I have always been a firm believer that smocking shouldn't be limited to children's clothes. In fact my first exposure to smocking was when my college roommate's mom made a smocked white dress for her from a delicate and airy white gauze with smocking at the waist and shoulders. She wore that dress for her rehearsal dinner! I have had the Alice top from Tessuti fabrics on my "Things I want to Sew" Pinterest Board for some time, partly because I liked the style and partly beca

It's time for another smocking tutorial! One of my favorite smocking stitches is Surface Honeycomb. It is considered an advanced stitch because the thread passes through each pleat twice, but don't let that scare you; it is quite simple to stitch. In fact in some ways I think it is easier than the Wave Stitch if you are smocking across a row because the threads touch each other so it is immediately obvious if you make a mistake. Get into starting position and stitch an up cab

Today I am continuing on with our Smocking: The Basics series!. This is the 7th post in the series. So far we have covered everything from the history of smocking, to choosing a fabric. You will find all of the previous posts by clicking on the pink link above. Today we are tackling the topic of which pattern to use to make your first smocked garment. As I explained in the History of Smocking, Part 1, smocking originated as a way to control the fullness of the fabric in a gar