{"id":465,"date":"2013-05-11T23:52:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T03:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=465"},"modified":"2014-10-19T20:33:11","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T00:33:11","slug":"alyshas-ready-to-smock-birthday-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/11\/alyshas-ready-to-smock-birthday-dress\/","title":{"rendered":"Alysha’s Birthday Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"happy-mothers-day\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Mother’s Day to each and every one of you who has mothered a child of your own or a child of another. (Frankly, I cannot imaging anyone who sews or reads this blog who has not reached out to children and grandchildren of their own and\/or others.)<\/em> The love and attention showered on our precious children is the best use of our precious time.<\/p>\n

I’m at that happy time of life when I can enjoy my beloved adult children as well as the beloved grandchildren they have given us. My daughter Rebecca and daughter-in-law Shelly are both incredible, wonderful mothers whom I admire and love dearly. I wish each of you a happy day filled with appreciation from and for your loved ones.<\/p>\n

Around here it has been busy, busy, BUSY!!!! We’ve been blessed with almost back to back and overlapping visits from our four grandchildren and even more happy chaos.\u00c2\u00a0 In a future post I’ll tell you all about Laurel’s luau 9th birthday party, new fleece blankets for each grandchild and the progress of our newly tamed feral cats and the kittens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So once again, I am rerunning an old post, though I do have a few new thoughts and plans.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope\u00c2\u00a0 to make a very similar dress for new granddaughter Vivian Rose before her first birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 FYI, Alysha is almost 5, adorable and the apple of her grandparents’ eyes.<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\"zAlyshabdbishop2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Busy as we\u00c2\u00a0grandmothers\u00c2\u00a0are sewing for our own little ones, we often are moved to stitch for another child.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure\u00c2\u00a0most of you readers have done the same.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s satisfying to share you love of needlework with another family.<\/p>\n

Alysha is our God-daughter’s first baby, as well as the first grandchild of our dear, dear friends of 30+ years, Gale and Paul.\u00c2\u00a0 As Alysha’s first birthday approached, I wanted to do something special for this very special baby.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"zAlysha\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With a lengthy to-do project list, I chose another ready-to-smock garment, a size 2 white\u00c2\u00a0 broadcloth bishop dress.\u00c2\u00a0 Though I knew\u00c2\u00a0I could smock it up in an evening or two and fully intended to do so, I found myself once again compelled to do a little more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even though the tiny sleeve hem was well done, before smocking, I took it out and added tatting to the edges.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"zAlyshabdbishopF\"<\/a>

Mollie Jane Taylor’s Buds and Berries<\/p><\/div>\n

Then I chose a simple plate, Mollie Jane Taylor’s Bud’s and Berries<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve smocked it two or three times, once for my Rebecca when she was little and it always is very pleasing.\u00c2\u00a0 It would have been smocked very quickly if I had simply followed the pattern and done enough rows for a one year-old.<\/p>\n

But Alysha is a big little girl, tall and sturdy, 32 lbs. at her 1st\u00c2\u00a0birthday check up.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0That meant that \u00c2\u00a0I could smock more rows on her dress than I normally would have for a one year old.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But I always like to make sure that the sleeves puff out before the edge of the child’s shoulder.\u00c2\u00a0 So I did what I usually do,\u00c2\u00a0 smock fewer rows after the sleeve seams than in the center front and back.<\/p>\n

\"zAlyshabdbishopB\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mother of pearl buttons replaced the plastic “utility” buttons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The next modification was my compulsory button replacement, mother of pearl for plastic.\u00c2\u00a0 After that, I removed the ready-to-smock label, as usual, because it is stiff and scratchy to tender baby skin.\u00c2\u00a0 Sewn to this label is a tag with the identifying size.\u00c2\u00a0 As the label is usually sewn on with the neck binding, you cannot simply pull out the stitches.\u00c2\u00a0 To do so would “unsew” the neck binding.\u00c2\u00a0 The label itself\u00c2\u00a0 it has to be cut close to the stitching and the remaining threads and\u00c2\u00a0 fibers pulled out with tweezers.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not time consuming.<\/p>\n

I could have sewn the size tag in the side seam, the procedure I usually follow for older children.\u00c2\u00a0 But instead I\u00c2\u00a0 embroider a tiny “sz. 2″ on a white ribbon which I sew into the side seam.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, I turned up the hem.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The ready-to-smock\u00c2\u00a0dresses are\u00c2\u00a0generously long, so rather than cutting off the excess, I just\u00c2\u00a0turn up a double 4-5” hem.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it is a bishop and because it has the generous hem, it should fit\u00c2\u00a0Alysha until she is three years old.<\/p>\n

One tip I have for beginning smockers is to always select ribbon for sleeves before you choose the floss colors.\u00c2\u00a0 It is ever so much easier to select ribbon first and then match it to\u00c2\u00a0 floss from the broad spectrum of DMC colors before smocking rather than it is to smock first and then try to find a ribbon match.<\/p>\n

Alysha looks adorable in this dress.She has the most kissable cheeks and squeezable\u00c2\u00a0legs.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s nice to have my friends’ grandchildren to enjoy as well as my own.<\/p>\n

NOTE:\u00c2\u00a0 I thought the dress looked so\u00c2\u00a0pretty hanging from my Lady Margaret passion vine, a favorite with butterflies.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I brought the dress back inside, there were purple stains everywhere it had touched the blossoms.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank heavens for bleach pens.\u00c2\u00a0Lesson learned. No more passion vine garment pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Mother’s Day to each and every one of you who has mothered a child of your own or a child of another. (Frankly, I cannot imaging anyone who sews or reads this blog who has not reached out to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,28,27,24,38,64],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31669,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/31669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}