3/28/98
e-Mail: smockingstore@att.net
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.
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Message to Left-handed Smockers
Beth,I just got the Vol. 2 newsletter and just had to send in my solution for the problem of left-handed people. I'm one of them. I am fortunate to be able to visualize how to reverse what a right-handed person does to accommodate my left hand. Many others are not so fortunate. I have had several people ask me to teach them how to smock. I developed the following method: I sit in a low chair. All left-handed people are behind me and all right-handed people are in front of me. I work from an upside down smocking graph (for lefties but right side up for righties). I start on the bottom of my sample piece (for lefties but top for righties). This method allows everyone to see the stitching and the needle moving in the proper direction. I've found this to be very successful. Georgina
Wow! Thanks a lot for the information. I can see how this method would be effective in teaching both lefties and righties, but doesn't the graph being upside down confuse your left-handed students or maybe it's my dyslexic brain that is having trouble visualizing. -- Beth
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Another comment regarding Left-handed Smocking
Hi! I am new to the Internet and really enjoy your newsletters. I am a "lefty" who taught myself to smock about 20 years ago. The method that seemed to work best for me was very simple- I just turned the pictures up-side down. Hope that this may help someone else. Marlene
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Dear Beth,I was reading vol. 2 issue 1a and noted Barbara's Batiste woes and realize I had the same problem in that when I pleated my fabric I gained extra pleats in between pleats. A friend then made me undo, wash and iron the fabric and she repleated it. It was all a matter of ensuring that the material is always on a straight grain when entering the pleater. She fixed my error with no real problem. She did not go mad on winding the fabric onto the dowel at any particular tension. Hope this helps. I am no expert on the smocking scene having only just begun. Thanks for all the hard work Beth.- Ros in S Africa.
Oh you are most welcome, my pleasure.
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Dear Beth-KatherineI have truly enjoyed your newsletter and appreciate your time and effort that must go into it!! I especially read the "smocking problems" and love the helpful hints! I am basically a self-taught smocker of 3 years and surely have a ton to learn. I smock for my niece and a friend's children and mostly do picture smocking and absolutely love it. I don't sew a stitch though and have someone else put the garments together for me. (I know, I know , I do plan to take sewing lessons some time this year!) The only real problem I have encountered is in blocking. I always make sure the pleated fabric portion is the same width as the front yoke of whatever garment I am making. I then tie off the strings and complete the smocking. I haven't had any complaints about things not matching up from the lady who sews for me. However, I recently I entered a few garments in a smocking fair and all comments from judges were complimentary of my smocking and coverage but some said I needed to work on blocking. I am unsure what they really mean, can you please help me understand. Thanks a million, Paula Crum, Memphis, TN
It could be that you don't block your pleats before smocking and after it's smocked, it stops the pulling in that the judges might be criticizing you on. I always steam my pleats into place after I have finished tying off and when I've finished smocking. When I have smocked too tight or a bishop has moved out of shape I use a wet cloth on top of my pleats and gently hold the iron so that it barely touches the pleats. This gives added moisture sometimes needed for steaming.
Let me tell you a brief story about blocking. I work in conjunction with a soft sculpture doll artist who works in what is called The Waldorf Style doll. Once in a while I incorporate my smocking with her business and one day I came up with adding a smocked collar to her basic raglan child's dress. I cheerfully smocked 6 collars which her seamstresses added to the garment. Five out of six dresses looked beautiful, but on the sixth the one seamstress, who knew nothing about smocking, had stretched the pleats out so tight around the neckline that the pleats were almost non-existent. This dress ended up in my stash of "oh wells" because I knew that I had to take the time to take the collar off and re-pleat the top row by hand. After 5 years I finally did it the other day and put it on the bishop neckline guide of my block and shape board, pinning the outer edge while pulling the pleats back into recognition. Then I tried the wet cloth trick and it's beautifully shaped again into a round pleated collar. - Beth
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Hi Beth-KatherineThanks for the newsletters which are full of great tips. I wanted to ask if any others experienced problems with smocking skewing to the right. I smock from left to right but am wondering if I should turn the work upside down and smock the other way on alternate rows to try and stop the end piece from getting out of shape. This was particularly noticeable in the Scarlett May dress from Smocking & Embroidery No. 37 where there is a center panel left unsmocked and embroidered after the pleats are taken out. Any comments from others would be appreciated. Regards, Phillipa
I was wondering if you blocked your smocking after finishing up? I tamed a very recalcitrant (spelling I'm sure) bishop neckline which had been left rolled up for 6 years with the wet cloth and blocking method and am wondering if this wouldn't be the solution for you as well? I mean after all the pleats are on the straight of grain and the smocking just moved over while you were smocking. It's not like needlepoint canvas where if your tension is too tight or your canvas wasn't in a frame - even those mistakes can be remedied with blocking.
I think your idea of turning your smocking upside down to work the alternate rows is a good one but try the blocking technique I recommended in the last newsletter (the one with pinning your fabric into shape and then place a wet cloth on top of it and gently pressing the iron onto the cloth just to get the steam into the smocking). See if that helps.
Thanks very much for your quick reply - I think you might have addressed the problem in 2 ways - I had trouble getting the fabric on grain - (this was the second lot of fabric I had tried - the first being so badly off grain that I abandoned it completely) so the pleats may not actually be on the straight grain and then I think my blocking was maybe not done adequately to straighten things up. I had noticed a lesser problem with a smocked basket liner but then I didn't block that at all because it fitted perfectly when I took the pleating threads out. Again, thanks for your help Phillipa
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Hi Beth,
Thanks for the note. I had smocking guild on Tuesday night and brought my piece with me. One of the more experienced ladies told me essentially the same thing about the grain. She also said not to hold the dowel wrapped fabric tight which I was doing. She also suggested that before I pleat to fold and iron the top piece of the material where I am going to pleat first in half, than quarters, then eighths. This way when it is put through the pleater you can gauge whether or not it is going through on the straight of grain by where the creases fall at the needles ( am I making sense?).
I think I told you that in our quarterly newsletter I have started a column entitled The History Corner. It went over very well and yes, I gave credit where credit is due. I am glad you have such a wealth of information. I always enjoy reading your stuff. Thanks for all of you thoughts and help. Barbara
You are more than welcome to print what I write as long as you give me credit and allow your readers an opportunity to reach me (including my website address would also be nice).
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Thank You for the wonderful newsletters!!!! I have been interested in smocking, and need just your guidance to get started!! I greatly appreciate the information you have on-line. My Mother, Grandmother and nanny all smocked, but somehow the art was never passed on to me. So here I am, please help me get started!!! When I was a baby and little girl, all of my outfits had been smocked. Somewhere there is even a photo of me in a coat and bonnet my Mother smocked for me. I couldn't find a place to learn for my daughter when she was little, but can now start practicing to be expert when I'm a Grandmother! Thank you for suggesting something I can start with that is simple. Kathryn Hoffman
Now for beginner's projects. I have included a new section called pattern review which features a wonderful new pattern that seems to have been designed for beginner's in mind. It's a lovely nightgown. See below for the review. For other beginner's projects may I suggest you try a baby's bonnet, or a smocked pinafore, or a smocked insert which can be "inserted" into regular sewing projects, a smocked pillow (any size), a smocked ornament (no sewing!!!!!) or a smocked purse. These are all quick and easy and don't require a lot of sewing.
Thank you for the newsletters! I am new to smocking, so I don't know that I have any suggestions. I guess my biggest gripe with magazines like Sew Beautiful (which I dearly love) is the lack of beginner information. I guess people take for granted the experience level of smockers/sewers. I know that I sometimes don't realize that everyone doesn't understand some of the fundamentals of basic sewing in my sewing classes, but then I've been sewing since I was a kid. As I progress, I'm sure I may have some ideas and suggestions. I won't hesitate to say something :-) Thanks again, Kathy
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Thank you for sending your e mail newsletter to me. I have not had the chance to read all of them but I have found the bits and pieces I have been able to read very informative and exciting. I live in a remote area of West Virginia and have enjoyed finding others in this great country who share my delight in studying and practicing smocking and sewing. Thank you so much for all you have shared! It has been so rewarding to find those such as yourself willing to share their knowledge with others. I cannot thank you enough. Kathleen Eakins
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"If it seems as though you haven't 'felt at all how' for a long time, look behind you. It could be that your tail is missing." -- Eeyore
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"Some days it just doesn't pay to chew through the straitjacket."