Smocked collar summer dress tutorial :)

Here is my first tutorial...I probably should have put a picture of the finished product first.  Rookie :)

I found a knit shirt at the

local thrift store that had a print I liked.  Sometimes that is the biggest battle.

I layed the shirt out and took one of Sophia's existing dresses and layed that on top for a guide.  Using the original hem of the shirt for the bottom of the dress.  I know, that's cheating.  I'm like that :)

I folded the collar of the dress down and the arms of the dress in to create the outline of the dress.  I used my rotary cutter and cut around the dress adding about a inch.  If you don't have a rotary cutter, used scissors.  I don't bother to pin generally.

This is what the body of the dress looks like.  The back of the dress is underneath...I'm sure you figured that out.

Next, I layed the pattern dress back on top so I could mark the arm holes.  They were 5 inches from the top of the dress. 

I stitched from the pin down on my serger (both sides), if you don't have a serger just use a zig zag stitch on your machine.  Straight stitch behind the zig zag for durability.

Without ironing I folded the arm holes in 1/4 inch and used a zig zag stitch to close the holes.  You don't have to, knit will not fray but if you are using cotton you need to.

 Here is what it looks like when both arm holes are finished...

Next is the collar.  Because I didn't have a bunch of fabric to spare I cut four pieces that were about 3 1/2 by 19.  If I were to do this again I would only make them 17 inches.  Sophia is a size 5/6 and her sist

 er Maija is 8, I think 19 inches would work perfectly for my 8 year old. 

 Anyway, I cut 4 pieces 3 1/2 by 19 inches long.  The picture above shows 2 stitched together (right sides together) and laying face down.   The other 2 are stacked on top of each other...

After stitching the second 2 together, I sewed all 4 pieces together to form a circle.  So now you have a formed collar with the bottom of the collar open.  Good-we are ready to iron the collar and attach it to the dress.  Fold the collar so the right sides are facing outward and iron.

Next it's time to pin the collar on.  With your seams of the collar on the sides, eyeball the center of the from and pin it to the dress.  I pinned mine down a bit so I formed a bit of a roundness.  On the outer corners, I made sure I was about a inch overlapped.  Then I pinned the back, basically straight on so I could tell the difference from the front and back.

I brought it to my machine and close to the edge I stitched the collar to the dress.  I continued all of the way around the collar so the edge will be closed.

Next, using elastic thread in my bobbin (there are great tutorials out there for sewing with elastic thread, just google it and you will find some) I started to sew 1 inch from the top of my collar.  This will form a cute little ruffle at the top of the dress collar.  Then, every 1/4 down until my last stitch which is directly over the top of the stitch I used to attach the collar to the dress.  When you are done, you steam the thread for 2-3 seconds to get it to gather more.

 I trimmed strings and some of the knit that was showing, like in the picture above.

This was a quick and easy project.  Sophie was already in the mud within a hour of wearing this :)

 Here are her modeling poses...not sure where she picked them up???

 It would also be cute as a blouse, with a shirred waistline!  I can't wait to make another!

Link up if you make one!