Smock around the clock

With all the Easter crafting done or given up on, I moved on to the next project piled on my desk: smocks for Miss Maren. I saw this smock on Sarah's blog a while back and thought it would make the perfect bib for Maren. She won't wear a regular bib while eating and I know I've avoided letting her try some healthy foods because of the mess factor involved, which gets my Mommy Guilt going. This smock is perfect because it covers her whole front and ties in the back so she can't get it off! The pattern is Simplicity 8916 and I had to buy it off eBay, as it's older and none of the local fabric stores had it.


Here's the problem: I don't sew. Last time I had any formal instruction in sewing was oh, 7th grade-ish. This little pattern was very simple but it still took me several hours to make the first smock. Most of that was due to the fact that I kept having to rip off the bias tape and redo it; I had a hard time getting the edge of the fabric caught by the thread. If you look close you can see that I used extra-wide bias tape around the neck and regular width everywhere else. The neck was the last piece you put on and for the life of me I couldn't get it to work with the skinny stuff! Luckily I had some of the extra-wide from last year's pillowcase dresses.


Here's my second attempt. I had this cute thrifted strawberry fabric and thrifted red polka dot bias tape in my stash. The bias tape is extra-wide and while I didn't have any more problems with the fabric not staying in the fold, I did have a much more difficult time getting it stretched smoothly around the round seams of the armholes. I'm not sure which width was really better; they both had their difficulties. I do think I like the look of the narrower tape better.

I'd like to make a couple more smocks so I will be looking for more thrifted fabric and bias tape--for each smock you need 2 packages and that stuff gets expensive! I'd also like to experiment with making one out of a vinyl tablecloth so that I could just wipe it off instead of having to toss it in the washer. I bought a tablecloth on clearance at JoAnn's so I can give it a try. Oilcloth would be cute too but I don't think my JoAnn's carries it and I want this project to stay inexpensive.

And from the SUPER EXCITING GOOD NEWS file: My husband comes home tonight! You may recall that he left on President's Day for some training in Missouri, so we haven't seen each other in 8 long weeks. To say that I'm excited to see him would be a slight understatement. :) Thankfully the huge snowstorm that was predicted for today has missed us so we won't have any problems with flight delays. It's actually snowing outside right now but it's nothing major and should be gone by tomorrow. I'll be back Monday, and hope you all have a wonderful weekend!