Smocking and BWOF

I am eating my words, and making another attempt at BWOF 6-2008-118. I described my earlier attempt at this as a Nana's nightie, and I still think this is true, on me, and in a Nana-ish floral print, but after some very helpful comments here and at Stitcher's guild (thanks ladies) I have decided to go ahead with an altered version for my daughter.
Kathryn and Liana both commented that part of the Nana's nightie aura of the dress was that the pleating details were lost in the print , and that the dress would be smarter in a solid colour ( I am paraphrasing here, they were both very nice to me!). Kathryn suggested a much wider belt to reduce the puffiness just below and above the waist, and Liana suggested emphaising the design lines with piping. I really appreciate these suggestions, and after finding some very pleasing voile at Oh sew Noosa during the week, have started on Mark #2.
I decided to smock the centre gathered section. I have pleated and blocked to 5cm, the center gathered section of the front skirt. This took considerably more fabric than BWOF allowed, and the fabric was only 114cm wide, so I will be making some hem alterations later to allow for this change.
I have used a very simple cable and trellis combination in the same colour as the contrasting voile I will use for piping and the sash (DMC 732).

 

My daughter felt that this smocking was a little plain, so I added some glass beads to the upper section of the smocking. She is happier with a touch of bling on her "going out" summer dress.

 

This has taken me most of the weekend (I did a little gardening too), and I hope to start on the construction this evening.