The Beauty of Hand Smocked Dresses

I admit, there is quite a selection of smocked dresses on offer these days. Traditional children's clothes will always be popular and smocked dresses have made a dramatic comeback over the last 5 - 10 years. Originally I stayed away from offering a collection of hand smocked dresses because of the cost and what we would have to charge when so many cheap versions are out there but I always believe that you get what you pay for so quality always wins!

I was persuaded to offer a hand smocked dress collection by my regular bespoke customers who we make for every season. More often than not they choose one or two smocked dresses in their season's order and are always thrilled when they recive them. Here are some samples of our bespoke dresses.

  Left - pink velvet   pinch smocking   with lace trim and   half sash tie at   the back

 Right - tartan   cotton with   contrast frill collar   and under netting

We don't always think about the work involved when we are ordering a dress or hand made item so I thought I would explain what is involved for us to produce one of our hand smocked dresses.

The process for our hand smocked dresses is -

1. we make the paper pattern for the dress.

2. using the pattern, we cut it out from the chosen fabric.

3. we take the piece for smocking to our smocking lady who lives locally

4. she smocks it according to our requirements, either for our collection or for a bespoke order where the customer has specified the thread colour and design.

5. we collect it, add in the lining, any trimmings, covered buttons, piping etc and then take it to our dressmaker who then makes up the garment.

6. we collect it from the dressmaker and then press and pack it before posting to the customer.

Quite a process!

I am passionate about quality and service so all this is done under my personal supervision. That is why each dress we now offer is made to order individually, so that I can take time to check and be proud of what we all, as a team, do to produce our dresses!