Christmas Dress Smocking Finished

I have finished the smocking on the Christmas Dress for my granddaughter and am starting in on the embroidery. In the last post, Bunny mentioned in the comments that it would be a tough job of picking out the right colors for the roses. Was she ever right! It seems that I stared at that DMC color card for hours before I finally got to where I could pick out something to try. 

I tried a few different color combinations for the bullion roses to go in the center columns of the smocking. Bullion roses are generally made with three colors with the darkest in the center and the lightest on the outside. I didn't want to use black for the center, as that would be too artificial looking, so I tried using the darkest portion of the DMC variegated floss 115, and a fairly light red/pink color for the outer petals. I made the decision to use the same color for the center petals as I used for the red smocking.  I thought the contrast was too great between the lightest and darkest colors, as shown in the two roses in the center of the above photo. There are four altogether, can you see them? Look at the one on the right, it has a slightly darker shade for the outer petals, which I like much better. I finally settled on the combo on the left, which has a lighter color for the darkest inner petals. The colors are, dark to light, 304, 321, 3801. It does seem to blend in with the fabric, but I want subtlety in the roses, not great contrast.

I decided to outline the smocking in black, to match the trim on the collar and cuffs that I showed you earlier. This is the back panel, and has two partially completed roses on it. I need to add the lightest color for the outer petals, but it's getting late and I have already ripped out several attempts. I have that nagging feeling that if I keep working on it now I'll regret it later. So I'll put it aside for something a bit easier, and come back to it when I feel ready to tackle it.