Smocked Monogram Bubble “C”

Alastair, 6 weeks old

Alastair’s monogram bubble…this is my daughter’s favorite outfit for her son.  It is a customized ready-to-smock garment,  a godsend for today’s busy grandmothers.

Made of  a cotton/poly blend, they wash and wear  beautifully.You can simply smock, remove the pleating threads and dress up your precious little one or you can personalize it to a greater degree.

Like many of you, I can never seem to smock a design or make up a pattern exactly as shown.

But with construction already completed, the challenge to customize is greater.  Here are a few embellishment tips and techniques I use with ready to smock garments which are soon to be available at the JaniceFergusonsews.com store.

1.  COLLARS —

pitiful hand feather stitching

Because the piped collar meets precisely at the center, as it should, the addition of tatting, Swiss edging, lace or other trim is impossible or, at the very least,  complicated.

On Alastair’s bubble, the collar is embellished with feather stitching.  I thought this would be difficult, as I did not want to stitch through both collar layers.  But I found that it was relatively easy, once I began, to keep the needle from penetrating both the collar and the lining.

I knotted off at the beginning and end with the quilter’s knot “pop.”

This requires making a sturdy but not very bulky knot.  The needle is inserted from the underside of the collar and then yanked gently but quickly through the lining fabric only.  Then the feather stitching begins and finishes at the center back.  There, the needle is drawn into the neck binding and the thread buried and clipped there.

sleeve hemmed with more pitiful feather stitching

To continue with the feather stitching embellishment on the sleeves, I gently pulled the machine  hem stitches and used the still visible holes as a guide for evenly spaced feather stitches.

These read- to-smock garments are a real bargain, but the buttons are not heirloom quality.  Replacing them with mother of pearl buttons is a noticeable upgrade.

Have you ever used  a ready-to smock garment?  Did you ever modify it?  What changes did you make?