July 7, 1998
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.
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From Our Readers
Thanks, a question about bishops and a few tips to share:
Dear Beth-Katherine,
I have enjoyed reading your newsletters a lot and found several hints that have made my projects go a little smoother.
I do have a question about pleating bishops. I have an Amanda Jane 24 row pleater and my seams sometimes look bulky after pleated. I have heard about "rocking" a seam through the pleater but I don't understand what that means. I do sew the seams, trim to 1/8" and zigzag over the seam before I pleat. Any other hints to make going over the seams easier? Any hints on how to roll up a bishop before pleating? I always use a Chery Williams pattern (infants and 2-6) and I've heard there is something wrong with the angle of sleeve on the infants. But I must roll up a bishop a few times before I think it's good enough to go through the pleater. -- Ann
Dear Ann,
Pleating a bishop can be tricky if you have never done it before but if you take if step by step it works great. I usually trim my french seams to about 1/16 or 1/32 depending on the fabric I use. The reason for this is so the pleater only has two layers to go through instead of four. One trick that I have realized recently about pleating bishops is to make sure that you pleat only as many as you have straight fabric to go through the pleater. In other words when you start getting pleating rows into the armhole curve you are going to have trouble with the seam flinging out and popping out of the pleater and so will not be pleated. I usually roll my bishops out on a flat surface taking the time to make sure it's rolled straight and has no rolly pollys in it. When you are pleating make sure that your seams are fed into the pleater on the bottom on your fabric, smooth side up. That way they will fall to the back when fed through the needles.
To rock your seams through the pleater is very simple. Just rock the handle backwards and forwards when you see that the seam coming through the needles especially if you feel it straining to go through the gears. This rocking process guarantees that your fabric will get onto the needles. Oh and one more thing I've found to be helpful is to make sure that you have no fabric on the needles while you are trying to get your seam through the gears. -- Beth
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I thought I might add my tricks of the trade to the ones I've read about in your newsletter:
- Crochet a loop for the shank button at the neckline of bishops with quilting thread instead of regular thread - your husband will thank you since it's much easier to open and get the button through
- When sewing a french seam, sew the right sides together, clip to 1/16-1/8", and then iron it open. Fold seam together, enclosing the seam you just sewed. and pin (with glass head pins - not plastic) so that the first seam is right in the middle. Press lightly and then sew again 3/16" or so from edge. Pressing the first seam open makes all the difference when trying to get the seam right in the middle before you sew the french seam for the second time.
- A friend on the internet, Becky, told me to iron my floss with a curling iron before picture smocking. I was amazed at how much better the floss separated and covered the pleats!
- When attaching a collar to a garment, first cut away 1/8" of the underside of the collar before you pin and sew the collar to the garment. This helps keep the collar down and not in your child's face.
Hope these hints help everyone! Ann
Thanks Ann for taking the time to share all of these hints with everyone
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Trellis and Honeycomb stitches questions
Hi Beth,
Having only done geometric smocking w/ cable, outlining and wave stitches, I'm wondering what to do for trellis and honeycomb stitches which are in this Birds of a Feather dress from #41 of AS&E. I think I have them figured out from the graphs, but wondered if there was anything special I should know. Are the words trellis and wave used to refer to the same thing or is there a difference? The honeycomb just seems to travel differently and I think I just need to be alert to whether my floss is up or down in the right place, right? Thanks in advance. Josie
Dear Josie,
A trellis stitch is worked on the 1/4 step pattern, sometimes on the 1/3 step and sometimes on 1/5 step. I've also seen it where it's almost like an outline stitch working it's way down and up.
Honeycomb stitch. This stitch is one that is often used by clothing manufacturers as smocking becuase it's simple and easy to do, but it doesn't lend itself as a pretty pattern stitch that you can play with colored floss and stuff unless you working in on the front and weave floss or ribbon through the stitches, however it does make lovely textural effects on the fabric when spread out. All of the 30's nightgowns that I have seen are worked with this stitch. I have noticed that AS&E tend to play around with stitches in ways that we haven't seen before. So where the honeycomb stitch was used in the past for textural effects (puckering fabric) it is now used for patterns on the front.
The directions in AS&E are excellent and easy to follow. Why not play around on your sampler piece (you do have one don't you?) until you get the stitch. It's one of the ones that you go through pleats twice. Very time consuming really, not as fast as waves and trellises (or is it trellii?). Beth
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Dear Beth,
I am a still a smocking "wannabe". I have pleated my first project by hand (did not want to invest $ in a pleater if I wasn't going to be doing this a lot) and I have only done one row of cable stitches on it. I do however, have a question. After I pleated the dress I made sure it was the same size as the pattern piece indicated, but after I did the row of cable stitches it is no longer the same size. What am I doing wrong? Also, I pleated it with regular sewing thread in a contrasting color (red, oops--so far no problems with bleeding) and am wondering if that is the type of thread I should be using. I am sure your smocking newsletter has the answers to question such as these that us beginners have. I plan to purchase some more books on the subject after I've checked them out at the local library to make sure they are exactly what I need.
I am also trying to locate the "Penny" pattern by Petite Poche as featured in Sew Beautiful's past two issues. I called the company from the suppliers directory to request a catalog, but so far nothing. Do you carry this pattern? If so, how much is it? If you don't carry it, can you suggest where I might get a hold of it?
Thanks for all your help, Donna Voigt
Dear Donna,
Don't worry about your smocking pulling in, it always does that. All you need to do is re-block when you are finished smocking. On the pleating thread, I would recommend that for future projects your use a waxed quilting thread because it is much stronger. There is nothing worse than having one of your threads break on you in the middle of a project. Most of the times we can cheat and don't have to re-thread it but sometimes, and I believe Murphy's law applies here, the thread breaks right where you HAVE to rethread it.
Yes I do carry Petite Poche patterns. They are so adorable and elegant. Penny is $12.00
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First Time Bishop & Tension Troubles
Dear Beth,
I love your newsletter!
I have a pleated bishop ready to smock but am a little hesitant to get started without an instructor. I have heard that Ellen McCarn has a new bishop pattern out and wonder if you carry it. The pattern that I used was from AS&E #29 (I think). It's called "Oyster". I am one of those people who needs to read everything six times before I get up enough courage to do it and would really appreciate any help you can give me. My daughter is expecting her first baby in December (1st grandchild) and I really want to smock some little day dresses before it's born
Thanks so much, Susan Whelan
Dear Susan,
Don't panic it's ok. You don't need another pattern just go with the one you've got.
Smocking a bishop is not hard at all. Just make sure that you've blocked it into it's roundish shape before you start. Then work the top row with the outline stitch to hold the pleats in place. This can be done on the front or the back. Don't use the cable stitch as the outline stitch holds the pleats in pairs instead of the singles of outline stitch.
Ok then once you get that done then go ahead and smock the rest of the pattern. The tricky part is to loosen your tension slightly as you move down the rows. Bishop smocking plate designers have taken this into consideration but the choice of stitches they have used. You will notice that every bishop design ends with trellis points, or should. This is due to the natural looseness of the trellis stitch.
I can feel you panicking now, don't. Just smock. You will be able to judge if you are smocking too tight or loose as you move on down the rows.
Have fun, Beth-Katherine
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Dear Beth-Katherine,
Hooray! I got the first (holding) row outline stitched and started the first actual pattern row. It's up and down cable all across. But some of my cables sit nicely and some make little "v's"! Why? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong from one to the others.
I hope I'm not imposing too much on your good graces. I've got to get this done because I love smocked clothes and want to make many more for my grandbaby-to-be. I referred to one of your previous newsletters (from April) to block the bishop. What a great help it was! You deserve a medal from SAGA for all you're doing to promote the art of smocking.
Thanks, Beth-Katherine, for your time and patience. Best regards, Susan W.
Dear Susan,
Thanks for the praise, needed it.
Hmmmmmm some of your cables look like little v's. Are they consistently the up or down cable? Are you pulling too tight or not tight enough?
These are the best ways to achieve a consistent cable:
1) Make sure your placement of your needle is always at the same spot on the pleat next to the one you just finished. If you are working on a row use the pleating thread as your guide. If you are working on either the half space or quarter space check the placement of the stitch with each pleat.
2) Always place your needle parallel with the pleating thread. Always. An inconsistent placement will cause your smocking to look uneven and ragged.
3) To complete the stitch pull your floss flush against the fabric to make sure that there aren't any loose strands of floss hanging out that might make your stitch look sloppy.
Beth
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Dear Beth,
I hate my pleater and I hate pleating. Could be because I am trying to pleat on gingham. But it is the very small checks. not the tiny ones. those I probably could do just fine. This check is big enough to tell if you have gotten off-line. I am really getting to frustrate so I quit for tonight.
I am working on the babies first outfit. It is going to be a daygown, smocked bonnet, smocked booties and a batiste receiving blanket. The pleating for that is what is driving me crazy. I am making the daygown out of white batiste, and trimmed with pink gingham, so I decided to use the pink gingham for the bonnet and booties.
After I put the pleater and slept on getting the needles in place I got up the next morning and then sat down with it in front of me and studied it. When I finally realized I was putting the needles in under the back bar I finally realized that the needles had to go on top of that bar the needles went in very easily and I had no problem getting them in. That is what I am going to have to do in pleating the gingham. Mary
Dear Mary,
Take heart, pleating gingham is one of the hardest things to do, in fact it's nearly impossible to do with the pleater unless you give up and don't care about aligning the pleats.
Sarah Douglas in her Manual goes into the pleating of gingham. You must do a lot of pushing and pulling to make sure it's fed into the pleater straight. This is one of the reasons why the Australians recommended that you hand pleat gingham to get it straight. A pain, but if you're a perfectionist ....
Beth
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"We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it." -- Eeyore.