Hello. I’m Beth, the Main Fairy here.

Sorry for the old photo - I’m a bit camera shy these days …
Can you guess what year it is by the glasses?

This is my favorite picture of my daughter when was 2 years old wearing my first smocked dress (I was so proud).   I’m usually not very photogenic but this picture captured both of us in a sweet moment.Fortunately we weren’t blinking or doing anything fidgety
which translates into one of those ‘oh my’ pictures.

The stitching of the sleeve hem was done on my Mother’s old 60’s Kenmore sewing machine, ‘nuttin fancy but functional.

(The 2nd bishop dress I made for her looks better as I was working on improving my heirloom sewing techniques with entredeux and swiss edging on the edge of the sleeves.  Picture follows on down the article)

Here is the bottom of the smocking of the bishop dress. At the very bottom the 3 colored stitch is known as Trellis Stitches worked 1/4 step above one another in 3 shades of pink floss. The trellis stitch allows the fabric to fall out from the end of the smocking and creates a flattering flow out from pleats when fanned in a semi circle.

This is the top of the dress. The lace was hand sewn into and under the bias band with one strand of sewing thread and a thin crewel needle after the band had been sewn.   I hid the uneven stitching of the very top pink cable stitch with the lace as I had to finish up the dress for the picture.  I liked it so much I kept it on.  Besides taking out the stitches just to please my compulsive brain was not an option for my busy schedule at that time.

You can’t see it but the pleats are held together in pairs beneath the lace.  This phenonmena is the result of the cable stitch (worked in white) which matched up with the pink cable underneath the lace - see on the left hand where the pink is showing how the white stitch below is matched up with it.  Notice how the navy Wave & Trellis combo breaks up the evenness of the held together pleats and starts a pattern of it’s own which is echoed upside down in the medium blue below.  On the photo of my daughter notice how the pleats are now single and flow out more free towards the hemline of the dress.  This is one of the beauties of working a design on a bishop dress.  You can also see what I mean from the picture below

These two of the unique visual effects of smocking.

Here is what the little bishop looked like when splayed out flat. The placket is so lumpy and the neckline uneven but hey it was my first project, besides no one really sees it like this and I have since learned that smocking over a placket is considered an advanced step, silly me.  I love the look of the circular roundness (even with lumpy placket).  My creative brain looks at the potential of what else I could do with that texture.  Also notice how the

The following is another bishop I made her from 1930’s Chinz in size 6. Unfortunately the seamstress pre-washed the fabric in hot water so the finish came off but holds up well (the white on the neckline is a photo error). I embroidered simple 3-bullion rosebuds in the center of a trellis area. You can’t see it from this photo but I used Balger blending filament to give the smocking a bit of a sparkle. I will take another photo real soon but see how much nicer the neckline bias looks? The secret is graduated trimming of the neckline before you place on the bias. I didn’t even have to hide the top row of smocking as after 4 years of smocking doll dresses I learned how to make my cable row very even. (See my 11 rules of smocking).

Here you can see that there is a difference in how the smocking ends, the echo stitch is one row apart rather than right next to it as with my first example.

I made her several smocked dresses and when she grew out of smocking I started smocking for the public but neglected to take photos of most of them.

However here is a romper I made for a consignment shop.

I used an English cotton which holds up without too much sizing.

The smocking is a trellis grid which could be embellished.

Here’s is a slideshow with more smocked samples of clothing are from my photo archive, customers’ submissions and the ladies from The Smocking Room.  If you would like to submit images of your outfits please, please send them to us..

Click on the first image to start the slideshow, a new window will open up.