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.