Garden Party

The fabric for Spring Green was a piece I’d picked up before getting into the smocking thing, with the intention of using it for some St. Patrick’s Day dresses.

I decided to try my hand at a new, more intricate smocking pattern than what I had done before. Unable to find a good match for a contrast fabric for the collar and cuffs, I had to use the same fabric, which I then decided needed to be set off with some kind of trim. So I looked through my embroidery books and taught myself the bullion loop edging that I used on so many designs.

I ended up making this dress until the store ran out of fabric, and kept the last one for Cadence since it was her favorite.

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Lavender’s Green was much the same idea, but the fabric had delicate purple roses and green leaves. One variation included tiny purple roses on a white collar.

Savoy was another variation on this theme. The dress was shorter, and the contrast collar with embroidered roses were part of the design. The fabric was an exquisitely smooth cotton in a blue and white print.

When I designed Strawberry Tart, I had the bright idea that I could copy the strawberries from the fabric print in hand embroidery–and get the just where I wanted on a tiny collar. And, while I was at it, why not throw in a tiny truckload of french knots? I don’t know what what I was thinking.

The dress was labeled a limited edition from the start both because I knew that embroidery would be challenge, and because I didn’t have much of this fabric in my stash.

How Green Is My Garden? was part of a challenge I participated in with members of the Blythe Handmade Collective. Called “Junk to Funk,” the challenge was to create something using a recycled fabric. I cut up one of my daughter’s dresses which had met with an unfortunate accident to make this OOAK dress.

I had put myself through a lot of challenges over the course of a year in the Smock Shop, both in terms of how many hours I could embroider in a day, but more importantly, in terms of teaching myself new techniques and seeing just how fancy I could get.

But, when it was time to plan Spring of 2009, I was getting burnt out and looking toward simpler styles again. Hearts and Flowers, Summer Flower Shower, Lime Berry Splash, and some of the the Spring’s Final Frost collection were all in a simpler vein.

They were sleeveless dresses featuring with untrimmed contrast collars.

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The fabric for Spring’s Final Frost caught my eye as soon as I saw it in the store. Four pretty pastel colors with delicate white designs, I immediately thought of these dresses, and I think I bought a dozen lengths of fabric that day. There was the teeny floral print shown above that seemed to want something very simple. A butterfly print made me try my hand at creating a butterfly detail with the bullion knot stitch,

and a fancier, leafier floral brought me back to the fully trimmed collars and cuffs. I think that was the last smocked design to go up in my Etsy shop.

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