1st Birthday Bishop Dress

Well, I got the "practice" smocked bishop dress finished in time for J's 1st birthday.
I even had time to iron it with a couple of days to spare.

Here are some pictures so you can see the final product in use and having survived
a very anti-climatic birthday cake moment. (She did not like the frosted apple spice
cupcakes - only the non-frosted ones!)

The sleeves are not properly puffed, as on a "real" bishop dress. But, for my first time
creating a bishop dress, using a pattern created with her measurements (see vani's blog and other links here), and
doing any smocking, I'm very happy with the results. As a cousin of mine said, it's
"Smocktastic!" And, if I can toot my own horn, I'll agree.

Smocked Bishop Dress

Quick Post!

Here's the final smocked bishop, all pressed and ready for J's 1st birthday.



Close-up of smocking. Not bad for first try-ever, except that center french knot is up too high. Never liked french knots. See how much I love you little girl? I did more than 10 in a single dress!



J's dress, next to the dress mom smocked for me for my second Christmas, Dec 1978.


Close up of mom's smocking. I appreciate all the time that went into making this dress much better now. Thanks mom!

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