Miss Kaitlyn's Dress

My dear friend Charlotte, back in NH, has just been blessed with the birth of her first grandchild and baby girl, Kaitlyn. She came early and was tiny but is doing just fine now. Of course I have to do something special for Miss Kaitlyn and a smocked dress it will be. I am using a basic yoke pattern from AS&E.

I will not be doing the whole "Teddy Bear Picnic" design but just using this pattern to jump off from. The fabric is one I have had in the stash for a while. I fell in love with it instantly but never found the right opportunity to use it. Kaitlyn's birth is a perfect opportunity. As I always do with baby gifts, I make it for a one year old. So many mamas get just more newborn things than they can even use sometimes. By one year its time to shop. So generally I make all my baby gifts for one year olds. The fabric is a Daisy Kingdom design, from the time when Joanns sold Daisy Kingdom. It's a sweet little toile of children playing. Try and find Daiasy Kingdom fabric now, if it is even in existance. I have a cordinate stripe as well, not shown, that will be used for the piping. It is 100% cotton and there is a solid for the peter pan collar, speaking of which......

Talk about the sewing gremlins. Some of you know I do unit sewing. When I got bored with the smocking I started on my units. First came the piping, then the peter pan collar, then the sleeves. Can you see what is wrong with the collar? This is a test ;)

I learned very hard and very often that whenever one does a collar it is imperative to make sure both sides match perfectly in size. This didn't. I got it all piped, trimmed, pressed, and truly perfect. Talk about arrogance. Something seemed off. I looked and I looked again. One collar was a good 3/8 inch longer and bigger than the other. How the heck did that happen? I did everything right, didn't I?

So I proceeded to cut out another whole set of collars and piping. When I got to the point where I put my piping in the Darr piping ruler I knew what had happened. I cut one down to a perfect 3./8 inch seam with the ruler. When I went to do the other, I  proceeded without cutting the piping down to 3/8s of an inch SA, thinking I had already done it. You can see the difference above. One seam allowance is defintely bigger than the other and I didn't pick up on it when I did the photo. I only noticed when it was completely done.  So, it was start from scratch and pay attention this time! It is now done just fine. I will not tempt fate and ever say it is perfect, never....

On this dress I will be using this plate from Sew Beautiful. However, I will put some bullions in each of the triangles. It is all smocked at this point. I have the collars complete, the sleeves all piped and complete. Now it is bullion time and then finish the dress and get it in the mail. I hope Miss Kaitlyn's momma likes it. It has a really sweet look.
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Thank you all for the wonderful comments on both the Badgley Mishka jacket as well as the Sew Beautiful blog tour. I think cyberspace is just grand........Bunny