April 15, 1999
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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Note:
4/15/99 I have been thinking (oh no that's dangerous Beth) of watching people at the supermarkets buying up food in bulk that perhaps someone(s) know something and that the word is out there are going to be shortages of food stuff and all kinds of necessary things. Well .... that got me to thinking that perhaps all of this Y2K stuff may have a point in that we all don't know really what is going to happen to the electronic world that we have created for ourselves when the clock strikes Midnight Year 2000.
Could it be that we all are becoming changed and transformed right in front of our very eyes, ie our computer screens. Glued to the screen day in and day out earning our daily bread when all of a sudden for a couple of months perhaps we are out of work if we depend on computers and the internet too long and the whole system falls down. Geez.
That means no chats nor the all important E-Mail, no newsletter nor lists to come and play on. Scarey. We might end up with some extra time to sew things. So, in preparation for this potential coming disaster/time off from work, we are offering a once in a lifetime Y2K Heirloom Sewing and Smocking Survival Preparation Sale. (Gosh I wish you could hear the music behind this sale .....)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * From our readers and ladies on the Chitter Chatter List From: 'McPherson, Bea V.î bmcpherson@nv.cc.va.us Dear Beth-Katherine, I noticed you didn't mention the books you sell on your site. The picture book of smocking and the book on English smocking really helped me get started. Also, I have been making a reference list of the step by step instructions in Australian Smocking (such as bullion roses over 4 pleats, rose buds, feather stitching, or bargello smocking,etc.) so that if I need to find a specific instruction I can without looking at each individual table of contents. As I collect more AS issues, I will add to my list. I have a question about pleaters. I have a Read 16 row which makes beautiful pleats but only has 11 half space rows. I want to do the bishop from AS #38 which calls for 12 half-space rows (2 holding). Since this is the 0-6 month pattern, can I just not have a bottom holding row? Also, I am lucky enough to have the use of a Sally Stanley 24 row (my friend doesn't want to sell it to me but has loaned it to me indefinitely). I have been placing the fabric in it face down but the long stitches are on the bottom (long is wrong) so I have started putting the fabric in face up. Is this OK? Does the pleater feed the fabric in differently? I own the pleater manual (I bought it from you) and it doesn't mention this as a situation with the Stanley. I really love the smaller space between the 16 rows and I don't have as much difficulty feeding the fabric in but the whole bodice smocking requires more rows. Any suggestions? Which way does the Amanda Jane 24 row pleat the fabric? Thanks for the help. Love the new one-list.-- Beaî * I didn't include the names of the books for beginning smockers ... because that information is included on my 'Beginning Smocking Sheetî that I send out to everyone who asks for it (so if anyone would like to receive it please send me an email and I'll get it right off to you) as well as on my ' What is Smocking page. Sometimes I have trouble keeping straight what I wrote to whom!
That index to AS&E sounds wonderful, care to share it someday? (Oh and a sidenote on bullions, AS&E is coming out next month with a wonderful book on bullions. I don't know if it's just for bullions on pleats or on flat surfaces, expect it will be around $25 just like their A to Z Stitches book)
On the pattern from AS#38 I would just go ahead and have one holding row at the top, no biggie. I think you have been smocking long enough to know how to pull the pleats so they form at the bottom if you get into trouble.
Lucky girl to have a Stanley, I sold mine when I received the AJ Super Pleater try out model :-(. I sure miss the larger handle. I think the whole 'long is wrongî statement which came about as the ladies realized the difference and since we all know there is a right side and a wrong side to fabric I think it just translated onto the pleater. I may be wrong but honestly I don't differentiate between pleating one side or another, I can't see the difference - but then my glasses ARE very thick ....... I usually feed my face in face up but if I am doing it wrong, well that's a 13 year habit that needs to be corrected doesn't it?
For your question on if the Stanley feeds fabric differently than a 16row, I really don't think so. All pleaters are the same in the way the fabric is fed into them.
Beth-Katherine Kaiman
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<<I have a question that someone else might also have been thinking of....I am smocking a bishop from a Cherry Williams pattern that my sister in law started years ago!
My problem is with the sleeves. There were five rows of smocking in the short sleeves attached, but the directions say only to smock the center three rows...great, but...do I use a cable row to start and end? How much do I pull up the pleats to tie off before smocking? I have the child's arm measurement, but I am still not sure and find no reference to this in the pattern directions. Any help out there for this one? kathy o. smocking and quilting in Texas -
* * * And this from our Chitter Chatter List 4/15/99 From: Connie A Mashburn
<<Hi There!
My name is Connie and I am new to smocking. I joined our local smocking guild a few months ago and am learning the basic stitches. I also purchased and Amanda Jane 24 row pleater in March. Now I am ready to begin my first dress for my daughter. I had planned to jump in with picture smocking, but after making a smocked easter egg at the last smocking guild, I decided it would be better if I stuck with geometric smocking for this first attempt. I am plan to use one from Ellen McCarn's On English Smocking book. I have two smocked dress patterns. One is Lee by Children's Corner and the other is Emiliy by Pitter Patter. Do any of you have either of these patterns and would any of you like to "Smock Along" with me. I belong to a Sewing list for sewing for children where we have Sew-Alongs all the time (we all work on the same thing at the same time so we can help each other along). Connie
SRE, Books and a bit of history and a present for you The series of Silk Ribbon Books by American School of Needlework are totally wonderful and affordable. When the Silk Ribbon craze was just starting out this current fad of it's being 10 years ago, the very few resources we had were the books from Australia by Jenny Bradford and Merrilyn Heazlewood (making ribbon flowers out of wired french ribbon was also making it's rounds among the heirloom embroidery world. When Ann's Glory Box and Inspirations Magazines came into being about 4 or 5 years ago they included more of these beautiful SRE designs to delight their readers (along with bullion embroidery, Brazilian embroidery and crewel embroidery of the finest caliber - IF YOU LOVE EMBROIDERY then this is the magazine to get. Then along came Judith Montano, a quilter who was into crazy quilting, who became inspired by the beauties being created by the Australian ladies and in America. She took up the challenge to bring SRE to America big time which is why Bucilla and other companies began promoting SRE (some almost to it's death in my opinion) as the LATEST CRAZE (tich, didn't they notice the previous years of creativity?) bringing it to your local fabric stores discounting it and forcing it to run it's course as loss leaders and almost ruining the creativity that was the source of inspiration with the pre-made kits that force people to work some one else's ideas.
Ok now you get my drift, I'm a total believer in sparking your own creative ideas and not relying on someone else's to make something beautiful. Ok Ok OK I hear you, stop already. On the other hand trying out a craft from a kit is sometimes the way to do it and it is my hope that there is enough information to keep you interested.
With my students, however, I don't teach SRE from kits, I start by showing them how to make a flower and then another and another. Then we put it all together in a design of their choice. Where to find designs? Well according to all the books (and to common sense if you start looking) they are all over if you start looking at your everyday items more clearly. Notice the floral pattern in your cushions or tea cups, what about Grandma's hand painted china? Look at gardening magazines or floral displays. There are some really lovely floral designs right under our noses if we but take the time to look with unjaded eyes (i.e. oh that's just a tea cup) and observe like a child 'oooo how pretty that is, I want to do thatî. This is creativity. Allowing something beautiful to spark your imagination and allowing yourself, giving yourself permission, to create without copying something - but allowing yourself to open up to sources of inspiration. Of course if the design is real pretty and you are not going to be making tons of money off of it, go ahead and adapt the pattern in your plates onto cloth and ribbon.
The stitches for ribbon embroidery on pleats which work the best are ones which grasp the pleats such as the lazy daisy stitch and others. Experiment for yourself with the concept in mind that the pleated fabric must connect together one by one in some way. IMO the trickiest stitches to work are the ribbon stitch and the straight stitch, but if you are working on a semi solid grid of smocked trellii they will work beautifully. As with working these stitches on flat fabric careful attention must be paid to their execution in order for them to look perfect. If you pull to tight they will loose their integrity.
As I said above the rules of working SRE on pleats are the same as with flat fabric, you need to pay careful attention to each stitch, making sure that your ribbon behaves. Working with ribbon is unlike floss in that you can't just keep going in and out of your fabric without a care in the world. Ribbon is fragile and after a couple of times of being pulled in and out it tends to look like it, and runs start to happen like those dreaded ones in nylons. Certain colors of ribbon are especially fragile. These are the light pinks and medium tone peachy pinks. Why I don't know but I think it has to do with the chemical makeup of the dyes and their reaction to the silk ribbon. Sometimes I have observed how the ribbon changes with humidity or a dry staticky day. Mostly though it's just the different colors.
More on Silk Ribbon Embroidery on Smocking Design
I thought you might like to experiment working silk ribbon embroidery onto
a smocked grid so I have adapted a design for ribbon embroidery
onto plates.
This design would look lovely on a smocked bodice or waistband (done in miniature) or on a purse or pillow. For your experimental design the pattern for the smocking background is a very simple one. All you really need to do is decide how many rows you want and to work a pattern of trellis diamonds or some other smocked grid pattern for your base. The pattern can be as simple as a four step trellis going from row one to row two with a cable and then back up or if you like you can add a three cable combination to the mix at the top and bottom of the trellis. This image is repeated from row four to row three in mirror image or tessellated image. Or if you like you can play around with the different grids that are seen in any of the magazines mentioned above which are used for a full bodice smocking, usually seen with bullions. In fact any smocked grid that you find which is used for bullion embroidery is perfect for working SRE on top. When the smocking is done then the fun begins. It's time to work your lovely silk ribbon embroidery.
In the past several years the shape of the heart is one that has been used a lot starting with the first bullion embroidered heart smocking plate by Gayle Meyers in 1979 or so (which name escapes me at the moment) to the beautiful SRE heart by Jenny Bradford (Australian Designer). The base of the heart is embroidered with either a running stitch but more usually done with a feather stitch. Now if you wanted to work a feather stitch in a shape on pleats is tricky, you really need to practice it or else be aware of the potential frustration. That frustration being the formation of a heart shape with stitch that works in triangles. One solution is to draw the pattern of the feather stitch along a paper shape as far as you can so that it looks nice. Another solution would be to work the outline stitch in the shape of a heart going up baby steps with maybe a couple of shelves (made out of cable stitches) interspersed around the heart holding the ribbon flowers.
Differences in Pleaters and a little history Pleaters come primarily in two different sizes and spacings. The first size was the original 16 row pleater. It was invented by Read & Company out of South Africa during the late 40's and was the only pleater for years. Then in the mid 70's when smocking became the rage in America several American companies came up with their own designs (Newell is one that comes to mind - can you think of the other pleaters ladies?), but the Read Pleater was the best.
Read & Company tried to produce a 24 row pleater and a 32 row pleater but due to engineering difficulties those pleaters were rarely successful. His son-in-law Stanley designed the 24row pleater that worked and broke away from the Read Company and opened up his own manufacturing plant (non-aparthied) in South Africa.
During the aparthied riots and difficulties in the late 80's Read & Company closed down their factory and left South Africa. Stanley remained open as their company was partially owned by the workers and to this day has a reputation of being extremely fair to the workers as well as producing an excellent product. Sally Stanley pleaters are wonderful.
In the mid 80's Martha Pullen came out with her 16 row Pleater "The PullenPleater" and it was an excellent pleater, gradually replacing the Read pleater which lost it's quality due to all the trouble it was having maintaining good workers. The Pullen pleater was sold to an independent factory which recently burned down so the pleaters aren't currently available. (Any update on this information would be appreciated.)
Country Bumpkin (Australian Smocking & Embroidery) in Australia came out with their own 24row pleater in the late 80's. What happened to that pleater I haven't a clue but it is not being manufactured any more.
Towards the end of the 80's Jerry Koonistra (sp I'm sure) from Australia designed the Little Amanda Jane 16 row pleater, adding new innovations over the Pullen Pleater including larger handle bars and turning knob as well as more half spaces. To this day the Little Amanda Jane is a wonderful pleater.
A couple of years went by and Jerry added the 24row Amanda Jane, which many
women swear by.
Last year Martha Pullen & Company came out with the Dr. Joe Pleater, a 24row pleater with an additional 23 half space rows. (I haven't had any personal experience with that pleater.)
Last year Jerry Koonistra added the Super Amanda Jane pleater to his line, which has 23 half space rows a total of 47 needles. (There has been some controversy over whether or not so many half space rows are needed and that it can be difficult to turn the handle when all needles are in place.)
The main difference between the 16row and 24row pleater is the spacing between the needles, and the obvious extra needles. There is a difference of about 1/16th of an inch between the 16 row pleater and the 24row pleater - you can see the difference when comparing two pieces of pleated fabric. The one pleated by the 24row pleater will be 1" longer after 16 rows. This does make a difference when you are pleating larger areas like a full bodice for a child's dress. Not only do you have more rows but they cover a larger area.
Now why choose one pleater over another? Well that depends on the type of smocking you will be doing. If what you are going to be smocking is primarily for little ones, dolls or mostly picture smocking, then the pleater of choice is the 16row with the narrower spacing between the needles. Why the smaller pleater for picture smocking? Well this is because a lot of the design plates were created before the 24row pleater became popular and the designers were used to the smaller pleater. I believe Susie of Little Memories was the first smocking plate designer to notate which size pleater her design was created for.
If you are planning to do a lot of full bodice smocking or smocking for adults then I would recommend the 24row pleater over the 16 row. (Of course you can do picture smocking with the 24row pleater, but you do have to do some adjustments with the amount of strands you are using and a few other tricks.) Best reference book on the pleater is The Pleater Manual by Sarah Douglas and back issues of SAGA newsletter.
Hope this helps, and of course as always please feel free to comment and make additions or corrections to my 'historyî of smocking.
With all this snow, not to mention icicles and such-like, it isn't so hot in my field about three o'clock in the morning. In fact, quite-between-ourselves-and-don't-tell-anybody, it's COLD! — Eeyore
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