I love working with quality fabrics. They just seem to behave better than my meager hands can direct. For that reason alone, using the good stuff is worth the price.
As many of you know, if I hear of a baby needing something special, and if I have the time, I am going to make something. It is just what I do. Every Mom and every Baby deserve a special something just because they are Mother and Child. It reminds me of this from The Encyclopedia of Modern Sewing, 1945.
A new Mom I know mentioned her Wee One taking a liking to Liberty early on. She made sheets for the crib out of the luxury fabric. How yummy would that be?! Now, at 6 months old, she puts herself to sleep stroking the fine cotton. Anyway! I decided if that baby can appreciate the finest fabric in life, it is my opportunity to smock a Liberty bishop for her!
I ordered the fabric from fabric.com on one of their sales. And a size 12 month dress doesn't take much yardage. It gets a LOT of bang for the buck!
Smocked with my fairly standard bishop geometric in Anchor floss.
The poppies remind me of our summers in Suffolk England.
Since Wee One is going to start crawling before anyone knows it, I decided to shorten the dress to 14" and add a pair of britches underneath. There is nothing cuter that a crawling baby with a matching diaper cover.
Aren't they the cutest?
And for all of my smocking friends, a close up of the smocking. Remembering, the bishop is designed to frame a baby's face, go simple in stitches and color, tone on tone for best results!
Stem stitch, cable stitch, stem stitch.
Two step trellis over 1/2 space, diamond, in the dark shade and outlines with same in the light shade.
Two step trellis, five step trellis heart, outlined with the light shade.
An easy/peasy design that works with any color combination.
I have been working on new class submissions for SAGA too ;) You are going to LOVE them!
Smock on, Friends!
maggieb!
Ooooooh! I love that stem-cable-stem section at the neck! It certainly will frame baby's face! Beautiful!
Posted by: Jo | March 29, 2012 at 08:52 PM