NYC Garment District - Smocking Guild Field Trip

This was one of the trim stores -- millions of yards and thousands of types of ribbons and trims - just amazing!!!

I LOVE this giant button on one of the street corners in the fashion district!

Smocking Patterns and Magazines On Etsy

I am doing some spring cleaning, and have cleaned out some of my smocked patterns and AS&E magazines. I have listed them for sale in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewBearyBlessed

I'm certainly not going to stop smocking - just going to stick to smocking for dolls and a few baby gifts for a while. I also have some duplicate back issues of Sew Beautiful for sale if anyone is interested.

Pagoda Pleaters

Today, 5 of us Pagoda Pleaters met at the Exeter Library to take over their lovely display cabinet. They are allowing us to display smocked items along with information about our guild in the cabinet for the next month. We already met one prospective member as we were finishing up.

Our first official meeting at the Pagoda Pleaters will be next Wednesday, September 14th at the Exeter Library from 1:00 - 3:00.

My contributions to the display are smocked socks and two t-shirts with smocked inserts.

One of our members, Eileen, contributed her SAGA Design Show winning dress. It is stunning!! She also contributed 3 gorgeous smocked ornaments. I have wanted to learn how to make snocked christmas ornaments for years and have tried many times, but they've never turned out! Eileen will be teaching us how to make these in November. I am so excited about that meeting.

Other members contributed smocked doll dresses, a smocked hanger, an adorable back to school dress, and more. We also added a SAGA News, Sew Beautiful, and AS&E to the display.

We're hoping people will take notice of our display and join us for our guild meetings.

Every time we meet together, I am always so inspired. After dinner, I plan to smock on this rainy Wednesday evening!

Seasonal Smocked Socks

These are the socks I smocked for our smocking guild's display case at the library where we meet. I had a lot of fun with them. I decided to make them seasonal in black and orange for fall. I had not made little girl's smocked socks before - only ones for me. I learned that bigger socks are easier to smock! It was a lot of fun though. I actually listed these for sale on etsy. You never know....

I am back

Wow - what a busy few months it has been, but guess what? It's Labor Day weekend, my oldest son just started his senior year, my younger two start charter cyber school on Tuesday, and that means we can finally settle into a routine. I have been smocking off and on all summer, but haven't completed anything other than designing and smocking a pagoda for our smocking guild's logo. Speaking of our smocking guild, the Pagoda Pleaters officially kicks off on September 14th! We have a great year planned, and it's going to be so much fun. We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 1:00 - 3:00 at the Exeter Pubic Library. If you're in the Reading, PA area, please join us!

For labor day weekend, my plans are to finish my current project which is an insert smocked with Ellen McCarns Seabrook Scallops. I was originally going to make it as an insert in a t-shirt for myself, but decided I would get more use out of it as a purse, so I am making a denim purse with the insert. I am hoping to have it finished by the end of the weekend.

The Pagoda Pleaters

I'd like to introduce you all to the Pagoda Pleaters!! We are a newly forming SAGA chapter (smocking guild) in the Reading, PA area. So far, there are 5 of us who are eager and excited about starting a local guild. We met together for the first time yesterday and shared lots of great ideas. We already have a pretty impressive line-up of classes/meeting topics to cover in the fall. More details will be posted soon!

Missing In Action

Yes, I've been missing in action for the past month. On March 17th, we welcomed Buster the Beagle into our family. We adopted him from our local animal rescue league. He's a great little dog, but he has certainly added some more activity to our family. He is 2 years old and as sweet as can be. He does have a few "issues" that we are working on with him. Needless to say, my days have been a bit busier than before with taking care of him.

Now that he is settling in, has been neutered, and also treated for an infection, life can come to the place of a new normal for us and Buster. Tomorrow evening I will be publishing a new podcast!

The Care and Feeding of Your Pleater

My pleater was pampered today. She had been in need of a good pampering for a while. She's quite a work horse and serves me *very* well!

I have a Pullen Pleater, and I love her to death, but while I have been giving her a workout, I have been neglecting to give her a good pampering. So today, while doing the grocery shopping, I picked up a $2 roll of wax paper, came home and gave my pleater a spa treatment.

Running wax paper through your pleater is the best way to lubricate it and keep it working properly. Just like any piece of machinery, a pleater's gears get tight and need lubrication.

Try it, and the next time you pleat, you will find the fabric just slides through the grears and off the needles almost effortlessly!

Martha's Dress & My Smocked Socks

I did it -- barely, but I did it. Martha is all dressed and ready to go, and I have my smocked socks tucked away in my suitcase to wear this evening.

For Martha's dress, I made my own smocking design inspired by the fabric --of pincushions and thread spools. It went really well.

As for my socks.... I have only done it once before and got this idea at the last minute. I decided they would look cute with my denim skirt and loafers. The hardest part was finding the socks. I looked at Walmart, Target, and Boscovs (a high-end department store). Only Boscovs had the socks I needed, but they were $6 for one pair. I don't think so!!!

I came home, frustrated from that outing and went to the K-mart website and lo and behold - they had a 6-pack of the socks for $6. Now we're talking!! I went to K-mart Tuesday night and got them. They worked perfectly. I chose a dark blue thread to match my denim skirt. I will plan to smock the others as I have time.

Sew Beautiful #135

I got this issue of Sew Beautiful last week, but have barely had a moment to glance at it. If all goes as planned this evening with my dress for Martha and my 3 etsy orders, I am planning to do a podcast tomorrow featuring this latest issue of Sew Beautiful and all the great articles in it. If you already have this issue and have anything you'd like to share about it - your favorite article/garment and why, please leave a comment and let me know - I'd love to include it in my podcast.

Episode #5

So, now that I have come out from underneath all that black fabric, I can blog about the last episode of "The Smocking Bee." The jumper pattern that I mentioned I will be using for Martha's dress is "Seasons Change Smocked Insert Jumper and Jumpsuit for 17-18" Dolls" by Darcy A. Fechner. However, after doing some research, it appears that this book is out of print and not easy to locate. It's a cute little jumper pattern. I will post a picture of Martha in her dress when it is finished.

I told you I would give the information about the Martha Pullen Event in Ellicot City, MD. Hopefully, they still have a few places left. You can check out their website at http://www.sewfair.com/ I can't wait! I am counting down the days. If you're going to be there, please let me know!!!!

Also, I mentioned about the adorable smocking plate for a sock monkey from the latest SAGA News issue. I didn't realize it at the time because it arrived right in the middle of my podcast, but that design was created by Claire Meldrum - the incredibly talented designer who has been writing and sharing great tutorials on using Adobe Illustrator to design smocking plates. I feel like I know her -- and was so excited to see her design in SAGA News!! Congratulations Claire! If you visit the SAGA News blog, you can get a sneak peek at the darling dress! http://saganewsblogs.blogspot.com/2011/02/saganews-volume-32-1.html

Now, in the podcast, I asked about which way you pleat -forwards or backwards -- that means - do you sit with the needles facing you and pull it away as you turn the knob, or do you sit with the back facing you where you are watching the fabric feed into the pleater? I personally watch it being fed in so I can guide it better and make sure it doesn't get wonky. Leave a comment and let me know how you pleat!!

The Battle of the Black Fabric

My house was recently attacked by 68 yards of black fabric! I published a podcast on Monday and was prepared to update my blog accordingly. However, I got a call from our family ministries minister at church asking for some help. The next thing I knew, I had 68 yards of black fabric in my house and I was making huge panels for the stage for Family Fusion. When all was said and done, I made 7 panels -- 5 of them were 15 feet x 5 feet, and 2 of them were 15 feet x 10 feet.

I serged all the edges and then turned under the top several times to make it stronger so gromets could be set in to hang these panels. It was a lot of work, but it was a blessing to be able to do that for my church. You should have seen the pile of serger scraps.

The Family Fusion show is tomorrow night, so I will take a few pictures of what I actually made and post them. In the meantime, I will gather all the info from the latest podcast and get that up later on this evening - now that the panels are happily delivered to church!

Wee Care Bishop for Dolls

Well, here it goes.... I am going to attempt to use a Wee Care Bishop pattern for my Martha Pullen doll. The girls on the Delphi Heirloom and Smocking Forum say that it'll work, so I'm going to give it a try. I have two patterns - and I think they are almost identical. One is from AS& Issue #48 (from 1999). The other is from SAGA.

I'm going to cut it out this morning and hopefully get it pleated too.

I'll let you know how it goes!!

What Shall She Wear?

My sweet husband bought me an original Martha Pullen Gotz doll last fall. She is still in her original dress and even has her certificate of authenticity attached. I want to take her to Maryland with me in two weeks so I can get a picture taken with me, Martha, and my Martha doll. I think she needs a new dress to wear. I want to do a basic smocked yoke dress, but I can't decide what fabric/smocking. Do I want it to be dressy or casual? Fun or fancy? Hmm.... tough questions.

I am off on Thursday and Friday (because I work all day on Saturday). I will have to get to work on it right away. I would *love* to make a bishop dress for her, but I can't find a bishop pattern for an 18" doll. I doubt I can find one in the next couple of days....

Does anyone have any suggestions? Do you know of a doll bishop pattern?

Wow - that was fun!! I really enjoyed podcasting about smocking again. It makes me not feel so alone in my enjoyment of smocking when I am able to share my smocking chatter with you all. I wanted to share a couple of links to sites I mentioned in this latest podcast. The first is to the great tutorial on using Adobie Illustartor for making smocking plates. That address is:

http://www.clairemeldrum.ca/?p=855

Also, if you'd like to join us over at the Delphi Heirloom Sewing and Smocking forum, you can click here: http://forums.delphiforums.com/Heirloom/start

I'd love to hear your thoughts about The Smocking Bee podcast. If you have any ideas or suggestions, or would like a copy of my Sew Beautiful smocking plate index, please send me an e-mail at TheSmockingBee@hotmail.com!

Happy Smocking,
Connie

What Are You Working On This Fall??

Well ladies, Labor Day has come and gone signalling the end of summer.   So, what are your plans for fall smocking?  I'm still working on the smocked dress for my Martha Pullen Doll, but I am thinking ahead to smocking a little insert for a fall purse.  I have some orange/yellow fall plaid fabric that I plan to use.  I'd like to smock a candy corn or two on an insert.  This design is a bit "young" for something for myself, so I may design my own candy corn plate for this.

My next podcast will feature inspiration from YOU.  What are *YOU* smocking for fall?  Did you smock anything special for back to school?  Will you be smocking something special for Halloween or Thanksgiving?  Leave a comment and let me know what you're working on so I can share it with our listeners to help inspire them to smock something special this fall!!

Wee Care Gowns

Do you ever have those times when God just answers your prayers in such an obvious way?

I've been trying to figure out what *He* would like me to do with my smocking. I've been asking God to show me what He would have me to do.

I published my podcast today about SAGA. I talked a little bit about the Wee Care gowns. I began to wonder if maybe that was what I was supposed to do with my smocking skills.

I produced the podcast on my lunch break. When I got back to work, my 2nd report was a death summary for a preemie infant. The baby was a 25-week preemie and lived less than 12 hours. It was as though God used that report to show me that He wants me to work on Wee Care gowns to help parents through this tragic time of losing a baby.

I am eager to finish my doll dress for Martha and then begin work on Wee Care gowns. The Web Smockers smocking guild makes at least 100 Wee Care gowns every year, so for now, that is where I will start. I may eventually (once I get pretty fast with making them) contact the hospital where I work to see if this is something that would be interested in.

Smocked Doll Dress Progress & SAGA Stories

Whew - it's been a busy week.  School started for us yesterday.  Last week was a hustle and bustle to make sure everyone was ready for the big day.  However, interspersed in the busy-ness, I was able to start working on my smocked doll dress that I plan to enter in the fair in two weeks.  Now that we are getting into a routine/schedule, I don't think I'll have any trouble finishing it. 

In fact, I plan to have the smocking finished before this weekend, so I can construct the dress this weekend.  I am presently in a run of working 17 out of 19 days -- and 12 in a row.  This run will end on Friday and then I will have a 3-day weekend!!  I plan to finish up the doll dress and start on my smocked fall purse!!

Also, now that the kids are back in school, it will be easier to publish my podcast.  I plan to publish one this week on my lunch break.  This pod cast will focus on SAGA - the history of the organization, the benefits of membership, and some of your experiences from being a part of SAGA.  If you are a member of SAGA and would like to share a tidbit of what it has meant to you, please send me an e-mail at SewBlessedInAmishCountry@hotmail.com.  I'd love to hear from you and share your story with our podcast listeners. 

Plan C

As I posted a few days ago, my smocked Christmas  ball was a fiasco.  However, I refused to let a smocked piece go to waste, so I bought even smaller Styrofoam balls yesterday to see if I could salvage it.  Well, that didn't work either.  So, being the stubborn person that I am, I decided there must be something I could do, and this is what I came up with.  I will attach a ribbon in the corner so it can be hung on the tree.  In fact, I will get 2 ornaments out of the smocked piece that was supposed to be for just one smocked ball.   That being said, I am not completely happy with it.  As I shared in my podcast last week, geometric smocking is just not my "thing".  I had to do geometric in order to make a smocked ball, but now, if I am doing this type of ornament, I can do pictures!!!!  Now *that* is exciting to me.

My next project will be a new doll dress for Martha and also for my fair entry.  I am going to use some sheet music print fabric (it's a very small scale) and then add a smocked insert of smocked music notes.  I wanted to start on that last night, but I didn't want to leave the smocked Christmas ball fiasco as it was -- I had to finish that first, but now that it's done, I can move on to my doll dress.

If At First You Don't Succeed.....

I finished the smocking on my smocked Christmas ball this weekend and attempted to put it all together.  However, it didn't work!  My Styrofoam ball was too big, and one of my top gathering threads broke as I was trying to force it to work.  So... now I have a geometric Christmas-colors smocked piece.  I am not giving up though.  I am going to be creative and figure out another way to make something out of this.  I have a couple of ideas, but I will have to see if they work out before I share them.

The Martha Pullen Fan Club has been a buzz about the new Sew Beautiful.  I am very eager to get my own copy.  I would love to do another review of it.  I checked Barnes & Nobles last night, and they didn't have it in yet.  I am thinking of calling JoAnn Fabrics to see if they have it in yet. 

Well, I must get back to my real job (transcription), but in between medical reports, my gears will be shifting and spinning to think of a creative way to salvage my smocked piece.