Some Toile for Baby

Shouldn't every baby have a little toile to wear? La Sewista thinks so! And thats what my next hand project will be, smocked toile for Twin Baby Girl. I've made this little dress a couple of times for DGD#1 and know it will go quite quickly. My inspiration was this kind of aqua blue/brown small cotton toile. It had a dot coordinate to add to the play as well. Throw in a little brown grosgrain and some tiny blue buttons and we are good to go. The pattern is from AS&E and called Tickled Pink. A pattern isn't really necessary for this style if you know the slightest about smocking however. If you have never worked with a smocking or AS&E pattern, the pattern merely tells you what size blocks to cut and gives you a guide for blocking. The plate (smocking pic and directions) is in the magazine. The plate is quite sweet but I may improvise a bit. I thought of having a tiny border of the dot and the ribbon in between. This little top is for a 6 month size and there are 60 inches of fabric width in the top. I say that because most non smockers are blown away at how full smocked garments are. Most are two full widths of fabric wide. Here's a schematic of the top. I think I may make the little pants as well out of the dot fabric.
I did manage to get the back and front pleated and blocked tonite. It is drying as we speak.
Blocking is a little controversial in the smocking world. Some claim its a waste of time. Others, like myself, do it religiously. I will take all the help I can get in making my smocking look good, so why not? So, after the fabric block is pleated I pin the blocking guide on the blocking board, pin the pleated fabric to it, adjusting to fit the guide. Then I arrange the pleats evenly, spray a mist of water then spray starch and let dry. Tomorrow I will count my pleats, marking them in increments of ten. Then it will be smocking time.

I thought every now and then I might publish a pic of the beautiful area we live in. We are on the Deer River up near the Canadian border. The wildlife are plentiful and always fascinating. Here is a picture of our spring river. It is about 100 feet from the back door and we see the view from our living room windows...Bunny