Smocking and Blocking

Wow! I have so much to tell you I'm not sure if I can type fast enough to keep up with my spinning mind. I'm so proud of the progress Mom and I have made on A-'s dresses. But first I should apologize that my site has been down. I got behind on my emails and missed Brinkster's notification about my billing. But that is all fixed now and I'm back, although still a bit broken. Someday I'll clean house here on my blog but I'm too interested in making progress on my sewing and telling everyone about it to go fix things.

I've spent all morning "blocking" two garments that Mom and I have been working on. She's done the smocking and I've been doing the garment construction. Blocking is the process where you pin the smocked area to a padded board so that it fits the required area on the pattern or blocking guide. Then you wet the fabric or steam it and let it dry. Here's a picture of a long sleeve bishop gown that I blocked this morning.

We found the pattern, called Guardian Angel, in Australian Smocking & Embroidery magazine, issue 68. Here's their picture of the finished gown.

I also blocked the front of another garment from their 70th issue called Tickled Pink.
Mom did the smocking and embroidery. The outfit has a pair of pants to go with it and I've already finished those.

I did the embroidery on the bottom of the legs and I made the lace netting.

I created the lace netting using the decorative stitches that came with my sewing machine. I used a cotton netting as the base and Sulky Ultra Solvy as a stabilizer. The stabilizer just dissolves under water. The pattern called for 2 inch wide netting. I didn't realize that I would have to cut it down to an inch and 3/4's until after I had made the lace so I ended up adding another row of scallops in the middle and cutting it in the middle.

Since I've gotten caught up with making these dresses my cutting table is buried. If you look closely you can find a quilt waiting for me to finish cutting it on the back of the table ... It's the Poker RoadTrip. So I have to finish these dresses in order to get to it. :>

Well I think I managed to brag about everything. It's a good thing too because A- is hungry and I have to go feed her. Oh and I so wanted to tell you about M-'s potty training progress and the decorating of his big boy room. Well that isn't really quilt related but maybe I'll get to it later. :>

Here are A- and M- watching TV together.

Now I really must go! Bye!