Things finiished.....

Cheers to the lady who is a first time smocker who also tackled picking up dots by hand!! This is View C from "Pinafore and Sundress", a Grace L. Knott pattern. I added this view to the pattern when I did the update a few years ago.

Here is her second dress and her work is just as meticulous as in the first (lime green) dress. She wrote to say she hopes to make View A of the pattern, a yoked sundress with shoulder ruffles. Hope she will share this one as well....

Just a note about the "H2O Gone" fabric stabilizer that I used with the very stretchy knit fabric in the last post. The store where I purchased this stabilizer offered no information other than it was water soluble. 

You probably were not able to tell from my photo, but, the piece I pleated has some shaping to it as in my "Little Snowdrift" pattern. I have to say I had absolutely no problem with the pleating and shaping when there was sufficient basting done ahead. (Above is the right side of work - one side still has the basting in place.)

A friend uses this product frequently for her machine embroidery and she told me that contrary to most products removed by water, this one requires warm water, (about 80 degrees F). She suggested bringing a kettle to boil, pouring a large bowl of water and letting it sit for a few minutes - until you can put your hand into the water - then swishing the piece in the water to remove the stabilizer. 

This product is distributed by Marathon Threads of Winnipeg, Manitoba and I copied this information from their web site:

" Trim excess stabilizer. Too dissolve remaining stabilizer, submerge article in liberal amounts of warm water and apply a slight agitation, or run through a delicate wash cycle. Due to hard water conditions, it may be necessary to repeat this step."

Here is the Bumble Bee fabric all finished - in the same pattern in View A. Again a really, really good job done! If you go back a few segments in the blog you will see close-ups of the smocking design and how Marian managed to expand the design and choose the colours.

 

Marian also wants to dedicate a padded hanger to this dress when she gives it as a gift. She asked if she could use a snap to hold it in place. What a great idea! 

I suggested the female portion be attached to the dress so there would be no chance of skin irritation or scratching. Then she matched up the male portion on the 'shoulder' of the hanger and stitched it down. Now the little sundress won't fall off in the closet either!

So until next time, keep on stitching......