I have finished my version of the #135 dress. At first glance it appears very similar to Burda's dress, but that was the idea.
I know this sounds arrogant, but the main improvement in my version of the dress is the ease of the pleating, smocking and construction, and I cannot really show you this. With the Burda version, I had to wrestle with many aspects, one of the worst was applying the bias binding to the neckline. You can see that in my version, the on grain neck, and the line of cable within the seam allowance make the application very straight forward. I lined up the edge of the bias strip with the line of cable smocking, stitched around 3mm away, and not only did my wave stitches stay an equal distance away from the neck, but all my pleats remain straight, and evenly spaced. This was not what happened in the Burda dress, despite serious sewing wrestling.
You can see the difference that this makes to the finished dress in this close up. Part of the better appearance of the strawberry print is the additional width of fabric in the bodice.
The other aspect of my version that I like is the less voluminous skirt. The Burda skirt is as wide as the baby is long. The Burda sleeves are also more voluminous.
I do think that you can make a pretty smocked dress as a smocking newbie, just using written instructions. I am pleased that Burda put one in their magazine to entice new smockers, I just wish they had made the pattern more user friendly.
2 comments:
It's very nice of you to go through all the work to inform new smockers. Your work is very inspiring and the amount of work on a baby dress is not as intimidating as a larger garment, so I hope more people give it a try.
This was a really interesting read. You know a lot about smocking and express it well.
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