North American Smocking -- A Quick Sneak Peek

So, here's a bit of a preview of the Fitted Blouse with North American Smocking.  The fabric is a medium weight stretch linen with woven pinstripes with the opposite color scheme of the fabric pictured -- it's the dark tan with lighter pinstripes.

 The pattern is Jalie's Women's Shirt.  This is truly a great pattern and I wear the linen shirt I made back in the fall all the time.

The significance of this project is that I eliminated all the vertical darts (but kept the horizontal bust dart) and replaced them with a band of North American Smocking, which gives the fabric a basket weave texture.  The technique is surprisingly simple once you know how, but the proper execution takes some practice.  I can tell which of the three pieces I did first, since the longer I worked at it, the better I got at making the folds turn out exactly the way I wanted them to.

Here's a peek at the shirt back smocking. Isn't this absolutely awesome?  Pics of the finished shirt to come.