8 yo loving her too large, unhemmed smocked dress
This dress and this little girl make my heart sing. Our summer has been so full, so busy, and absolutely fabulous, but this dress is one of the highlights for me. All this busy-ness is why it’s been so long since I have posted.
Our pilot son flew the family down from their new home in New Jersey. 11 yo Robert and 13 yo Laurel spent the week visiting with old friends and spending time with their cousin Vivi. What a wonderful family time that was! Cousins, pool, golf cart rides, puppies to play with–it was plenty to make them happy.
Robert and Vivian Rose
Robert stayed with us when the rest of the family went home. The next day we drove to the North Carolina mountains where we stayed at a fabulous cabin.
Now this is a great place to enjoy smocking!
At wonderful Bear Ridge Cabin in Brevard, our daughter Rebecca and Vivian Rose joined us while 8 yo Alastair was spending his last week at Camp Watitoh in Massachussets. Â Our mutual friend Zahra and her two children also joined us while the daddies stayed at home working.
The children were just delightful, a special treat for this Nana and Granddad.
After s’mores, the children were all jammied up and ready for bed.
Robert spent most of that week at Camp Ridge Haven and had a wonderful 1st time sleepaway camp experience.
Camp Ridge Haven
And at last, that brings me to the dress at the top of this post.
Zahra is a new and very enthusiastic machine embroiderer but was interested in learning about sewing as well. She brought along her workhorse Brother ULT 2003D and was ready to try the sewing side of the machine.
I had brought along several “kits” of potential projects and both Zahra and her daughter Aliya chose this pattern.
This is a great pattern! The shoulder ties and pockets are adorable and have great appeal for a child.
With lime green pique for the dress, orange gingham for the lining, orange whipstitch piping, and a pre-smocked insert, we were ready to sew.
Aliya is an average sized 8 yo but her mother thought making a size 10 would be a safer bet. She surely didn’t want her first sewing project to be too small. Zahra did a great job, but as it turned out, the dress was way too large for Aliya. Still, she loved it! I mean she reeeeeally loved it!
It is apparent that the dress is too big for this little girl.
The dress literally swallowed up this darling girl. Unwilling to wait until she grew into it, she deserved alterations. Such drastic changes were beyond her mother’s new sewing skills so I did my best to make it fit.
Taking 1/2″ seams along each bodice side seam was a start, but was not enough. So ties were added and attached at the altered side seams.
No one could ever say this was a well-fittied dress. But it surely is a well-loved dress!
With the daily activities through the week–tubing, Sliding Rock, the Asheville Zoo, and gem mining–we only sewed at night, after dinner.
6 yo Kaden and 4 yo Vivi with their “gems.” Vivi is wearing her firefly outfit from two summers ago. I love the CC Jane pattern!
Time ran out before we got to the hem.
Our last day at the cabin we visited another summer camp. For this outing, Aliya begged to wear her new dress, even unhemmed. It was impossible for her mother to deny the child the joy she felt wearing her first mama-made dress.
Now Zahra wonders if the dress might be worn out before Aliya grows into it! Can you think of many things sweeter than an 8 yo loving her first smocked dress this much?
Almost as sweet as Aliya’s delight is the fact that every single element of this dress was purchased at an absolutely wonderful facebook group, Smocking Destash. This is like an on-line yard sale with only sewing items. Many are used, some are new, some are long since out of print. But all are at very low prices. of course, it is a great place to clear your shelves of unused, outgrown patterns and fabric you just never got around to using.
It is a “secret” group, which means you have to be added by an existing member. That keeps it very safe and there are, to my knowledge, no bad transactions. If you have any interest in joining, drop me a note as a comment below this post or at NCcabin@aol.com.
Meanwhile, life is good for the Fergusons and the summer has been great. My dear husband had knee replacement surgery 2 days after we returned from NC. Rather than go to rehab he opted to come home. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to care for him, though his recovery is so remarkable that he requires not nearly as much care as I expected.
As I said, life is good. I hope your summer is going well and you are getting more sewing done than I am!
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