Allison turned 8 and was baptized recently. I used the Oliver + S Garden Party pattern to make her dress. Since the front is already gathered, I wanted to try smocking on the front. I didn’t have a lot of time, or a pleater, so I used honeycomb smocking. I made a size 8 and ended up adding ~10″ to the width of the front panel when I cut it out (I moved the pattern ~5″ from the fold). To do the smocking, I first downloaded some 3/4″ graph paper and used that to transfer the dots using a water soluble marker. Then, following this tutorial, I smocked the front with 3 strands of white embroidery floss. BTW, I loved this video. Her voice is so soothing and I felt like I was sitting in her living room with her teaching me how to smock 🙂 The rest of the dress was really easy to sew up. The only other difficult part was figuring out where to place the front waistband since I didn’t do more than one line of basting there. It came out a little wonky but you can’t tell when she is wearing it. Overall, a very nice pattern and I love the simplicity and details of the design.