Different Dresses for Sisters

My husband and I are lucky to have three grandchildren, the two oldest are sisters about 2 years apart. They can be a challenge to sew for because of their age and size difference, especially since they live several states away from us. Fitting challenges can be overcome having their Mom measure them and email the results to me. Then I can take those and "translate" them onto the pattern pieces and adjust as necessary (http://berryhillheirlooms.blogspot.com/2015/04/long-distance-fitting-challenges.html) No problem.

But their age difference is enough that I really can't make the same outfit for each one. They have to be different. A few years ago I had this dilemma....what to do for their Easter dresses? I decided to make a Smocked Basic Yoke dress for the older one, and a Smocked Bishop for the younger using the same fabrics and embroidery flosses.  Easy.....but then I started to think about the smocking design. Obviously I couldn't use the same one for both, especially for the Bishop dress because it would need lots of looser stitches at the bottom of the design since it's wider in that area. Hmmm....Then again, maybe I could use the same one and change it up.

The fabric, white cotton/poly broadcloth called Imperial Broadcloth by Spechler Vogel, was easy care, easy clean, and simple to design around (no flowers or stripes to pleat). I next searched for a design that could be easily adapted to both dresses. I found it in a Creative Needle Magazine issue. Unfortunately this magazine is no longer being published (such a loss to the sewing and
stitching community) but past issues can be found for sale on the internet. This issue was Jan/Feb 2004, an article entitled "Daisy Chain", a smocking design. It was made for a smocked shoulder to waist style of dress (with a front button tab) with three bands of design and back smocking in between each row. I used two of the bands on the Basic Yoke dress in the same colors as the article, and made yellow piping whipped in green for the sleeve bands, collar and yoke seam. There's a smocked yellow row between the two bands, too.

The challenge was the Bishop dress....I had to lengthen the smocking design and make sure it fanned out enough around the bottom. The last rows of the design have the yellow daisies inside the trellis diamonds (instead of being in the center of each band on the other dress). Repetition of the trellis two times below the diamonds added extra color and definition to the yellow daisies. Two rows of cables at the top with little flowerettes framed the design around the bias neckband, and added the required tighter tension at the neckline. The sleeves are smocked with two rows of cables with a trellis in between adding just enough color to balance out the dress.

So, two sister's dresses, each different, but yet the same for Easter. The smocking designs complement each other and all colors are the same. An "unmatched pair" for two darling little girls!