Toile Bishop for Carly is Complete!

This just seemed to take so long with interruptions of toothaches, out of state visits, etc... But now it is full speed ahead. In yesterday's post I gave a description of what a Bishop Dress actually is. This design by Gail Doane has a nice medium amount of fullness. Gail also designed the smocking plate. I customized it a bit. My Carly is very tiny in the shoulders, like her Grandma BunBun. I did not want the smocking design drifting down past her shoulder bone so I only did two repeats of Gail's design. I chose to embroider this with bold colors and four strands of floss, the better to stand up to the graphic nature of the black and white print. It almost gives it a Folkloric influence which I like. I did the button decoration but also chose to do the back opening with different buttons, plaid covered half balls. I fused the homespun plaid to a black tricot before making the buttons so the glare of the metal button would not show thru thin homespun.There is a fifth button that dropped somewhere never to be found so if you see a BH without a button, it will be sewn  on tonight.  On the neckline and cuffs I chose to do a double piping. The only drawback with this is some sections of the neckline piping sort of disappear (the print ones) and the whiter sections really jump forward. But all in all I am pleased. This really is a rather simple design that I will definitely make again. Without life's interruptions, it could be completed quite quickly. I highly recommend Gail's book, "Sew Cute Couture". It is full of great designs all with coordinating jackets. I will trace off the pattern for the jacket as soon as I am done posting here. I may further customize Gail's embroidery design for the coat but will do a few samples first that I will share with you all. I also have to hunt down a lining for the coat. I would love to do the homespun for the lining but think I would prefer something more slithery. Then again, I have often seen toddler's winter jackets lined with just flannel. I'll give that more thought.
        I would like to publicly thank Gail Doane for her encouragement on this project. It was greatly appreciated and her emails a welcome support. I hope I do her darling jacket pattern justice.
        Without further ado here are some pics:

The back:

Yoke detail: 

 ETA: Can you see the seams? I think not with Martha's wonderful tute on Seamless Smocking. The   seam is in there, just invisible. 

Cuffs:

Growth tuck, also discussed in yesterday's post:

I can now put this one to bed and move on!

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A word on UFOs, dear bloggers: Try not to let them happen. One of the bittersweet moments spent with dear Ima was encountering all the UFOs. We are talking 30-40 of them at least. Most pinned, interfaced, basted, and just never finished. Many were made with very expensive fabric, quite a few Pendletons and coatings. Since we wear the same size she thought I might want them. Then she double backed and said "you need to spend your time making new things with new ideas." She was right. However I told her I would make use of the fabric if that was OK. So I have been pulling out some rusty pins and basting stitches and felting a lot of gorgeous wools. I know she would be happy with that. To me a UFO is an idea, something from your brain that somehow didn't see fruition. Sorting them into boxes may temporarily assuage the guilt of moving on to more interesting possibilities, but they don't go away. Do you really want your kids to see all the things you never got around to finishing, things that may have even been for them? It just all pulls at my heartstrings. So I am more determined than ever to stick with my two at a time policy and no more. This editorial brought to you by........Bunny