Smocked Wrap Around Sundress: Petite Flower (AS&E 63)

Good day, dear Friends!  Some of you had written me weeks ago and asked if I was working on an Easter dress for Miss Baby.  The answer is I had every intention to do so after our return from the trip to Asia, but I ended up working A LOT after being gone for a month.  Long story cut short, my initially planned Easter dress didn’t happen.  But…. enter Petite Flower!  Sorry I am not able to take a more crisp-er picture of the dress.  Sometimes it’s hard to take pictures of small print fabrics. Hopefully you will get a better idea what the dress looks like in the subsequent pictures.

I got a bit emotional over Easter weekend seeing Miss Baby wear Petite Flower to church.  You see, I had smocked that dress way back in 2004/2005!  The notion of children was still faraway for me then,  and I definitely didn’t expect (thought I was hoping I would) to eventually have a daughter that would wear the dress.  And yet, there she was, telling me on Easter morning “Beanniful tress, Mom” as I put the dress one her.

When Miss Baby was born, the dress was put away in the “still a long way off” pile with the other pieces of clothing that are of larger size.  When the intended Easter dress didn’t materialize this year, I suddenly realized we might have something in the “still a long way off” pile that might work — and Petite Flower fit Miss Baby perfectly!

The dress is an exact replica of Petite Flower from Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 63.  She was most impressed with the “tracks”  (i.e. railroad tracks) I have smocked.  I have never looked at the smocked columns as tracks, but I do have a daughter who has engineering bent!

Thinking back on the years that had gone by, I am again grateful for the encouragement I have received along my sewing journey.  Back in 2005, I had no idea how to hem a dress.  Great friend Annelle came along and did the hemming for me.

I re-dedicated myself as a mother over the weekend after realizing just how fast my little Miss Baby is growing!  I am starting a new smocked bishop for her today.  Will show you pictures when I have had some substantial work done on it.

Thanks for stopping by!  I will catch up with later – I am also starting a new quilt today.  Anyone care to come by and babysit while I work?

Baby’s Easter Dress

I have shown you the smocked front before. It took me hours and hours to do the smocking, and then hours more to work on the bullion daisies! I enjoyed the smocking part very much, but the bullions gave me fits and callused fingers at times. I had completed the smocking and embroidery two years before Baby was even in the radar:

Well, by the skin of my teeth, and help from my ever encouragingly sweet friend Annelle, the dress happened! The pattern is from Australian Smocking and Embroidery’s Issue 48 (Star of the Show):

I love working on projects for Baby because it’s the special time I use to direct my thoughts and prayers for her. I haven’t been able to do that as much as I would have liked lately, but am glad I was able to work on the Easter dress project.

I didn’t get to make the suggested jacket that goes with the dress. While dropping off some stuff at the thrift store, I found this darling little yellow crochet jacket that goes perfectly with the dress. I came home and “made” the jacket look like it is “meant” to go with the dress:

I also made a matching hair bow to go with the dress. Being a planner, I had bought a set of hair bows with the most common colors worn by Baby. But we have managed to lose half of those hair bows! So, I wasn’t even going to pretend we could find a matching bow for that dress on Easter morning. I just made one with the scraps from the dress fabric. The tutorial for making the hair pretty is here:

We had a great Easter service at church. We saw five people baptized! Baby always loves going to church and plays in the nursery.

I have in mind to use up some of my quilt fabric scraps to make a couple of summer outfits for Baby soon. Stay tuned! :)

Thanks for stopping by. Have a beautiful springy week!

Some daisies to cheer your day

Happy Wednesday, Everyone! How about some cheery bullion daisies to brighten up your day?

These daisies are embroidered on the back of a smocked Children’s Corner Bessie using Milliner #9, with 30 wraps to each of the petals. Not the most enjoyable thing to do, but certainly worth the effort! Notice, the color scheme of the daisies echo the fabric print.

The front is already smocked, and I just need to finish up adding the remaining daisies! More pictures to come. Stay tuned!