May 2, 1997
e-Mail: mainfairy@smockingbooks.com
Website: Garden Fairies Smocking & Needlearts Catalog
Smocking Newsletter - Beth-Katherine Kaiman, copyright 1997-2007, 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
Smocking History
Beginner's Corner
Embroidery Stitches
Smocking Stitches
From Our Readers:
I have seen some articles on smocking with silk ribbon, but it looks to me like that means regular smocking with silk ribbon embellishment. Is it possible to smock with the silk ribbon itself? If so, do I need to make any modifications to the smocking plate?
Many of my projects (heirloom sewing/smocking and regular garment construction) turn out just as I'd envisioned them. But sometimes I get discouraged that my projects go awry. I'd be interested in hearing about others' disasters and how they fixed them. If I thought everyone had a few "projects from hell," I might be encouraged a bit."
Julie Fisher jfisher@olemiss.edu
Julie I remember the time I spent hours embroidering a collar for a customer with Satin Stitch, from Australian Smocking Issue #26 or so, on Silk Taffeta. I pricked my finger and bled on a corner of the collar. Aeiiyyii. I quickly washed out the blood and pressed the collar the best I could and discovered that the customer was only going to dry clean the collar and considered it ruined. - Ouch.
And then there was the time I eating a small piece of chocolate and drooled on a Swiss batiste lace dress I was working on. (That's the last time I'll follow Kay Guiles' advice about eating Hershey's kisses while sewing.)
Oh yeah and then there was the time this Christmas I pricked my finger again and bled on the white broadcloth I was smocking but this time I was fortunate in that it was right on the spot where the red floss was going.
Beth
Smocking in the late 1960's early 1970's
Whenever someone comes into a smocking chat for the first time they always ask what is Smocking. We usually answer Smocking is embroidery on pleats. As I tried to go to sleep last night I was thinking of what to write today in this section. Last issue I included a verbal pattern of a smock (which I hope that you use someday) and thought perhaps I could do the same for a basic peasant blouse - since it is totally based on rectangles. As I lay there ruminating (I love that word) I came upon a memory of an outfit I had made in the mid 1970's during a class with the Berkeley clothing designer Ellen Halputi (last I heard she was crazy for crystal pleating polyester for scarves). The class was on Russian Punch Needle embroidery (Igolochoy - sp I know) and costumes to make from basic shapes. We were given a set of instructions for a blouse gathered at the neck (which is the basis of the bishop dresses we smock today) and for a Sarafan - a Russian jumper which had a beautiful pattern of embroidering tucks together. While I was reviewing the jumper in my memory I realized that it was a type of smocking very similar to the stitch called honeycomb. Using a grid as the guide we did an embroidered tacking stitch to pinch two pintucks together. The overall effect of these embroidered pintucks was that of diamonds. This was a traditional pattern of the Russian Settlers on the California's Pacific Coast during the 1700's (my dates are foggy again I apologize) and they had carried these styles from home.
Today we see this same technique worked over knitted ribs to simulate smocking and I don't understand why it isn't being done much on fabric as well. It's a very lovely alternative if you want embroidery on your blouse or dress but don't care for all of the fabric that English Smocking gives. Perhaps this is an idea to use with your older girls.I have seen it done on cuffs, at the top of a sleeve and coming from a yoke.
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I would also like to talk a bit about fabrics. Last week we briefly discussed the smock and what type of fabric it was made of. I thought it would be interesting to look at how fabric was made.
Linen is know as a bast fiber (see issue 3). The process of making Flax into Linen fabric is as follows. The following paragraphs are from Compton's online Encyclopedia an article on Flax, please keep in mind this is contemporary cultivation of the plant. I would ask that you mentally transport yourself to the 17th & 18th centuries before the machines were invented and visualized all of these processes done by hand, and usually by women.
"Cultivated Flax - Linum usitatissimum, an annual, member of the family Linaceae grows in the summer. "To harvest fiber flax, farmers pull the plants up by the roots, because cutting injures the fibers. Flax-pulling machines are used in the United States. Low-cost hand labor, used elsewhere, makes the imported product cheaper and is the chief reason for the limited production of this plant in the United States. After harvesting, the bundles of flax go to deseeding machines, which separate the seed from the straw. Next, the flax is retted, or rotted, by keeping it wet in a pool, stream, or tank, or by exposing it to dew. Retting takes from four to six days in tanks of warm water and up to three weeks in cold water or dew. The water helps soil bacteria penetrate the woody stems. The bacteria ferment and break down the pectins, which cement together the woody and fibrous portions of the plant. The retted flax is then dried in open fields.
"Scutching is the next major operation. The object of scutching is to extract the fiber, loosened during retting, from the remainder of the plant. Various types of scutching machines have been developed, but all methods are based on two treatments of the straw. First, the woody central portion of the stem is crushed and broken into small pieces, called shives. (Now you know where the song came from). Next, the straw is held tightly near one end while the free end is subjected to a beating and scraping action. This completes the separation of the long fiber (called line fiber) from the woody portion."The flax line fiber from the scutching machine is usually hackled, or combed, by hand to grade it and prepare it for the spinner. The hackling is done by drawing the scutched fibers over a series of coarse and fine pins to parallel, or straighten, them and to remove short, tangled fibers, called flax tow.
"The long line fibers make the best linen cloth. Linen made from these kinds of fibers is strong, durable, moisture absorbent, and has a high luster. It is also resistant to micro-organisms and its smooth surface repels soil. Flax tow was once a waste product. Now, a machine drier and cleaner make the tow suitable for upholstery padding, for coarse yarns, and for weaving into flax, braided linen, and wool and flax rugs.
"Farmers harvest seed flax with a combination mower and thresher. They then ship the seed to a linseed market. It is used in paints and varnishes and in linoleum and oilcloth.
"The straw, which was once a waste material, now provides the paper for practically all the cigarettes that are made in the United States. Many other kinds of high-priced specialty papers also are produced from seed flax straw. It is used too in upholstery stuffing, in insulating and packing material, and in fiber rugs."
The whole process, during the middle ages and up until the mechanization age, was done by hand, though I'm certain Flax Farmers had their own innovations which sped up the process. The spinning of the fibers into thread took time, and women spinned almost all the time. In recent history in India this premise of spinning thread all the time was exemplified by Ghandi, who was always spinning cotton into thread because that is what people did with their spare time. For more information see the Shire Publication on Flax Production.
SMOCKING STITCHES: Vandyke stitch
This stitch is another that is considered to be a traditional style stitch. The uniqueness of this stitch is that it is work from right to left, instead of left to right. According to Beverly Marshal in Smocks and Smocking, "Vandyke stitch was found on a few early nineteenth century garments. ... Each tube is sewn twice and for this reason it is a very strong stitch, but slow to execute and its zig-zag line makes it the most elastic of the traditional stitches." There are two styles, the Vandyke cable-your basic Vandyke stitch and the Vandyke trellis.
Vandyke cable. Your work from right to left, bottom to top. To work on two rows, begin on row two. Begin by coming up on the right side of your pleated fabric on the left side of the 2nd pleat and make a stitch on the first pleat, going through the 2nd pleat and having the thread in the down position. (In other words make a backwards cable stitch). On the same pleat (#2) take a stitch above to row 1 (or the spacing desired) and repeat the pattern across, alternating from row to row.
How to make the perfect bullion rose:
Using a milliners or straw needle is very important because the shaft of the needle is the same width of the eye. If you use any other type of needle this is why the first wrap is the fattest. Placement of your bullions into the shape of a rose is also really important, and as always consistency is important as well. Consistency in the size of your bullions, how many wraps per bullion and the placement around each other. This is what makes a beautiful rose.
To make a perfect bullion:
Use the above needle. Place your needle in your fabric and from underneath place your forefinger of your right hand and make the needle stand almost upright. This makes it easier to wrap smoothly and evenly on the shaft of the needle with the opposite hand. When done wrapping gently smooth the wraps down the shaft. Immediately place the wraps between your thumb and forefinger of the wrapping hand (trying to type instructions for left and right handed ladies) and hold the 'worm' while you pull your needle through the wraps with the free hand. Your needle should pull freely, if it doesn't gently twist the needle in the opposite direction of your wraps until the needle pulls free. DO NOT LET GO OF THE WRAPS until you are almost out of thread to pull through. When you feel the thread stopping then you can let go of the wraps.
Look at them to make sure that they are perfectly smooth and even. If not then park your needle in the thread gap between the wraps and the fabric and gently tug on the thread, petting the wraps and you gently pull the thread. This step should even out your wraps. The key word here is gently pull the thread, and not pull too tight and you will have too small of a bullion.
When satisfied with your bullions then sink your needle down to the backside of the fabric and start again for the next one.
Next issue I will talk about the different placements of the bullions into the several varieties of roses and buds.
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The most common stitch found on old smocks is the feather stitch and the Wheatear Stitch. Both of these stitches evolved from the chain stitch (which is considered the oldest embroidery stitch in the world). Again I yearn for graphics to explain these stitches to you. The best way with the feather stitch is for you to pencil in the stitches on the following dot grids that I am building for you.
Chain Stitch: As you know the chain stitch is built by coming up at A and then placing your needle into the fabric right next to it and sliding underneath the fabric coming up at a point directly between A & B but about 1/8" away (this is a typical sized chain). Stop with the needle in the fabric, take the thread which is coming from A and wrap it underneath the needle and pull the needle through making your first chain. To continue this pattern note the placement of your thread inside the chain, this will be your new A. Place the needle inside the chain right next to A (call it B) and slide the needle underneath the fabric 1/8" away and come up at C, wrap the thread underneath the needle and pull through. Repeat the process for as long as you want the chain. You can vary the length of the chain by the length of the point C. The beauty of this stitch depends on consistency of the length of your stitches.
Feather Stitch: There are three forms of the feather stitch. As I said in the first paragraph this stitch is a variation of the chain stitch, the main difference is that you widen the space between A and B by a 1/4" (if this is how wide you want the stitch to be) and slightly lower point B. Imagine a triangle with the left side flush.
a . .b
.
c
C then becomes A and you start again. Continue this pattern until you have made the length you desire. To end simply sink your needle down over the loop made at C.
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"I'm telling you. People come and go in this Forest, and they say, 'It's only Eeyore, so it doesn't count.' "
-- Eeyore
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Cow Wisdom "Putting your hoof in your mouth is udderly embarrassing"