Smocking revisited

I was asked to make a first birthday dress for our friends'  little girl. It seems that my friends have noticed that there have been a few baby clothes sent their way and that I may be addicted to sewing cute little garments for small people who already have plenty of clothes. Naturally I had sudden delightful visions of something very ruffly, with smocking and maybe embroidery, seeing as I wouldn't have to iron it. The only problem is that it is about 10 years since I last did any significant smocking.

To overcome this issue, I made a practice dress, except it wasn't a dress, because the 10 month old recipient had only just started walking, and a crawling baby tends to have a bit of trouble with a dress, so I made a romper.

I had a lovely time persuing my collection of Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazines, and in consultation with the baby's mother, came up with a combination of patterns:

Issue 87 Serious Fun

and Issue 72 Lollipop

I didn't really like the construction details for the cross over bodice for Serious Fun, and think that the bodice ruffle is both a little too large for a slightly sub size 1 baby (pattern is sizes 1-2) and also a very tight gather, but other than those mild quibbles, find this a pretty and practical garment (admittedly overtrimmed, but I am a bit trim deprived lately, making boring work clothes) . I did use snap tape instead of buttonholes at the crotch seam.

 

The main fabric is cotton quilting fabric, and the ruffle is a high thread count cotton sheeting. The pattern fabric calls for damask, which is usually a heavier fabric that the sheeting I used, so the ruffle could definitely be a bit shorter without any loss of frilliness. 

My smocking construction skills definitely needed a refresher. See my buckling seam between the smocking and the bodice ? I used to use an iron on tape for this placement, prior to sewing, but didn't have any to hand. I plan to baste a lot for the next one. I told myself firmly not to unpick this as it is a practice garment, and I'd already had to patch up a big slice I put in the front bodice (due to having no more of this fabric to cut out a new one) but it was difficult to resist the urge to re do it. Fortunately this garment does not live at my house and I won't see these sewing glitches glaring at me very often.

 

I tried to get an action shot, but there was a lot of action. You know the idea that if you can't see it from a galloping horse it doesn't matter ? I hope this applies to the active toddler.

Her walking skills improved dramatically between the start of construction and the finished garment (about 2 weeks). I think I am set for a dress for the birthday party. I am planning to both avoid slashing errors with my constructed dress parts and also to have a much better seam between the smocking and the rest of the garment.