Several months ago, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and ran across a stunning image of a social media influencer on her front porch. She was surrounded by beautiful flowers and with her gorgeous two young daughters. While the scene was absolutely gorgeous, I was fascinated by her dress…It. Was. Smocked!!! If you want to take a peek at her gorgeous pictures, I’ll link them, here.
Immediately after seeing the dress, I started down the rabbit hole of discovering who made it, where it was purchased, etc. etc. It should not shock you, that much like some of my previous favorite garments, it is crazy expensive. So I hatched a plan to make it myself.
Before I tell you about that, you have got to go look at the website of the designer behind the dress below. It is a TREASURE TROVE of inspiration and gorgeous work hand smocked, unbelievable work. Here’s the link.
Okay, now that you’ve picked your jaw back off the ground and recovered from how amazing that website is. Let’s talk recreating this dress.
The first, most daunting thing I wanted to tackle was pleating that many rows. I determined that I would need about 45 pleated rows. I did not have a 24 row pleater that I was comfortable with at the time, so I used my moms Little Amanda 16 row pleater and ran my fabric through several times. I pleated the entire 60 inch width of the fabric. A video with tips on how to do this can be found below. If you want to hear the audio, go check out my reel. A very kind follower has since sent me a Sally Stanley 24 row pleater and it is GLORIOUS.
Once the pleating was complete, I decided to back smock it all. In retrospect, that was ambitious and a bit foolish. On my next version, I will not be backsmocking the entire bodice. I will do all my front smocking prior to cutting out the bodice part of the dress though.
Next, I needed to choose a pattern. Really any “bodice dress” pattern would work. I decided to use the top portion of the Tunic Bible pattern because I have fiddled with the fit of that pattern so many times. I drew the bodice pattern onto freezer paper and used “the freezer paper” method to block my garment. For a quick video on that, check this Instagram Reel out. For a different version of using freezer paper to help block, check out this video by Sarah and Sarah Classic Sewing.
Through lots of trial and error, I created the back bodice using the tunic bible back bodice pattern as written, darts included. But I did add in a placket so that I could get the dress on and off. I’ll spare you a description of all the things I tried out before landing on that option, they were myriad and they were all silly. I then attached a gathered skirt to both the front and back yokes (just like normal!) Both the front and back skirts are approximately 35 inches wide. Meaning they are not as wide as the fabric I pleated for the bodice portion. After sewing up the side seams, I used bias to finish all the exposed edges.
Then I tried it on….and was very disappointed in the fit. I should have angled the bodice in as seen below to accommodate for the darts I removed….lesson learned. that will definitely happen on the next version. To accommodate for the poor fit, I sewed a piece of bias binding to the bottom of the pleats to use as a casing for elastic, which I threaded through. You can see this in the images below.
I was also bummed because I made the bodice a bit shorter than I should have…again…lesson learned, the next bodice will hit me a bit lower (like it does in the inspiration picture).
Then, I smocked, I smocked and I smocked and I smocked. and I’m still smocking. Want to see some very wrinkly progress? Photo creds go to my 4-year-old.
Anyway, I promise to post a beautiful, finished picture soon! and document the next version too…I already have the fabric pleated up for that one 🙂
