That dress and all of her others are so easy and cute too, the fabric changes for top and ruffles completely change the look. I would guess the dress is 30″ to 35″ for front and back, it doesn’t look too full for the bottom ruffle. The top is probably a 7″ or 8″ strip folded in half , sewed to the top of the dress AFTER the side seams are made. A top stitch for the elastic casing. If you mark the inside of the folded top piece where the casing will be , make a buttonhole (up and down)there before sewing to skirt. This is nice to thread the elastic through or to replace, lengthen, or shorten without opening any seams to do so. I do this on all elastic casings…shorts, skirts, whatever. If I have helped I am glad, if not, please ask again if you didn’t understand something. Hope others will chime in here, we all have a different way for the same end results. As to smocking on this dress, don’t see how that would work with the elastic…..did I read you wrong? Betty_________________