Hippity Hop

                               Pattern from the book "Sew Cute Couture" by Gail Doane
                                    Smock plate is "Bunny Lace" from Pat Garretson

I just finished a bunny dress. I'm fairly happy with it. I've had a hard time feeling like being at the sewing machine the past couple of weeks. Kind of tired and I wasn't any more energized when I sat down at the sewing machine after work today. But somehow sitting at the machine and sewing my mood changed and now I feel so much better. Of course, now I'm sharing with all of you and I love doing show-n-tell! So that brings out the sunshine in me so much more.
I love Gail Doane's book! I would love to do every dress and jacket in there. She just put up some new pics of two new dresses on her blog. I adore the white dress with the purple beads. Here's the link if you want to check it out.
http://luluandannies.blogspot.com/
I finished the pleating on my lavender dress with the overlay of tulle. I was a little nervous at first to put it through the pleater, but I went slow and unloaded the needles about every 6-8 pleats. Now I'm about 1/2 done with the smocking. I always seem to have so many dress fronts all smocked up and ready to be sewn into a finished garments. I'd have to say it's much easier when you've had a long or rough day to just pick up smocking or embroidery than it is to go to my sewing machine. Handwork helps me to de-stress.
I belong to a yahoo chat group "Learning to Smock" and had one of the nicest emails from one of the girls in the group. So Marcia, if you are reading this post, here's a shout to you. THANK YOU!
I've already said thanks earlier to her, but I thought it deserved repeating. Here's wishing everyone a few hours of lovely stitching time to destress.