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SMOCKING NEWSLETTER VOL.1 ISSUE 11

July 20, 1997

e-Mail:  mainfairy@smockingbooks.com

Website: Garden Fairies Smocking & Needlearts Catalog

Smocking Newsletter - Beth-Katherine Kaiman, copyright 1997-2004, all rights reserved. Please respect my creativity and hard work and ask permission before you copy something from these newsletters for your non profit goup, I always ask that you quote me correctly and give me credit with a way for people to get back to me. Thank you.  IF you wish to quote me in a venture for profit please contact me separately concerning royalties.

In This Issue:

From our Readers

1. Passing on Traditions comments
2. Looking for smocked pocket pattern

SMOCKING HISTORY

1. Part 11 - More Antique Clothes and thoughts

SMOCKING STITCHES

1. Stitches in depth - Outline Stitch

From our Readers:

From Kimmyquilt: 'I really enjoyed your article about passing down traditions, and couldn't agree more with the sentiments you expressed. In our family, the big tradition is quilting. My Grandma is 85 years old and has been quilting since she was four years old. My Great-Grandmother ( Grandma's Mom ) was the town seamstress, and taught Grandma and her sisters how to quilt as a way of teaching them how to take small, even stitches. It really bothered Grandma that her own daughter wasn't bitten by the 'bug', and she wondered who would carry on after her. After years of pestering me, Grandma finally talked me into taking a quilting class, and I was immediately hooked. It has given me so much pleasure to be able to make quilts for Grandma and to see the look of pride on her face when she sees that she has passed a bit of herself, and a bit of her Mother, on to the next generation. Tragically, Grandma has Altzheimer's and is no longer able to do much quilting, but I feel so much pride in being the next 'Briest Girl' to carry the torch for her. In time, I'll pass on this skill to my daughter Jenna, and a bit of Grandma will live on. I hope that others who read your article will realize how important it is not to let our family's past die, and will take the time to learn their own little bit of history.

I also appreciated your article on getting published. Last Christmas, I designed a watercolor cross quilt for Grandma, and was immediately swamped with requests from family members to "make one for me, too!" Every time I go to the fabric store to find the right fabrics to finish the next @@%$&***! quilt (as you can tell, I'm a little tired of making this one quilt over and over and over ) I am surrounded by people exclaiming over my quilt. Since everyone who sees it makes such a ruckus over it, I've been giving some thought to having the design published, but had absolutely no idea of how to go about it. After having read your article, I think I'll be looking into seeing if a magazine might be interested in it. Thanks for the great idea!"

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and an OOPS I didn't realize she'd be reading my newsletter -

From Wendy Schoen: "Thanks so much for the newsletters. They are superb! I especially liked the one where you mentioned my book, Heirloom Embroidery for Boys. Yes, I agree with your comment about the book being misnamed. Ok. So I was stupid. I want everyone to know that I wanted to write a boy book because I have one child and he happens to be a boy. I was trying to convince everyone that they could still sew for a boy. And one more important point...I thought everyone would use the designs for girls too, just as I had done for years when sewing for boys. Anyway, I've paid dearly for that miscalculation, and that's why I was so careful when naming my newest book: Creating Heirlooms for Baby."

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"<< Any other suggestions out there as to a smocked pocket? >>

I saw a recent article on little gathered top pockets on babies dresses. The top was gathered to a small band, the pocket was gathered slightly and sewn on by hand to make a little puffy pocket. Wouldn't that be cute with a row or 2 of pleating (maybe half spaces) instead of the top band. Loretta in Hermitage, TN"

SMOCKING HISTORY - Part 11- More Antique Clothes and thoughts

The tradition of making smocked clothes as a living actually started with the smocks of the 1830's. I found a mention of smocks being sold at fairs. I had also mentioned in a previous issue that Liberty of London created the first 'salon' where people could come in and order a hand-smocked dress for themselves or children. So you ladies out there who smock for a living are carrying on a fine tradition.

This morning as I was thinking about writing this newsletter I was walking home from the store when a flotilla of antique cars drove by. They were going to fast for me to identify them but they were mostly from the late 20's early 30's. It started a train of thought about where my passion for old things came from. My Dad used to find "junkers", 30 or 40 year old cars (cars were cheaper in the 60's) rebuild their engines, fix the bodies and re-paint them, and even sewed the upholstery. At one time he had 6 cars, 5 in garages all around the neighborhood. I remember a 1934 La Gonda, 1938 Astin Martin (fire engine red), 1963 Mazerati, 1966 two seater Morgan, and the floater car (floater meaning he sold it after fixing it up) which consisted of a 1960 Triumph, 1949 Mercedes Benz taxi cab, 1950 Citroen 2cV, and 1952 Citroen 15. The funny part is that he didn't allow me or my sister to drive!!!!!! (Reminds me of the complaint that my daughter has made about my antique clothing collection - oh please Mom let me wear it.  Yeah right.) To do this type of work on antique cars today is a very expensive hobby actually. So my advice to you is when you see a smocked dress at the Salvation Army or garage sale for a quarter (it can happen, it has) grab it. You can be assured that the dress will be worth money in 30 years, guaranteed. As I tell my students in my shop, remember you are making the antique heirlooms of tomorrow.

I wanted to tell you about a couple of smocked garments I have in my collection that are from the Philippines probably from the 1920's. I will describe these to you over the next few issues. (I am certain that someone brought a Liberty dress to the tailors there to be recreated and that these dresses are a natural evolution from those dresses. ) All three items are made of voile, remember it is the tropics.

The first dress I want to talk about is based on the 'peasant' blouse made into a dress.

 Folkwear's Roumanian Blouse

'Peasant' blouses evolved from the chemise of medieval times and is basically rectangles having raglan sleeves and were gathered into the neckband either by a ribbon or smocking. You may also know this style as the Rumanian blouse from the old Folkwear patterns - I recently saw that McCall's had a blouse pattern in this style.  It's a comfortable style as the raglan sleeves leave room for shoulders to move about.   The dress is white cotton voile with the embroidery done in purple, sleeves are long and the neckline is a scooped neck which lays about 2 1/2" below the neck and ties in the front with cord that has tassels on the end. As I said the peasant blouse is basically rectangles but lower neckline curve was shaped onto the front of this dress. The bodice is roomy but not too full, neckline is gathered lightly into a self bias which is decorated with two rows of mirror image, interlocking blanket stitch with the pattern staggered so that it looks like cogs in a wheel. The pattern looks something like this,

|__|__|__|__|__|__

along the whole bias which is only a 1/4" wide. This stitch is carried through the whole dress, on the hemline and at the smocked waistband insert. (Probably done to cover the insertion lines at the waist.) The hem is interesting in that the stitch is done catching the hem but the stitching doesn't show on the back as they pulled up the hem, ironed it over and worked a running stitch catching only the part of fabric that was the hem. In other words the running stitch doesn't show on the front, nor does the embroidery show on the back. I guess this was done to protect the legs or silk stockings or as a fussy finishing touch.

The sleeves and front are decorated with drawn thread work and cross stitch patterns. The influence is Rumanian or Hungarian (I'm not sure which but I mentioned it to give you a sense of the style of embroidery). Sleeves are roomy and gathered at the wrist with an inset cord which when pulled tight creates a ruffled cuff.

Onto the smocking. The smocking of this dress is interesting in that it is a separate piece attached to the bodice and skirt which are gathered and attached to it. The front and back are separate bands and the side seams open at the band with snaps with the right side having a deeper placket into the skirt. The skirt seems to have been ruched with one row of stitching remaining. I would say that by today's standards of pleating it was 'gathered' or smocked very loosely. The smocking design is very simple but unique according to today's patterns. The first row is a wave stitch worked between row 1 and 2, then at row 2 is a cable stitch. This pattern is repeated four times (almost looking like faggoting and if you think about it the stitches are identical). This band is designed to sit just below the waist on the hips creating a 'drop-waist' dress look. The top of the band is simply attached to the bodice with the top portion of the blanket stitch pattern above worked to cover the sewing stitches and joining, and the bottom of the band is attached using the whole pattern above.

Over all the effect of the smocking and embroidery makes for a delicate outfit. It can easily be recreated using a basic raglan sleeve blouse pattern and adding a gathered skirt.

SMOCKING STITCHES: Stitches in depth - Outline Stitch

As I was smocking today I realized that we have run the gamut of stitches we can talk about without pictures, however we can talk about the stitches we have covered in depth. So we will start at the beginning again with the outline stitch. This stitch as you remember is worked with the floss always in the up position. To make this stitch you come up from the left side of the first pleat, just a hair about the pleating thread - remember not to place your needle into the hole of pleating thread because you will end up catching that thread and it will snag when you go to take it out, with the floss in the up position above the needle go over to the next pleat and take a stitch just a hair above the pleating.

As I said in the first couple of issue of this newsletter, the outline stitch is one of the oldest smocking stitches found on garments. There is a rule of when you are smocking to ALWAYS keep your needle parallel to the pleating threads. Inconsistently angling the position of the needle with the 'bites' you take can 'ruin' your smocking by making it look untidy, Consistency in the placement of your needle is extremely important for beautiful smocking (this everyone knows, sort of a 'duh, ma I know that!' 'yes but you need to keep it in the forefront of your mind as you are smocking'). HOWEVER I read in one of the old texts from the 1920's that for the outline stitch to be truly beautiful you need to angle your needle from the bottom up towards 10:00 instead on the usual 9:00. This gives you more control when you are especially working the stitch as vines undulating up and down across the pleats or in conjunction with the stem stitch to create the wheat stitch (outline stitch is worked with the floss in the up position and stem with the vine in the down position).

Actually this stitch is quite versatile in that you can stitch curves very nicely with this stitch, taking graduating stitches in your shape as you move across the pleats. Picture an undulating snake for the shape. In order to make these curves perfect you really should graph out your curved design first in order to make identical pattern each time. If you draw it out on a graph (or have a graph to look at) you can see where between the rows the curve should start to move up or down and where it is straight for a while. Many smocking plates which use this stitch for vines have it carefully mapped out for you but if you are playing around with the stitch on your own drawing it out onto a graph first will save a lot of 'undoing of stitches'.

Once the vine is done then you can cover it with lazy daisy leaves, french knot flowers or bullion roses or flowers. Think of the outline stitch done in this fashion as a canvas for embellishment or used to tie stacked cable pictures together Little Memories uses this technique in several of their designs like LM#36 Silent Mice or LM#136 My Cup Runneth Over (see Little Memories Plates) or Lady Bug Vine by Mollie Jane Taylor (MJT). (I tried to have more images for you to see on the web but the scanner wasn't behaving).

Here are a few more plates which use this technique of vines and flowers in-between waves or as part of the design other than the top holding row in a bishop.  Some of these designs are more suitable for smocking on the straight across format such as yokes or pillows, while others look best in the round such as bishop dresses, blouses or nightgowns.  You can also use a design that has a bishop edge, which usually means the pleats flow from the points of the trellis stitch as opposite seem in the design below which is meant to work with an insert or other form when you don't want the pleats flowing look such as with piped inserts on both sides of the design used with pillows or as an insert into clothing.

Ellen McCarn - Ellen McCarn Smocking Designs

Grace Knott - Grace Knott Designs

GK49 - Lucy Locket Quantity requested

Here the outline stitch at the bottom of this bishop design is worked as scallops with bullion flowerette poised within the scallops,  The beauty of the outline stitch is that you can shape it to whatever shape you want.  Here is where you would use the angle of the needle trick to sharpen the look of the curve you are working on.  Trust me, changing the angle of where the point of the needle goes into the pleat, instead of straight into the pleat as you are used to do, angle the needle down about 90* or more if you like depending upon how you like the look of your stitches.    Practice doing a few of your curve stitches this way, see if you don't like it.  I read this trick in an old manual for smocking.   When I remember which book it was I'll give the source ... I think it was from the 1920's.  When I tried it on a sampler I fell in love with the way the outline stitch gracefully layed into position rather than in a stacked manner.   Anyhow, the outline stitch shows itself as potentially a very interesting stitch rather than it's original role of holding pleats together (holding row).  You should allow yourself time to play around with the stitch.  Let me know what you find out.

Lou Anne Lamar - Lou Anne Lamar Designs

LAL#151 Sweetbriar Quantity requested

Here we see the same scallops as in Lucy Locket used as a border for the top and bottom in between are bullion flowers in bouquets placed on the point of the bottom scallop.  This design is lovely on a smocked collar using Swiss batiste or a Swiss Embroidery 5 1/4" Edging.  The finished edge on the collar below is French lace attached to Swiss Batiste with entredeux in the shape of scallops.  You can also work the pinstitch to attach the lace to the fabric or if you're extra specially lucky to have access to a hemstitching machine, have the lace applied to the collar by hemstitching .. gorgeous.  From what I understand most sewing machines that are out on the market today have some form of fancy stitch that looks like hemstitching, although there is nothing like the real old fashioned look.  Singer Featherweights have the hemstitching attachment.

Ann Smith - Ann Smith Designs

AS Intermediate Sampler Price $3.00 Quantity requested

In the middle of the design in between stacked cable hearts are outline stitch vines embellished with forget-me-knots.  This design has been a classic sampler for smocking students to work on as it has some unique stitches to practice.  It's also pretty either on a pillow or bodice front of a dress or pinafore, so cute.  Try varigated or overdyed thread on the hearts for an extra touch of interest.

AS Oriental Design Price $3.00 Quantity requested

Here's another of Ann's designs which uses the outline stitch as a viney stem for the flower with one strand of light green and one strand of dark green,  An old friend Maureen showed me that trick of blending your own floss colors.  The two different shades worked at the same time creates an illusion of shadow as the darker green tends to fade from the eyes leaving the lighter shade of green showing.  Again play around with using two different colors of floss in the same needle.  Using two strands gives a more delicate looking vine, so as not to over power the bullion roses and buds.   A very pretty design, wish there were more like these.

Little Memories - Little Memories Designs

LM#80 Poised-n-Ivy Quantity requested	The outline stitch is worked with either two or one strand of floss making a delicate contrast to the bold stitches of the stacked cabled Ivy.
LM#47 Phone Fun Quantity requested	Here the outline stitch is used to depict the phone cord,
LM#51 Bears On Board Quantity requested	The little school house is sitting on an outline stitch hill,

Mollie Jane Taylor - Molly Jane Taylor Designs

MJT#66 Ladybug Vine Price $4.00 Quantity requested	The vine upon which the ladybugs sit is the outline stitch.  Another nice feature of this plate is the cross crossing of the bi-colored trellis stitch at the bottom of the plate.  This creates a really nice flow of the pleats from the design.
MJT#109 Morgan's Magic Dragons Price $4.00 Quantity requested	The flames out of the dragon's mouths are outline stitch, so are the flags.  This is one of the cutest fairy tale imagery plates that has ever been designed.
MJT#28 Say Cheese Price $4.00 Quantity requested	The mice's tails are outline stitch
MJT#29 Springtime Price $4.00 Quantity requested	After all these hard one this is an easy plate for a beginner to practice working the outline stitch.  You only have to work a slight curve upwards to create this shape.  You stop and then start again several pleats over.  Back-smocking is necessary with this design on the rows where the outline stitch starts and stops.

The wise women who have smocked before you say that working the outline stitch on the very top holding row (even possibly the 1/2 space above the first row) on the outside rather than on the back) is also an excellent stitch to use as e it holds your pleats very tight and close together, and singly rather than in pairs as with cable stitches, perfect for machine stitching over when applying piping or a bias band. If you smock on the front side (instead of the back) on the very top row using the stem or the outline your pleats will be held in place singly so that when you machine over them they will be less likely to fall over. Using the cable for this step is a no no, because the cable stitch holds the pleats together in pairs. Try smocking on your sampler ten cable stitches and then ten outline stitches and compare for yourself. So you see I hope that you can get a sense that it is a versatile stitch.

"Never stand between a dog and the hydrant. -John Peers "

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Suggested Notions:

Smocking Graph Paper - Ellen McCarn

Smocking Pro-portional Graph Paper 25 sheets/pad - two styles Regular (for geometric) and Stacking (for picture smocking) $4.00 each

Pre-pleated inserts and 5/1/4" embroideries  - consider making up a smocked collar kit complete with lace and entredeux.

"We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized ... I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by re-organizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization." -- Petronius Arbiter (210 B.C.)

Beginning Smocking Texts:

Go to Smocking Books for beginning Smocking books

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