Liberty of London lawn fabric makes everything better. Sometimes, when I’m having a bad day, I’ll just stare at my stash. Often, I find myself having a hard time cutting Liberty, its so pretty. When you add gingham and smocking, it just takes this fabric to a whole new level.
Recently, I ordered this liberty from Farmhouse Fabrics. I fell in love with it because the colors are so perfect for Spring and Summer. Originally I thought it needed to be an angel-sleeve Bishop. After staring at it for a few weeks, it became clear that wasn’t what it wanted to be. I combed through my patterns and narrowed it down to a sleeveless Bishop, a Katina, or the “Little Snowdrift” pattern.
I ended up choosing the Little Snowdrift pattern. I’ve done it once before for beach pictures. I chose an khaki seersucker for those, and piped it in white. Its a fairly minimal pattern.
I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner sewist, as there aren’t a ton of instructions and some of the markings aren’t completely clear. If you’re learning to sew and you’ve mastered smocking/blocking and feel confident in your piping this would be a great one to try for a challenge. It is so darn cute though.
This dress is smocked in navy blue DMC and piped in this red gingham. The Little Snowdrift pattern comes with several smocking plates, I morphed a couple of them together to create this plate. One of the reasons I like this pattern so much is that it comes with three fantastic plates.
I’ll be the first to admit that my collar looks a million times better in this Liberty version. That can be attributed to the fact that I used baby interfacing to interface the top collar piece. I also used a point turner (similar to this one) to help push the piping out to the of the corners and the edges.
Speaking of the baby interfacing, it helps to pleat Liberty with baby interfacing adhered to the part that will be smocked. It makes smocking it much more pleasant. It gives the Liberty a bit more body, letting the pleats stand up a bit better.
Short and sweet post, just too much to describe on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re looking for a fun print for spring/summer transition, I cannot recommend this Liberty enough.
