Fabric Manipulation on Polka Dots....

Back when my daughter was little I did a lot of Heirloom, Smocking, and Fabric Manipulation on her dresses.

Well, I just became a first time grandmother of a little girl, and am dusting off my pleater, etc. I'm so glad that I kept my Sew Beautiful, Australian Smocking, and Creative Needle magazines; along with my smocking patterns and pleating machine.

My granddaughter is now 4 months old, and I am doing my first basic yoke dress for her. (Prior to this I did dozens of velcro cloth diapers for her). I'm using Ellen McCarn's "Ultimate Yoked Dress":

Image from Sewfancy.com; Pattern can be purchased at www.allbrands.com
and Sewfancy.com

However, instead of using traditional smocking I decided to do some fabric manipulation for the entire front yoke. I replaced the smocked inset and the upper front yoke with a single front yoke piece.  

My original fabric is  a black polka dot: 

I used a technique known as "diamond smocking".  The sewing pattern is diagramed below: 

More detailed instructions can be found at SewnUp blog: TeresaDownUnder. 

I sewed each of the diamond patterns individually and tied them off; rather than carry the thread between diamonds.  I did this to give the final outcome a flower like appearance. 

Once completed, the back of the fabric for the front yoke looks as follows:

Before I cut out the yoke I pressed the fabric piece with starch and applied interfacing to the back of the fabric to give the yoke some stability when cutting out.

The final front yoke looks like this.

I was so excited about this that I had to share.  This yoke is so-o-o much more interesting than plain polka dots. Can you believe a simple polka dot fabric ended up looking like this?

I can't wait to finish the completed dress. I'm hoping to complete the dress over the weekend.

Happy Sewing Everyone......