Hi from Me.

Here is my first whole-garment smocking project. Little Dress 1, the Birthday Dress. For Sadie's 1st Birthday. The dress was completed 6 weeks ahead of schedule. I'm really pleased with it. The pattern is Mary De from Children's Corner. And look, my first piping! It really looked perfect when I sewed it onto the bodice pieces, a little less so when I sewed the skirts to the bodices.

The smocking is an adaptation of Aimee Catherine by Gwen Milner. The hearts are pretty subtle in this color but that's ok.

Overall, the construction was pretty easy. The pattern instructions were very good, and there are some very good photos of construction here:

(Thanks Juliane!) Just don't go looking at the seams. The zig zag stitch and I are not friends, so I haven't done the edges. Also, I had already finished the dress when I stumbled on some blogged instructions for French Seams. [I heart blogs!] All the instructions I have ever seen tout them as "advanced", and the diagrams look incredibly complicated. Now, I know that it is a fairly simple matter of taking one pass with right sides together, and then finishing the seam on the second pass with the wrong sides together. Voila, the raw edges are enlosed. Not exactly rocket science. The only trick is to subtract the first pass from your overall seam allowance, and maybe do a little trimming. However, working with 1/4" seams might be easier said than done. We'll see on the next Little Dress.