Sadie's birthday dress

This year I have been smocking and sewing birthday dresses for the granddaughters. Sadie's dress has it all; hand smocking, embroidery, and hand crochet trim. My inspiration for this dress came from Australian Smocking & Embroidery, Issue 93.


The fabric that I found at Sally's Fabric had roses rather than fuchsia blooms, but the coloring was similar to the dress in the magazine.

I embroidered little rose buds rather than fuchsia flowers on the contrasting bands.

I learned a new embroidery technique while working on the embroidered band.

It had shadow work bows where most of the thread ends up on the back of the work.

On the front, it gives added dimension to the white on white work.

I also sewed with entredeux trim for the first time which provided the basis for crocheting the trim.

The back of the dress also had a contrast band and closes with buttons and buttonholes.

The embroidery was a bit simpler on the back.

The hand smocking was simple and worked all in white.

I loved all the decorative touches of embroidery, smocking and crochet trim on a lovely old fashioned kind of dress.


Of course I needed to make a matching doll dress out of the left over fabric. I even have a tiny iron and ironing board for use when making the doll clothes.

The fabric had a very large print, so I fussy cut the doll dress. There was just enough left of the cotton sateen to fashion a little jacket.

The birthday girl and her doll. So sweet!