I have had a very busy week, I have been to The Polo, and two days racing at Royal Ascot. I have seen The Queen three times in one week!!!!!! I have also seen Prince Charles, and because of The Diamond Jubilee there have been a lot of documentaries on TV with him as a baby wearing his traditional smocked suits! I just love them and thought I had better hurry up and finish off the two I have been making for baby Mark so I could share them here on my blog!
Both have been made from my fabric stash......I knew it would come in handy one day!!!
The first is a little pale blue and white, with lemon accents on the smocking. I found the smocking pattern in an old AS&E magazine.....I really am going to miss that magazine. The shirt and little button on shorts are my own pattern. I love the neat tailored look of the front of the shorts, and the romper effect with the elastic at the back.
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Front View |
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Rear View |
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Close Up Of Smocking |
In the second suit I have picked out the colours of the printed pique material the shorts are made of, and designed some picture smocking boats.
I think that boats are one of the easiest picture smocking plates to design, however trying to copy the curved sail printed on the shorts proved to be a little more tricky......hence a waste paper basket full of graph paper covered in boat sails.
I am pretty pleased with the final results.
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The finished suit. |
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In construction.......it's not easy setting in those tiny sleeves!!! |
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Those tricky sails! |
Photographing these things is pretty tricky......the flash is not very forgiving!!!!!.....and where is the best place to photograph them????, any tips would be greatly appreciated!
I have not given them to Victoria yet, but I know she will be thrilled, and hopefully they will be handed down through generations.
If anyone out there would like to make a traditional smocked boys suit, two different patterns of mine have been published in Australian Smocking & Embroidery, issue 98. Check it out, and give it a go......and I would love to see pictures of anything you make.
Happy Smocking xxx