Bishop Dress Smocking Practice for J's first Birthday with web links

So I decided about a month (yes, that's right only a month ago) to smock a dress for J's first birthday, coming up in *gasp* TWO weeks! After plenty of hemming and hawwing, and lots of web research, I purchased English Smocking and an unnecessary (as I found out) bishop smocking guide from www.smockingstore.com . $18 later, I have directions, but no pattern for a bishop dress.

Back to the web! At Vani's blog I found a design your own bishop dress pattern. Aftger measuring J, (too bad I don't have pictures of me trying to measure her while she tries to crawl away) I set out to draft the pattern on big white construction paper. I used white cotton broadcloth because I didn't want to mess up the fabric I actually bought to make her a smocked jumper (keep reading).

So I make the basic dress (See here for a step by step instructions w/ pictures), iron on 9 rows of 30 year old knott's dots my mom gave me and pleat by hand (Here's a fabulous how to pleat by hand procedure - the jumper at the top is the inspiration for the final smocked jumper which will probably be done around July 4th!). Thankfully I got faster as I did more rows.

I have to admit, I was quite afraid of smocking. But after looking at these two tutorials (Marie Grace and Maggie B), I have to say it was much, much easier than I thought. Now Marie Grace says that she decided to do a bishop as her first smocked dress and later read that it wasn't recommended for beginners, so I guess we'll see. I have no doubts that this will NOT be the best smocking I will ever do. But I'm trying and really, my little girl deserves something made with as much patience and frustration as G's turtle quilt took. (Will have to post about that horrendous thing later.)

Lastly, I am combining a couple of different patterns to make my own smocking pattern - oops- plate. (Hopefully you can sort of see by rough sketch in the second picture. Basically (from the bottom), I'm doing two rows (rows 8& 9 or 5&6) of 4 and 5 step trellis' in purple and coral, then will skip up to row 2 (so the neck isn't too tight) and do purple and coral cable stitch, then fill in with baby waves on rows 3 - 4 or 7. (The pattern is deeper in the front of the dress and narrower on the sleeves and back, which I saw about 1/2 way down on the Maggie B Smocks Janurary Post). Wish me luck! Megan