{"id":6417,"date":"2010-04-11T00:27:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T04:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=6417"},"modified":"2015-01-11T23:58:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T04:58:15","slug":"strawberry-sundress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/11\/strawberry-sundress\/","title":{"rendered":"Strawberry Sundress"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

With the sweet spring weather we have had these past few weeks, I have had sundresses on my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 I came across pictures of this little sundress that I made for Laurel\u00c2\u00a0the summer that\u00c2\u00a0she was two.<\/p>\n

Many such sundresses had been made for my daughter Rebecca from that age on, from a pattern that my friend Mary Hale Hoffmann and I made up.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Smocking this garment brought back sweet memories of those days.<\/p>\n

Our daughters were the same age and we smocked around the clock for them.\u00c2\u00a0 This pattern was so easy and economical that our girls wore them like school uniforms.<\/p>\n

We used\u00c2\u00a0the armhole curve from Katina, a Children’s Corner\u00c2\u00a0sundress pattern with a\u00c2\u00a0narrow yoke.\u00c2\u00a0 We added\u00c2\u00a0the width of the yoke to the armhole curve and voila’ we were in business!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

With 30″ down the selvage of 45″ fabric, we had enough for the skirt front and back.\u00c2\u00a0 The fabric was then cut at the center fold, rendering two pieces 30″ x 22″.\u00c2\u00a0 The 30″ length, down the selvage, became the width, the 22″ became the length.\u00c2\u00a0 Pleating and then smocking perpendicular to the straight of grain made us feel like rebels!\u00c2\u00a0 The 30″ width\u00c2\u00a0allowed plentiful fullness for smocking for sizes up to 4.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, this only works for fabric which has no directional pattern.<\/p>\n

On\u00c2\u00a0 the raw 30″ edge, the top of the sundress,\u00c2\u00a03\/4″ of fabric was folded down, \u00c2\u00a0a pressed and then machine basted.\u00c2\u00a0 The armhole curves were drawn in wish washaway marker and\u00c2\u00a0 then the fabric was pleated with 5-7 rows, with the fold\u00c2\u00a0running through the first open needle groove.<\/p>\n

Since the needles on a pleater are 5\/8″ apart,\u00c2\u00a0 the raw edge fell between the first and second pleating threads.\u00c2\u00a0 The top edge was a clean fold and the raw edges were tucked between pleating threads and, later, under smocking stitches.<\/p>\n

The 22″ length was also generous for little ones.\u00c2\u00a0 The depth of the hem depended on the child’s height and the desired length.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, little girl dress styles were shorter then, but we always made “bloomers” to cover their panties.\u00c2\u00a0 Laurel’s bloomers are embroidered with her name.\u00c2\u00a0 If only we had had embroidery machines back then!!!<\/p>\n

In addition to the 30″ needed for the skirt front and back, more fabric is needed for fabric straps, bias to finish the armholes \u00c2\u00a0and bloomers.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, these could all be made of contrasting fabric.<\/p>\n

Laurel’s dress is made from a soft cotton strawberry print.\u00c2\u00a0 The smocking design is Apples and Berries<\/em> by Ellen McCarn.\u00c2\u00a0 The picture shows that the width of dress was much too large for her.\u00c2\u00a0 She is a much smaller child than Rebecca was, both at age 2 and every year since.\u00c2\u00a0 Later, I cut a piece of white 1 1\/2″ wide grosgrain ribbon to\u00c2\u00a0Laurel’s chest\u00c2\u00a0width measurement.\u00c2\u00a0 The smocking was whipped to that for a better fit.<\/p>\n

The straps are made of red gingham pima cotton with strawberry fabric applique’d on top.\u00c2\u00a0 The straps are knotted rather than tied.\u00c2\u00a0 On an earlier sundress, she untied her straps so the knot was to prevent that.<\/p>\n

The bloomers are made from the red pima check and embroidered with her name.<\/p>\n

She will be six in just 3 weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d better forget about sundresses and plan her birthday dress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the sweet spring weather we have had these past few weeks, I have had sundresses on my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 I came across pictures of this little sundress that I made for Laurel\u00c2\u00a0the summer that\u00c2\u00a0she was two. Many such sundresses had … 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":[4,8,18,24,38],"tags":[695,694,696],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417"}],"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=6417"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33102,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6417\/revisions\/33102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}