Last week was a crap week for me craft wise. I’m super frustrated with Heather Ross’s “simple” smocked dress. I cannot get it to work. I stitched 32 rows around the bodice and it didn’t smock up so I did some internet research and saw that some people recommend elongating the stitch. So after pain stakingly unpicking all 32 rows, I tried again this time stopping after four and still got nothing! It wouldn’t bother me so much except I invested all this time into it and essentailly wasted three yards of fabric… Heather I know you don’t know me but you got some explaining to do! Anyway if someone has any suggestions about what I could be doing wrong I’m open to it. Update: I suspected that Heather probably gave more instructions in her book which features a similiar project and on the Martha Stewart Show and she did you can see how she did it in the comments below. And in all fairness in various google searches I have come up with no definitive way to shirr. Some people say to increase the upper tension others say to loosen it. Some say to set the stitch to 3 others as long as 5. Some say you shouldn’t put the thread in the bobbin at all! So my best guess is that it varies by machine, my the amount of tension you put on the bobbin as you wind it, the fabric you use etc. I’m going to take another stab but this time play with a long piece of scrap fabric which is of course what I should have done in the first place.
My fabric mobile is going better but I need a third hand which I don’t have so it’s hard to hold it up and visualize how I want to hang things. It’s almost done though. The catnip toys have been scrapped, sorry! They were going to be for selling at the farmer’s market but my step mom thinks we should focus on baby stuff. I went with her to the farmer’s market she will be selling at and it makes sense. Of course I have all the fabric cut for the birds so I’m thinking about putting organic lavender instead of catnip in them and suggesting people put them in with baby clothes drawers.
The upside to this week (although not for my bank account) was finding two really cool fabric stores. One is an hour north of here and it has a decent selection of what I would call modern fabrics- Heather Bailey, Amy Butler Anna Maria Horner etc. The second is deadly tempting but luckily located 6 hours away near my Dad’s. All of the fabrics above and four or five other yards not pictured came from there. They had an amazing selection of home decorator weight fabrics as well as Prints Charming and Japanese linen blends. I could have spent much more than I did…
It’s for a “good cause” though. I purchased these fabrics to make stuff to sell. I’ve scrapped my original plan and now I’m going to make some simple soft toys, hankerchiefs, a nursing pillow (these are super simple and would have a great profit return but I’m not sure how popular they will be…), snuggly blankets, bibs, and possibly some stenciled or appliqued onesies. Oh and fabric letters but just as a test. I’m really afraid of making too much stuff and getting stuck with it. So I’m being conservative since it’s a weekly market. If things sell really well then I can make more in between. My step mom is going to make teepees to personalize and my sister has a bunch of baby quilts. Keep your fingers crossed for us! If things go well we may set up an Etsy store.
Love this week’s Sunday Stash! Gorgeous fabric. I hope you have some luck with the dress
I have been teaching and demo-ing the smocked sundresses for about five years. I have found that in about 95% of instances where people cannot get the elastic smocking to work the problem is that the elastic thread is either not correctly placed into (or is “jumping out” of) its path through the bobbin case or drop-in bobbin housing. In a few cases I have seen sewing machines that need to have their tension settings adjusted in order to work.
If you look at the Weekend Sewing Flickr Group (link on my blog) you will see many examples of the dress sewn successfully. You can also see the demo for the little girls dress on my blog.
I hope you get the project figured out and wish you successful sewing.
Your stash is beautiful; I especially love the leaves on blue. I have some of that Anna Maria Horner Birdie fabric, and I love that colorway: it really looks amazing with everything!
I feel your pain with other people’s patterns. For a long time, I thought that my inability to sew from a pattern was my own stubborn brain and lack of special sewing skills, but then when I hear stories like yours I realize that the pattern writer has to take some of the blame, too!
Here’s to a more enjoyable week of creating.
haha i was cursing that “simple” sundress last weekend too! i ended up ripping the entire thing out and have yet to start over. my smocking lines were wobbly, it was a mess of threads at the side seams, my bobbin jammed constantly or the lower thread tension was too loose. it was a disaster.
if you look at her Martha Stewart appearance, she smocks the two sides separately and THEN does the side seams. that’s what I’m going to try this time around, and i’m going to tighten up the gathers by hand before i seam it, cause there was NO WAY it was going to hold me in and stay up without straps. also i’m going to suck it up and draw guidelines to try to keep things neat.
good luck, please post if you succeed on your second try!
I’m still on the fence about trying this dress again.. but I found this photo tutorial that may help. It clearly shows that you should see gathering after 5 rows so if you aren’t something is wrong!
She also hand gathers the elastic thread after stitching to help shrink it all down.
http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/photos/sunny_day/index.html
Oh man!! I tried a dress like this too! It was a smocked dress with elastic thread. I tried about 3 times with different fabric, different tensions and nothing worked. My “elastic” thread kept snapping, so I guess my tension was too high. The thread would just break as soon as I put it on =/ I too, used yards and yards of fabric in vein!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated here too!!
Thanks for this article