Old-fashioned pleated, smocked dress

Today I finished a fun little project I have been working on while the boys play at the park. My friend Rochelle inspired me to learn how to hand-smock, and with a great tutorial that you can find HERE (Part 1) and HERE (Part 2) I taught myself how.

I started out with two 45-inch-wide pieces of beige and red checkered (gingham?) fabric I found in my fabric boxes. I used the squares as a guide for the pleats, and then smocked (embroidered) along these pleats, to create the smocking (which gives the fabric that gathered look). Smocking the fabric reduced 90 inches of fabric down to just 20 inches! This also made for a really nice full skirt.

After all the work of hand-smocking (which really was a fun kind of work), I decided to go all out, and hand stitched all the seams, hems, the button holes, the edging, and the piping. This had the added bonus (although taking longer than by machine) that I could bring the project along anywhere.

I used some red quilting cotton that I had left over from another project to create the border on the skirt, as well as the edging and straps at the top. Some cute red buttons, piped button loops, and a little hook finished it all off. This little dress can be worn as a toddler dress (with the straps crossed) or later as a little smocked top (without crossing the straps).

Here is the finished product:

Front of the smocked little girl dress that can later work as a little girl top.

Back - sorry, blogger won't let me flip this picture

Detail view of the smocking - lots of work!

Piped button loops and detail view of the embroidery on the back

I didn't use a pattern for this dress, but just made it up as I went. I learned the hard way that next time it would be a lot easier to sew the hems and seams BEFORE doing the smocking.

I was thankful for all the quilting I've done, because sewing an even seam of tiny running stitches was no problem!