I would love to learn more about smocking. I have a machine that gathers the fabric but I’ve never actually tried smocking. I’d love to see some pictures of your designs.

Leona, that is so nice that you have a pleater! It is tedious to gather the fabric by hand. (Worth the effort, but tedious.) I am glad to hear that you would love to learn more about smocking. It is so much fun. It looks hard but it is very easy.

I don't know how to add an image here. Years ago I made some patterns and they are still on Etsy. The patterns are a little primitive in that I hand-drew the illustrations for the directions and for the pattern pieces. They are sized for the Vintage American Girl doll only, the modern American Girl Doll was not sold when I started. Here is a link to the patterns: https://www.etsy.com/shop/infinitefreedom. There are a number of color choice for each pattern.

I am starting to design smocking patterns again. This time I will size for both Vintage and Modern American Girl Dolls and upgrade my pattern publishing skills. I am hoping to publish the patterns through Pixie Faire and get help with my pattern making process.

Sally, I checked out your smocked dresses on Etsy and they are beautiful!!! Do you smock a strip of fabric then add it to your dress pattern?
I am going to try to smock this winter. I will keep looking at your Etsy acct to see your new designs. My email address is:
[email protected]

Thank you so much for the nice compliments!!! I appreciate it.

With smocking, you can smock a strip of fabric and then add it to your dress pattern. Genniewren has a really cute pattern here on Pixie Faire that is made that way. it is at https://www.pixiefaire.com/collections/genniewren/products/lucy-dress-18-doll-clothes.

There are many ways to put the smocking into a pattern. The most common way is to have a front bodice that comes part way down the front of the dress. Then you have a skirt that attaches to the front bodice and the smocking is on the top portion of the skirt. In that case, you would likely have a back bodice that is long enough to come down as far as the bottom of the smocking in the front. You cannot sew the dress in the typical way (sew the bodices of the dress together and then attach the skirt to the bodices). That is because the seams between the front bodice/skirt and the seams between the back bodices/skirts do not match at all.
Instead you need to sew the entire front of the dress into one piece and the back of the dress into one piece. You sew them together at the shoulders and then sew the side seams.

It is easy but different.

I would love to hear what you do with smocking this winter. Feel free to ask me any questions if you have trouble. And thanks for the email!

Have you tried counter change smocking? If so do you have patterns or know where to find them? I tried it once, found it was fun and no pleating requires.

I save pennies, literally, for 2 years. When I took the pennies to the bank I had enough, $100 at the time, to buy a 16 row pleater. It makes life so much easier. I still haven't figured out how to do a bishop through my pleater yet. My most recent project was making a doll size version of this pattern: www.inspirationsstudios.com/product/the-bees-knees-ase85-digital/
I used the American Girl Kirsten Nightgown pattern with some alterations.

Hi Genine,

I did see the SWC lesson, it was excellent! I will check out your other patterns, thank you so much for mentioning them.