An Easter Dress Two

Easter sewing is so much fun....beautiful spring pastels after a long, cold, snowy winter, light fabrics (not heavy wintery ones) and faster stitching techniques because of lighter weight cottons, linens and silks.  I adore working on natural fibers.  So many of the light weight cottons (like the Jacquard on this dress or lawn, batiste, pique) are easy to sew, press up well and are so comfortable to wear.  And they're very washable, a must for active young children.

This Easter dress is no exception.  It's washable and only needs pressing when it comes out of the dryer. A little spray starch wouldn't hurt, either, to make it look just like it came out of the sewing room. The smocked collar will press up very nicely to give it that full, lighter-than-air feeling because the fabric is a Swiss batiste called Bearissima II from Bear Threads Ltd.  As I mentioned in the last post "An Easter Dress" I would supply the smocking design. And here it is with the instructions below.  Enjoy!

 This design can be adjusted to fit any size of Bishop, Basic Yoke or smocked collar by adding or subtracting the number of 5-step trellis rows. For this design on a girl's size 8 dress pleat 9 rows, with Rows 1 and 9 as holding rows.  Row 2 of pleating is Row 1 of smocking design. All smocking is done with three strands of stranded cotton embroidery floss. Only two colors are used in the design in addition to one to match the collar fabric.

1. Find center 2 pleats and mark.  Backsmock (cable) Row 1 with 2 strands of embroidery floss to match the collar fabric.
2. Row 1: Start with an up cable on center and cable across row in color #1. Turn fabric upside down and cable across to complete the other side. Change to color #2 and stack cables across right next to the previous cable row with an up cable next to the down cable of the previous cable row. Change back to color #1 for Rows 2-7.
3. Row 1-2: Starting at design center, complete a down cable at Row 2 and a baby wave up to the down cable of color #2. Complete three cables (up, down, up), then baby wave down to Row 2 and complete a down cable, continuing in this manner across the row. Turn fabric upside down and complete the same series of stitches from center to the other side of the fabric.
4. Row 2-3: Starting at design center using color #1, complete a down cable at Row 3 and a 5-step trellis up to Row 2. Complete one up cable and a 5-step trellis back down to Row 3 and one down cable. Continue the cable, 5-step trellis and cable sequence across the row.  Turn fabric upside down and complete the same pattern from design center to the other side of the fabric.
5. Rows 3-4: Complete the cable, 5-step trellis, cable across between Rows 3 and 4.
6. Rows 4-5: Complete the cable, 5-step trellis, cable across between Rows 4 and 5.
7. Rows 5-6: Complete the cable, 5-step trellis, cable across between Rows 5 and 6.
8. Rows 6-7: Complete the cable, 5-step trellis, cable across between Rows 6 and 7.
9. Row 7:  Change to color #2 and complete cable, 5-step trellis, cable right next to the completed one in color #1. Change back to color #1 and complete the cable, 5-step trellis, cable right next to the previous one in color #2.

The added benefit of this design is the ease with which it's completed: it's fast and required only the three stitches. This versatile design can be "dressed up or dressed down" by using flowerets in some of the diamonds formed by the 5-step trellis. Cast-on flowers could also be sued, along with small buttons. Turn this into a basic yoke design and fill it out with the decorative stitches and ideas mentioned. It's really an open diamond design just waiting for your beautiful ideas!