The Cherub's Food and Craft: Tilda Bumblebee Collection

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to making some smocked garments for the new Tilda Bumblebee Collection.

It is a divine selection of the most delicious fabrics, perfectly suitable for smocking and a multitude of other uses, including bags, ladies wear and home decorating.

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I made 3 very different garments, the fabric is beautiful and needed little embellishment, so I kept it sweet and simple.

First up a skirt.

I used the Mem Rose pattern from One Thimble - I did alter the pattern to include a fully elasticated back, and I added fullness to accommodate the smocking.

I pleated 10 half space rows and used a baby wave, 3 cable combination. Using DMC stranded cotton in 3 strands. Colours were 597, 725, 471, 3804 and 598.

Skirt yoke linings and back lining were different fabrics from the outer and I made mini-piping with the plain blue matching print from the range.

Next up I made a sweet little round yoke dress, again using different fabrics for the yoke lining and the placket - I didn't think to take inside pics boo hoo :(

Keeping the design simple, to let the gorgeous fabric speak - you can see a peek of the lining fabric in this photo.

Pattern is Little Bird from Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 98 - though I have tweaked it to completely pipe the yoke, original smocking design from me, using the specified number of rows in the pattern. I also added a sweet little bow.

And the back is just as cute.

And finally a sundress - this is made from my original pattern Child of Nature (which has been reprised in several forms in Australian Smocking and Embroidery). The original is what I used for this sundress - it can be found in Issue No. 53.