Well, it's week 2 of the Delicate Stitches by Sylvia Blog and I promised to jot a note each Monday. Hope it's been a great week for you!

I've been up to my eyeballs in wedding attaire for my oldest daughter's Fall wedding. Make 5 bridesmaid dresses and 2 flower girl dresses. Then I know I need to work a bridal garter in there and also the bride's veil. (Luckily she wants something VERY simple) The bridesmaid dresses is a simple pattern except for the invisible side zipper. Ugh! But I'll muddle through.

I am smocking the flower girl dresses. They are being constructed out of ecru silk dupioni. I am using ecru Madiera silk floss for the smocking, 2 strands and a small bead at the top & bottom of the diamond shapes of the smocking design. The flower girls are sisters, about 2 years apart. The younger is going to have a basic yoke style dress with a full smocked bodice. For the older sister I am using "Larkin" by Maja's Heirlooms. I mentioned it last week as an alternative pattern for an older girl that you would still like to smock for. This little girl is not a "girly" girl and so we didn't want to overwhelm her with poof and lace! I think we are going to sash each of the dresses with a Fall color that my daughter is using in the bridesmaids' bouquets.

Since I am smocking on silk, I would mention a pleating technique that I learned that really makes the dupioni pleat up nicely. Dupioni can be very ugly if just run through the pleater without using this technique during the pleating process. As you turn the pleats on the pleater, fill up the needles full of pleats. Have a STEAM iron ready to blast the pleats with shots of steam until you see that they are "slightly damp" with the steam. Then have a blow dryer that you immediately set the pleats that have been hit with the shot of steam. When you feel they are dry, gently slide the pleats off the needles. Load up another couple of turns of pleats onto the needles and repeat the process across the piece of fabric you are needing pleated. Really, really does work nicely, gives great definition to the pleated silk and makes it very easy to block and smock.

Another tip: since silk is very dulling on your needles, take a piece of wax paper and run it through your pleater to remove any residue that occurs from pleating the silk. This is not a bad idea to do periodically for your pleater, even if you are not doing a lot of pleating of silk.