Lately it seems like every day I hear people talking about being ready for winter and Christmas! My brain is still filled with flowers and sunshine and water~ and summer, yet with all of the daily reminders, I realize that fall and winter really aren’t far off. At least the calendar says they aren’t-  So it’s with a lot of difficulty that I’ve forced myself to realize that and start putting long sleeves on my dresses. In all but the extremely cold places the short-sleeved dresses are wearable year round, since a sweater or coat along with a pair of tights can always be thrown on for outside. A long-sleeved t-shirt can also be slipped under the dress for added warmth, but I know that some people prefer to wear long sleeves in fall and winter.

With this in mind I cut out my first long-sleeved dress of the season yesterday. This dress will be a size 2 100% cotton with a deep-teal blue background and a print of white mini-hearts and leaves. I have no idea yet what I’m going to embroider on it, s0 you’ll  have to wait a bit to see, but I’m trying to think “winter” for the design. Hopefully I’ll have it ready for you to see in a few weeks! Until then, savor the last weeks of summer~ It’s going to be a long time returning!

With flowers, gardens, and spring everywhere, comes the desire to cast off the heavy, warm, winter clothes, and slip into clothes that match the colors and feel of spring.

I have several dresses for children that are filled with light, flowers, and softness,  both in my etsy shop and on my website.

They are the epitome of little girls and spring.

I thought you might be interested in seeing a few of the dresses that I think are wonderful spring dresses. This first dress is one that I think every little girl would love to wear. It is a nice, machine washable, light-weight cotton, with an adorable bunny jumping rope, hand-embroidered in the center of the smocking. I’ve captured the essential elements of spring in this scene, complete with flowers in blues and pinks and even an early butterfly!

Another dress that I think is a good depiction of spring is this dress, again, a lightweight, light-colored, machine washable cotton. The scene on this dress is very “spring”, hand smocked with a hand embroidered spring scene of a little girl walking in the country with her puppy. The hills are a vibrant green with new spring grasses and wildflowers. To complete the picture of spring, I’ve added a little bird, perched in front of his house, talking to the girl and her dog- (I’m sure they’re talking about the beautiful spring day-) The sky has a few puffy white clouds to accent the blue, and if you listen, you can almost hear the nearby meandering stream!

These are just a few of the dresses I have for spring in my shops. I am constantly working on more, so keep checking back. I get the majority of my ideas from scenes that I observe on my daily walks with Pascal. I’ve just started a new size 4 dress that will be great for spring, but I think it will be even more suggestive of summer~ we’ll see-

So, to steal a few minutes back from Pascal~

In my last post I wanted to give you a preview of the dress that I’m working on, but, as I explained then, Pascal has this way of dominating my thoughts, hence my blog! Since I’m ready to sew the dress pieces together, I thought I could still give you a bit of a preview.

The photo on the left, underneath this first picture is a view of my working area- Notice how neatly organized everything is? This “mess” is totally typical and necessary to my dress designing/making process.

Next to the dress front you will see a picture torn from an  old calender. I like to have a picture to look at while I work. I especially like to look at these old calender photos because there are always so many things going on in them; lots of mini stories within the whole. I find them great for sparking story and design ideas. You probably won’t notice any correlation between the picture I am looking at and the work on my dress, but in some undefinable way, what I have stitched was probably remotely related to a thought about something I saw in the calender picture. At the very least, I love looking at these pictures when I work.

I think it’s probably very similar to another “necessity” while I work, and that is that I must always have classical music playing. You definitely don’t see Beethoven anywhere in my work, but believe me, ( I know this sounds funny,) but there is a very strong influence of classical music in my  work. Somewhere in my mind these “necessary” elements merge and produce what you see when you look at one of my dresses.

The last photo is the other photo that I had intended for the preview in my last post. At that point I was about halfway finished with the smocking and embroidery, as you will see if you compare this photo with the one at the beginning. I cannot yet refer to the photo at the beginning as being of the finished front. It may be, but I won’t know that until the dress is completed. Often while I am putting a dress together, I’ll see that maybe it would look better with an additional row or two of smocking- or I’ll see a change I want to make in the scene. Sometimes I assemble the dress without wanting to change a thing. Right now I think I’m finished with the front, but we’ll see~  I plan now,  to begin sewing the dress together. This normally takes me about two days, so hopefully, in 2-3 days I will have this size 2 dress listed for sale. You will be able to find it on my website, as well as in my etsy shop .

* I apologize for the gaps in the text. Everytime I insert a photo it creates these gaps, and I haven’t been able to fix them back again~

Any little girl would fall in love with the shy,  white and brown bunny that is hand- embroidered in the center of the smocking. Peering out from behind a  cluster of  long-stemmed flowers embroidered in shades of purple, pink, yellow and white, we wonder what the bunny is watching. Perhaps your little girl would have some thoughts about that- ?

The sleeves are trimmed in lace and extra flowers are embroidered at the hemline, sleeves, and button placket.

Of course a complimentary pair of hand embroidered socks comes with every long dress just as it does with the short ones, so I invite you to come take a look. This could just be  the special dress you have been looking for.

I just finished the first one and you can see it in the shop right now. It’s titled, “Lavender Blue” and is listed as a size 4L (long.) I have added five inches to the regular dress length so it is approximately 25 1/2 inches from the back of the neck to the bottom of the hem. I added one extra inch to the hem, so that the hem of the 3L and the 4L, now measures 4 inches instead of the standard 3 inches. I also added an inch to the width of the smocked portion of the dress, which won’t change the way the dress looks or fits, but it allows extra pleats and smocking to balance the added length and help maintain the same proportion of width to length as the original design. Other than the fact that the dress hits five inches lower on the leg, you will find no difference in the way the dress fits or looks, it is purely for those who prefer the look of a longer dress to that of a shorter one. I am currently working on a size 3L. You should be able to see that in the shop soon.

Several rows of white, hand-smocked diamonds frame a beautiful, hand-embroidered summer country scene in soft hues of green, purple, blue, and yellow. A little girl, out for a walk with her dog, stops to explore a birdhouse and chat with its owner who happens to be perched out in front.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with flowers.

Size 4

Rabbit ties her pink sweater around her neck as she walks into a flower-filled, cotton meadow to find her friends. She is surrounded by rows of white, diamond smocking, accented in deep violet. A little hand-embroidered bird stands on a rock while he waits for rabbit to arrive. The sleeves and back yoke are trimmed in violet and a hand-embroidered butterfly hovers over a pair of spring flowers.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with wildflowers.

Size 1

Just hatched!  Two baby chicks wander around a field of blue and white striped cotton amidst rows of embroidered daisy chains. They’re off to see the world. Following zig-zag rows of blue and white smocking, they search for a little girl to befriend.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with daisy chains.

Size 1

A little girl in her pink and white dress walks with her little white dog in their garden filled with pink flowers. The fabric is a beautiful seafoam blue-grey with a white floral print. The scene is centered between several intricately designed rows of blue and white smocking. The collar is hand-embroidered, a pink flower on each side.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with a butterfly and flowers.

Size 3

All dressed up and ready to go wherever you want to take them. A rabbit, lamb, and duck stand on a light-blue field of darker blue mini flowers. The collar and sleeves are in contrasting fabric, the background being dark blue with small light blue flowers. The contrast of the sleeves and collar with the dress body gives it the appearance of a jumper and blouse. The hand-smocking is light blue and white. A dark blue satin ribbon is woven zig-zag through the hand-smocking at the top of the dress.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with flowers.

Size 2

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 3

Price: $200.00 | Quantity available: Sold

Wearing a red bow around his neck, Teddy Bear rides his rocking horse. The fabric is a soft shade of tan with mini, red berries and green stems spread across it. It is hand-smocked with a design including large white hearts and hand-embroidered with vines and berries bordering the bear and rocking horse.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with matching berries.

Size 4

Two bunnies, big sister and little sister, go for a summer walk and gather flowers along the way. A colorful country scene is smocked and embroidered on a light-pink background imprinted with spicy-pink flowers. Smocking is spicy-pink with accents of white. The scene is bordered across the top with an embroidered flower garland in pinks and green.

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with matching flowers and butterflies.

Size 4

Includes a complementary set of socks, hand-embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 4

Price: $215.00 | Quantity available: Sold

A teddy bear sits in a strawberry patch wearing her white blouse with sleeves trimmed in red. The fabric has an ecru background with tiny red rose buds scattered across. The smocking is done in ecru, red, and white to match.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 3

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching images.

Size 1

Not available

A bouquet of yellow, blue, and white flowers lies in the middle of light-blue smocking, centered on white cotton fabric with light-blue stripes. The bouquet is bordered on both sides by several rows of blue and white smocked designs.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 1

A handful of summer daisies tied with a yellow ribbon are embroidered in the center of several rows of yellow smocking. The smocking features white accents on a soft, butter-yellow, cotton fabric. The collar is topped with a fresh-looking daisy as well.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching daisies.

Size 1

Two white bunnies get into mischief on a floral-print, lavender background. Lacy-white smocking contrasts beautifully with several rows of purple smocking; topped with a multi-colored bouquet of flowers.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 1

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching images.

Size 1

SOLD – No longer available

(It’s a Girl!) born April 1st, a raspberry-pink giraffe, in a field of raspberry-pink smocking and flower bouquets. The cotton fabric has a raspberry-pink, mini-floral print on a white background.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 1

 

Size 4

SOLD – No longer available

On a beautiful blue-lavender print fabric, a mother duck leads the way to the swimming hole while her duckling struggles to catch up. Smocked rows of the same lavendar-blue add a subtle background, accenting the brightly colored garden scene, while highlighting the two ducks.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 3

An entire flower garden grows within white and green smocking on floral-print green and white fabric. A brown bunny thinks nobody saw her sneak into the garden where she tries to hide behind the flowers, while eating as many as she can!

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 1

Rabbit enjoys her garden’s spring blooms while swinging from a tree wearing her best pink dress and a white pinafore. She is surrounded by many rows of intricate pink smocking with multi-colored hand embroidered flowers.

Includes a complementary set of socks, embroidered with matching flowers.

Size 3