Smocking and Lace Details for Project Run & Play Sew-Along

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 This week Project Run & Play has challenged it's designers, and those that 'sew along', as I do, to make something that showcases details.  This project was made for a friend to give as a gift to a relative's new baby girl.  The little outfit is full of details but smocking and/or embroidery and French lace are featured on each piece of this 5 piece outfit.  The delicate, faerie lace on the bonnet, dress, and pant*ies is so airy and pretty.   I had the lace in two sizes and used the widest piece on the bonnet.  Can't you see a sweet little face framed in that lace?!  It was so pretty to work with that I smiled each time I touched it, just imagining it on the little recipient!

I used the Smocked Baby Layette pattern by Old Fashioned Baby for the little dress and slip and an old Grace Knott pattern for the bonnet.  The outfit is made in a 6 months (or so) size.

I designed the smocking design for the bonnet myself using two pink floss colors to echo the pink rosebuds in the dress fabric.

I embroidered the full-blown roses on the bonnet ties to hide the stitches attaching the ribbon to the bonnet and to add a little more embroidery.  (I can't help myself!)

The full-blown rose and little French knot flower buds complete the design at the center of the smocking.

The dress is made with a sweet little fine cotton print that I bought online a while ago.  I am sorry that I can't remember the site.  The neckline is edged with entredeux and the gathered French edging is applied by hand.
The smocking design is taken from Ray of Sunshine in issue #25 of Australian Smocking & Embroidery.  The rosebud is my addition to the design to complement the fabric print.

The little puffed sleeves are smocked with the same pattern.  What is truly magnificent about smocked sleeves is that they 'give' with the wearer.  This little sleeve will fit close around the baby's arm but will not leave marks like elastic does when it is too tight.  Smocking 'gives' because the pleats are held together at the top third of the pleats.  My own daughter had many smocked sleeves on otherwise unsmocked dresses because she hated the tight feeling of elastic but loved the look of puffed sleeves with edgings.

The back is closed with embroidered buttons!  This is a detail that will get noticed a lot because of the way babies are carried.

I used the hem facing for the fancy hem on the pattern but straightened out the scallops as they wouldn't show enough through this fabric.  Tiny French seams were used throughout and the hem was put in by hand.

The little pant*ies were made using the Ray of Sunshine pattern from the AS&E magazine mentioned before.  I added the little rose at the center front to indicate the front of the pant*ies but also as another excuse to embroider.  The little socks were embellished with the last of the lace and a little more embroidery.

With the smocking, these pant*ies will never leave marks on chubby little legs.  The only elastic on this outfit is in the waistline casing.  Twenty or thirty years from now the elastic will be useless and can easily be replaced for this little girl's own baby.

The little slip has a different, narrower French lace and the baby's first initial embroidered on the front.  Two tiny, tiny antique shell buttons close the slip at the shoulders.  The buttonholes had to be so small that I had to do them by hand!  Truth be told, that was the most difficult detail for me on this entire ensemble! I redid them three times!

Here is the whole ensemble together.  My daughter's question when she saw this when she came home from college was,  "Ooooo, I like this!  Is this going in your grandmother's hope chest? No?!! Well, you can make one just like this anytime you like... for me!"  Needless to say, I have already put the fabric I have left aside in a drawer with others she just loves and now just have to find more of that lace!  (I can not tell you how glad I am that she likes smocking and heirloom style clothing!)

I hope you enjoyed all the details on this little set.  Check out all the creations made by the other sew-along designers HERE at Project Run & Play!