New fabric = new dresses

 

Some donated fabric to the sewing lab prompted some new sewing for student samples.  After using this fabric for that, I took some of the leftovers and made a doll dress.  I used one fabric for the skirt and made some false straps to make it look like a jumper over a blouse.

I remembered I had some 'feather trim' that had the same coloring and added it at the hem and across the straps and waist.  

The finished back.

There were some fat quarters donated too.  I took two of them to make this dress.  Since the dress is less gathered at the waist due to the smaller width of a fat quarter, I added the lower ruffle.  

Here's the dress back.  Very girly, no?

Smocked dresses

I have always wanted to learn how to smock.  A few years ago I used the pleating machine at BYU-Idaho to pleat some scrap fabric to practice on.  It was really fun.  I decided to pleat some fabric long enough to use as the front of a doll's dress.  I pleated 5 colors-- and completed 2 pretty quickly.  I'm still working on the other three-- I want to try different designs.  Here are the two I finished.

Here are the first few rows of smocking done on the lower edge.  I really wanted to try to have a 'V' design on the bottom row.

The rest of the design is taking shape.  I used a piece of felt basted to the back to keep the pleats in the correct size to fit the doll.

I added beads in the empty spaces.

I sewed the front into a dress!  I used piping in the seam between the top of the smocking and the upper bodice 

The second one I did was lavender colored.  This one was pleated off grain since I only had a skinny piece.  Notice how the pleats puff out.  The weft grain looks better pleated than the warp grain.  The warp grain, as you see here, is too stiff and strong to submit happily to pleating.  I'll never make this mistake again!

Meanwhile, I became a grandmother again!  My daughter saw these doll dresses and asked me to make one for her new baby's blessing dress.  Here's the dress in progress and completed. 

I made the same basic pattern of smocking on this, including the beads.  I had to modify a baby dress pattern to include the smocking in the bodice front.  This photo shows my progress as I was hand stitching of smaller beads onto the collar and sleeve ends.  I didn't use elastic on the sleeve hems-- instead I gathered the hems and stitched fabric strips over the gathers.  Unlike the doll dresses, I fully lined this dress.

Close up of the smocking and collar beading.

Close up of the sleeve and hem beading.

Here's the back view.  I can't wait to see this dress on my beautiful granddaughter.