Hand-embroidered and smocked dresses for little girls. Rabbit Whiskers designer-original children’s clothing is lovingly styled to inspire your child’s imagination.

I was saving my second new smocking idea to write about in this post, and it’s  funny, because in response to my last post,  Julie wrote and suggested that I might want to try smocking throw pillows. She had seen some in magazines and thought they looked good. Thank-you,  Julie!  I very much agree with you that smocking looks great on throw pillows. That was the other idea that I had been saving to write about in this post. We seem to think alike! I too have seen a few pictures of smocked throw pillows. In the pictures that I saw, the pillows were machine smocked. They really looked very nice and very unusual.

The pillows that I hope to make will differ some from the ones that I saw in the pictures. I will hand-smock them; probably on an insert that will be sewn into the front of the pillow, or perhaps I’ll smock the entire pillow front. With hand-smocking I have the freedom to compose my own designs and make them as elaborate as I choose. While the things that are machine smocked look very nice, the designs are usually basic and common. (That’s not to say that hand-smocking doesn’t use basic or common designs; they often do.) Then I will hand-embroider something like the scenes that I embroider on dresses. I’m thinking that it could be a throw pillow to decorate a child’s room; perhaps a pillow to sit in a rocking chair.

I think smocked throw pillows would also look great on a couch or daybed. If they were to be used in a room other than a child’s room I would do an elaborate smocked design and perhaps even embroider flowers or something very general on some of them. Anyway, I’m very eager to try these new projects. I have a couple of dress orders right now, but hopefully when I get them finished, I’ll be able to try one or both of these ideas. When I complete either the wall hanging or the pillow I’ll definitely post photos. I only wish this work weren’t so time consuming and that I could work on more than one thing at the same time- (four, why not six, hands would be nice!)  It’s difficult to have the patience to complete one thing before thinking about the next~

I took a brief respite from sewing to work on the baby blanket that I started knitting for my grandson a year ago. I was starting to worry that if I didn’t concentrate on getting it finished, he’d be ready for college and I’d still be working on it, so I’m  pleased to have finished it while he’s still a baby! I love knitting. I find it relaxing and enjoy  that it allows the mind so much free time to think about things. Knitting the baby blanket, having had all of this “free-thinking” time,  I’ve come up with a few new smocking ideas that I’m excited about trying and hope to begin as soon as I finish work on my dress order.

When I’m making a smocked dress I like to think of the dress fronts as my canvas which I  will design and “paint”  with embroidery floss. My favorite part about making my  dresses is creating the smocking design and the picture that grows out of it, (the little scene that I embroider into the smocking.) People often comment about how much they like the picture I’ve “drawn”, so it occured to me, why not do a wall hanging; a hand- smocked, hand- embroidered picture that could be hung on the wall?  I think that the scenes I’ve put on my dresses would be adorable on a child’s bedroom or bathroom wall. So you can expect in the near future to see on my website a hand smocked, hand embroidered picture that will strictly be for hanging on the wall. I have another idea for a smocked project that I will tell you about in my next post.

You may have noticed how “in” smocking is right now. Woman’s fashions are featuring smocking in dresses, blouses, tunics, sweaters, and even jackets. With children’s fashion running parallel to adults, this winter it will be stylish as well as comfortable and warm for your child to wear her smocked dress, even in areas where the climate is colder. With the fashion being tunics and leggings and  “layered” dressing, the smocked dresses adapt easily.

Following the adults example, ( or maybe it’s the adults who are following the children’s,) the shorter dresses worn over leggings make adorable tunics.They can also be worn over a pair of long pants or jeans. A light-weight matching cotton or acrylic,  long-sleeved t-shirt can be worn underneath the “dress/tunic;”  toss on a coat for outside,  and your child is not only dressed in the latest style, but is toasty-warm as well-

Naturally, in warmer  climates this wouldn’t be necessary, but  you would have the option of two different looks from one dress. The dress could be worn as is with the matching socks, (or tights if preferred for winter,) on one occasion and on another, it could be worn as a layered outfit;  t-shirt, tunic, leggings- two different looks from the same garment!  Besides being fun to wear, the smocked dresses are really  very versatile.

The long dress, (size 3L and 4L,)  that I’ve recently added to my collection, is equally versatile and adaptable to colder climates. It can be worn exactly the same way as the shorter dresses. The only difference would be that when worn as a tunic with leggings, it is a long tunic-  again, very stylish this season. This is a dress that she will definitely have fun wearing all year long!

To complete my collection, I’ve added Size 3Long. I just put my first size 3Long, Let It Snow, into the shop. Like with the size 4Long, I’ve added 5″ to the length of the regular size 3 for those who would like a longer dress. The size 3Long measures approximately 24″ from the back of the neck to the bottom of the hem. Except for the length, it fits exactly the same as the regular size 3.

The white leaf mini print on cherry-red cotton fabric, makes a beautiful background for the intricate design hand-smocked by me in white and green embroidery floss. Taking center stage in the smocking, a hand-embroidered, lovely winter snow scene plays out. Scotty and Rabbit talk in their snow-covered garden while a snowman listens in the background among a forest of pine trees. A little house sits quietly on a snowy hill.

This would be an ideal dress for Christmas, and extra wonderful because with it’s winter scene, it can be worn the entire season! If you are looking for a size 3 and would like a longer dress, this is the dress for you. Because it is one-of-a-kind, if you are interested, you should check it out now while it’s here- and on sale as well!

If having a long dress in a size 4 interests you, I recommend  taking a look at my first one in the shop. The cotton-poly fabric is a beautiful shade of lavender. I’ve hand-smocked the design in lavender embroidery floss with a few of the rows smocked in white.

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.

After filling a few special orders where customers requested their dress be made longer so that it could be worn as a long dress, instead of the short dress it’s designed to be, I decided to start offering some of the dresses in the two larger sizes, size 3 and 4, in a longer length. In the future you will be seeing a few of the size 3’s and 4’s featured as long dresses.

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.

In keeping with autumn and all of its changes,  and in honor of launching my “new” website,  from 10/25/08- 01/01/09, every dress at Rabbit Whiskers is on SALE! Not only has every dress been reduced by twenty-five dollars, but every purchase made between 10/25/08 and 01/01/09 will qualify for FREE SHIPPING anywhere within the continental United States!

With the holidays ahead, and at such a great savings, now is the perfect time to buy the heirloom dress you’d love to give her; that very special, one-of-a-kind dress that she alone, will have. Or buy a few, one for now  and one in a larger size for her to grow into later.

It is also a good time to take advantage of the reduced prices and buy some dresses to put away for those times that you’d like to give a gift that is extra- special , such as the birth of a new baby, or perhaps an Easter dress, or simply for a child who is so special  that you want to give them a gift that reflects how much they mean to you.

Whatever your reason to buy a designer original dress, It’s a Good Time!

A new season and so many changes! Autumn has always been one of my favorite seasons, with everything in a constant state of flux. In northern California our weather is still warm, (although that could change any day-) with temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s. Pascal, (my dog,) and I have been taking long walks watching the trees change colors from day to day, then returning home to work on a dress or my newly “remodeled” website.

Welcome to Rabbit Whiskers! And welcome back, if you’ve been here before!  If you are a returning customer then perhaps you’ve noticed a few changes.  Using the website over the past year has been a good learning experience allowing me to see what things are working well,  and what things might be improved upon. With that in mind, my son Joshua,  ( creator of my website,)  and I, made a few changes that should be improvements for navigating through the site. We’ve also added a few new options that we felt would be beneficial to you.

Rabbit Whiskers now offers gift wrapping. For a fee of $5.00 per box, I will wrap in season-appropriate gift wrap, your dress(es) and include a ribbon and gift card with a message written by you. With the holiday season just around the corner,  wouldn’t it be great not to have to worry about wrapping your package and bringing it to the post office?

The site is now better organized so it will be easier to find exactly what you are looking for, quickly, and now it is possible to print a copy of the dress that you like and save it for future reference as a gift idea, or send pictures of your favorite dresses so friends and family can see which ones you like,  (or wish for)

Purchases totaling $300.00 or more will qualify for free shipping anywhere within the continental United States; a great feature to keep in mind when doing your holiday shopping!

Just as watching the trees change color in the fall is a change to enjoy, I hope the changes we’ve made at  Rabbit Whiskers will make your shopping a truly enjoyable experience!

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Lily, Rabbit Whiskers newest model. Lily is the grand-daughter of my best friend; (our friendship dates back to the note-passing days of seventh-grade!) so it was with much excitement that I created a dress especially for her.

If, when I was in seventh- grade I had been told that when I grew-up I would be designing and sewing baby dresses, and would even one day, make a dress for my friend’s grand-daughter, I would have laughed at the absurdity of such an idea. I despised sewing- no, never! - I’d never do anything like that! (continue reading…)