heirloom techniques: smocked dress round-up

Rachel Le Grand

10 years ago

Since Liesl is just back from the SAGA convention and is so excited about smocking now, we thought it would be fun to feature some examples of the technique applied to Oliver + S patterns. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, smocking is used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. If you are willing to invest the time it takes, you can achieve results like these smocked dresses (and one blouse). Enjoy these examples, and if you know of other Oliver + S patterns that work well with smocking be sure to let us know in the comments.

First up, we have Ashley and Emily with a light blue striped Garden Party Dress for spring. The bodice panel was pleated and smocked instead of gathered. More details about the modifications made to this dress and some close up photos of the smocking can be found on their blog.

Another Garden Party Dress, but this time as a peach Easter dress by Darcy. This one has already made an appearance as a Friday feature.

Next up, Sharon created this pastel pink Fairy Tale Dress for Easter. You can read all about this dress on her blog.

Another Fairy Tale Dress, this time by Deb who made a red, white, and green snowflake dress for Christmas.

Catherine sewed this Birthday Party Dress, and you can have a closer look at the smocking details here.

Tamara created this unique denim School Photo Dress using Italian smocking.

Moving along, we have Aukje who made a Popover Sundress using red gingham. She also sewed a 2+2 Blouse using green polka dot fabric.

This Popover Sundress was sewn by Marlene. She used shot cotton and vintage Liberty lawn and added a hem facing on the right side of the fabric.

The Popover Sundress seems to be quite popular with smocking because we have two final ones to share. Melissa started out by making a mock version with a vintage bed sheet, and it worked for her so she went on to make a green Christmas one, too.