warm welcome.

a beautiful dress!

I would like to know what a pleater would do. Does it look like smocking? I have a "ruffler" which does pleating, too, but it doesn't do something that would look like smocking.

I always like seeing little girls in dresses. Yours is awesome!

Welcome to our board. I love your work and would have loved to try smocking. Unfortunately all I had were boys! My oldest dad wore dresses and I made several for her. When she was little she only wanted dresses that “danced” ie full skirts. My youngest wouldn’t wear anything really frilly after she was about 6. Now at 13 neither she or her friends seem to wear anything but leggings and t-shirts.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]605633[/ATTACH]Maviskw-this is a pleater. It 'folds' the fabric like even gathering, into valleys and hills, so you can stitch on the hills.Look at the yoke picture where I took out the pleating toward the armholes. I hope I explained it for you. A pleater prepares you for the smocking.

I have a pleater but never use it. Played with it once. I did not like the way the sewing machine laid the pleats flat. I cannot do intricate hand work. Yours is beautiful!

Your work is outstanding! My girls and granddaughters are past the age of dresses, though I sewed dresses for all of them thru the years. Alas, I never could get smocking right!

Very pretty dress. The last time I smocked a dress was in 1976 when my daughter was 5!

The closest my daughter got to wearing smocked dresses was when Polly Flanders dresses were available!

I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say 'the sewing machine laid the pleats flat'. Did you sew on top of the pleats with a sewing machine? That would flatten them, I'm sure. The pleats are made to be hand smocked.Thank you for looking at my work and your comment. This is something I love to do, make baby and children's clothing, but the older I get I seem to be slower getting anything done.

Omgoodness, so adorable. I love the look of smocking especially on little girl dresses and doll dresses. This is not something I've ever tried before. Thank you for sharing yours. It is just darling. And, all the info is always welcome.

That is just beautiful. I used to smock a lot, when my DD was young. She rejected my fancy work for her daughter. sigh, I had dreams.

I looked at three of your posts before responding and am really impressed with the beautiful work you have done. It is very professional, lovely sewing.

My mother, now 93 in a nursing home, made smocked clothes for all her great-grands except my younger daughter's first baby before Mother had her stroke. I have been feeling so guilty that I haven't taken up smocking because my daughter's little son frequently wears smocked rompers and overalls that she buys. She hopes to have another baby, maybe in a year or so, but I just don't know if I really want to take on another sewing hobby. I'm blessed that one of the great-grands' mothers is willing to share what she has of my Mother's work with my daughter.

Thank you so much for sharing your treasures with us!

Lovely work.