Lilla Gumma: Honeycomb Smocked Top and Shorts

I'm catching up on sharing some of Spring sewing over the next few days.

In early May we went down South to Florida and then up to Charleston for a few days. I was figuring out what clothes the cub would need for the trip (and for summer in general) and figured hey, going to the South? Let's do as the southerners would do and add some smocking to our wardrobe.

I used the Ice Cream Top/Dress pattern from Oliver + S and followed a honeycomb smocking tutorial that I found on their blog. The tutorial is by S is for Sewing, who sews the most lovely things for her daughter. When I first found her blog I spent forever going back through all her posts, her style is just so beautiful and reading her "why" about why she makes clothes for her daughter really resonated with me. Reading her blog actually really helped push me into this journey of making clothes for the cub!

Honeycomb smocking was surprisingly easy, and really looks darling. I used yellow embroidery floss to add a little pop of color on this shirt.

I did add length to the pattern, I generally find I need to add a few inches onto any Oliver + S top pattern to get the fit I'm after.

She's worn this a ton, so here are a few random photos -

This is actually a screen shot from a video I took of her singing the Sesame Street theme song. This cub sure loves Sesame Street!

Painting is such a popular past time around here.

This was actually trying to get an official blog picture, but she could see the park and only stood here for maybe twenty seconds, and then I realized she had spilled something on the shirt earlier that day...plus it needed pressing...oh well!

I used a cotton fabric I had picked up a long time ago at Hancock, it's light and airy which makes it perfect for summer. I wish I had more of it!

I also made a pair of Puppet Show Shorts (also from Oliver + S) to go with the top. I cut up a pair of navy linen pants I had decided to get rid of and added some blue piping. I made her the 6-12 size because that was where her waist measurement fell, added some length, but I think I should have just sized up in general because these seem a little bit small on her. This is a cute pattern though and and I'd like to make more.