Children’s Corner Maggie: The Smocking Saga…

Have you ever had a project that almost made it into the burn pile…I mean trash can…multiple times? Well; this project was that for me. These sweet little teddy bears have a dark-side, people. Like all masterpieces, they required discipline, perseverance, and what I recently heard referred to as, “power words.” Feel free to use your imagination. Many power words have four, blunt letters.

Lets start at the beginning, shall we? Robby’s outfit basically made itself. I found this adorable lace insertion at Textiles in Nashville. If you’d like some, give them a call, last time I went, they still had it. It’s a Children’s Corner Johnny that I modified a scosh to add this piped ribbon instead of a smocking plate. He’s also wearing a ready to wear Peter-pan color onesie from Primary. I’ve sung the praises of these onesies many times before. They are extremely reasonably priced and great quality. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should.

Meanwhile, I pleated Maria’s Children’s Corner Pattern Maggie (an out of print pattern…sorry), using all the tricks I know, to no avail.

Tricks for Children’s Corner Maggie

• Use a check. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, checks tend to be easier to line up perfectly. They have a built-in grid for help! The front-button placket can be extremely tricky. I like to have the help of tiny squares as guides.
• Use 60 in fabric, remove the selvages, and pleat from one side to the other, along the whole width, following one single line (which clearly I did not do). Prior to tracing or cutting out the pattern.
• Leave pleating threads long and flatten fabric back out.
• Then pin and cut out the pattern pieces in the correct places. Make sure each pleated panel lines up on the same line.
• Tie off as indicated on the pattern. Don’t worry about having cut the pleating threads earlier, you’ll have plenty of extra thread to tie off.

Clearly; I did not follow my own advice. So; do as I say people!

Now, here’s where the saga (hehe, had to) begins. I tied those suckers off even though I knew my pleating wasn’t perfect. I convinced myself that I could “fix the pleating with my smocking.” Don’t do that. You’ll never smock it. So that’s what I did, I never smocked it.

I bought the cute teddy bear plate, I back-smocked it. And it sat. Under my coffee table, for weeks. Maybe months.

So my friend Margy came to the rescue. She’d asked me multiple times about my progress and I finally ‘fessed up to my error. She told me to give it to her, took those wretched pleats out, ironed the pieces onto interfacing, and pleated it again. Can you even believe that genius? By ironing them onto interfacing she made it so they wouldn’t wiggle around like crazy and she managed to pleat it perfectly. See below.

Margy also picture smocked those bears on the panels-she’s basically my hero. Now, if you ask her how many times she almost threw it in the trash, that’s another story for another day 🙂

Hope y’all enjoyed this saga and the tips, it was pretty cathartic to write 🙂