Doll clothes are always fun to make. This smocked, lemon yellow bishop dress will be part of the petite wardrobe I am making for my granddaughter’s Christmas doll Molly, one of Pleasant Company’s American Girls.
Made of Swiss batiste, with French lace on the sleeves and in the fancyband, the color reminds me of lemon drops. The tiny yellow rosebuds in Bear Threads  Swiss embroidered insertion, reinforces the lemon drop image it generates for me.
It is smocked with just two strands of embroidery floss, my preference for both doll and baby clothes. Julia Golson’s smocking plate, Heirloom, has been miniaturized and modified to fit the size of the dress.
The fancyband is hemstitched, using a #70 needle and Madeira Cotona 80/2 thread. By using a small needle, the hemstitched holes are more proportional to the size of the garment.
At the core of my being, I am a teacher. Without intending to do so, when I am with my grandchildren almost everything that we see or that happens becomes a teaching moment. This dress will offer many such moments.
I want Laurel to feel the gossamer, fine texture of the sheerest Swiss batiste and then compare it to burlap, linen, velvet and denim. I want to teach her about handlooms, Swiss embroideries and hand embroidery. I want her to learn about French and English laces and compare them to vintage American crocheted and knitted laces.
I want her to know that children around the world have worn smocked dresses for hundreds of years. We will talk about Princes William and Harry and how Princess Diana dressed them in classic clothing. From there we can go into British royalty, peasant smocks and the influence of mechanization on sewing, handwork, and…….oh dear. I’d better stop and remind myself that she is 5 years old.
She needn’t learn everything this year. But she will learn more than a few things from her lemon drop doll dress.
I, too have learned more than a few things. I have learned that I need to pay more attention to placement of the fancyband. I was well aware of renowned Sarah Howard Stone’s directive that it should be placed 2/3 of the distance from the neckline. But I reasoned, wrongly, that due to the short length of the dress, the fancyband would get lost in the fullness of the fabric, being so near the smocking.
I discovered that even if you have lace edging, just the right length for the sleeves, it is best not to use it if it is too wide. So both Laurel and I will have learned a lot from this dress.
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. ~John Cotton Dana
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