What’s sweeter than a little girl in a precious smocked dress?
Well, not much in my opinion, maybe a BIG matching bow and cute shoes to tie the look all together. Growing up and living in the south, it seems like a tradition to have your little ones dressed in those adorable smocked frocks. They have them for every theme, holiday, or special occasion you can imagine. It’s true; if you want proof, just open my daughter’s closet. Seriously, you know you are a smockaholic when there are so many outfits in the closet that you can’t search for the outfit you are looking for because the hangers are so jam-packed against one another with no room to spare. It is what I like to refer to as #smockedproblems.
My husband fusses at me because he claims my daughter has way too many smocked dresses. He says it’s an addiction and refers to them as illegal purchases. However, I have witnessed on numerous occasions his heart overflowing with joy when someone tells him how adorable his daughter looks when dressed in smocks and bows. You can tell it melts his heart and that, in turn, melts mine.
My daughter is 3 years old. She has worn smocked dresses since she was a newborn. Every single smocked dress still hangs in her closet today (definitely one of the reasons the hangers are jammed next together with no space). However, at 3 years old, I’m proud to say she can still wear some of her 9- 12 month dresses. No worries, she is growing just fine, in fact she has consistently stayed in the 90th percentile for weight/height each year. So, I know you must be wondering, “how she can wear those old dresses 2 years later.”
For the love of smocking, I discovered a few tricks along the way to make sure we get the most wear we can from her precious smocked frocks.
3 Simple Tricks:
- Hemline :: Always check the hem length in your smocked dresses. Most dresses have at least a few inches in the hem that you can adjust. One simple trick is to let down the hem to get extra wear out of the dress for next year. Or, you can do like I always do and buy a size larger and take up the dress a few inches for this year and then let it back down the next year.
- Boots :: My daughter loves to wear boots. Pairing a smaller or shorter smocked dress with boots gives the illusion that the dress is not as short because not as much leg is shown. This is my daughter wearing a size 18 month smocked dress at 3 years old with her cowboy boots. Smocked dresses and boots paired together are simply sweet and southern…maybe a little bit sassy too.
- Pants :: Transform a too small/short smock dress into an adorable smocked outfit easily. A few solid colors of pants can help you get extra wear out of those outgrown smocked dresses for years to come. For instance, this picture below of my daughter’s first Christmas smocked dress in size 12 months, and this is her at 3 years old wearing that exact same dress paired with red ruffled pants for a Christmas outfit 2 years later.
I hope if you are obsessed with all things smocked like me, this post gave you a few ideas about how to wear a smocked dress for multiple years. Let’s face it, they aren’t exactly cheap, so why not get more bang for your buck? Go pull out the boots, let down that hem, or find some pants to match an old smock dress for your daughter to wear again.
Be honest, are you going search right now in your daughter’s room to see what pants you can pair with an old dress to make a new outfit?
Great ideas, but how do you increase the neck size? Thanks