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October 4, 2002
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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.
1) From our Readers:
Lace Insertion Question
How to Pleat and Smock your own pattern or adapt a commercial pattern to smocking - Part one.
Is there an acceptable measurement for spreading out of pleats?
What to do with a pleated insert?
Importance of Blocking
I'm interested in the pattern by Kathy Neal called Marie Claire. I have never worked with insertion lace - is it easily found? And what exactly is it and how is it sewn? Thanks again for your help.<---Bobbie
Re: Kathy Neal's pattern Mary Claire (sorry out of print)
While the pattern is not hard if you have never worked with insertion lace before it might be a bit tricky but her instructions are great. Yes, the embroidery design is included in the pattern.
Insertion lace is distinguished from edging lace by both edges being straight, these edges are called headers. French lace is the only lace woven with pull threads in the headers allowing you to shape lace into hearts, butterflies, bows, ovals, circles and scallops or whatever shape your brain can imagine. Insertion lace is applied to fine fabrics such as linen, batiste and silks in a two step process by basting first and then after cutting the fabric from behind, ironing it back flat it is secured with a tiny zig zag stitch on your sewing machine, the pinstitch by hand or machine, or if you're lucky a hemstitcher. Once you have applied lace insertion it becomes almost as addictive as smocking.
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Make a smocked anything without a pattern
To make yourself something smocked without a pattern requires a bit of calculation first off. Begin with a sample strip of the fabric that you wish to make into a garment measuring '10"w x 4"h' that you are going to pleat and smock up, block it to an acceptable width as you would anything else you were going to smock.
Spread out the pleats to a standard width where the pleats aren't going to be stretched out when smocked and then count how many pleats to an inch, mark with pins then flatten the pleating threads and measure how much fabric it takes to make that pleated inch.
Then smock a couple of rows for that inch and block to an acceptable width. Stretching smocked fabric to an extreme isn't recommended because it puts stress on the fabric and embroidery stitches. If you have been smocking for a while your eye will know what is acceptable or not. After smocking and blocking you know have your "gauge" in which to calculate how many inches of fabric it will take to create whatever garment you have in mind. Don't forget to calculate in your seam allowances, usually 1/2" to 5/8"
It depends upon the look you are going for. Sometimes smocking looks intriguing when stretched out such as this image - green satin piece smocked with simple diamond shape but really cool things happen when you stretch the smocking just a bit more as the fabric within the diamonds which are not captured by smocking stitches on the front or on the back (no back smocking) will fly away free pouching out as you like depending on what shape you have created. Really. If you want to play then I suggest you smock an outline heart about 2 1/2" in diameter, surround the heart with tight smocking but don't fill the heart in. When the time comes in the pattern you are working with tells you to pull out the pleating threads, stretch out the design a bit and the pleats will pouch out a bit.
It depends on what you are going to be doing. If for silk painting or dyeing you should block loosely or as tightly in clumps rather than equal across. If you are going to be smocking to fit into a specific pattern you need to do your first blocking before smocking.
When you are finished pleating and have tied off one edge with seam allowances you are ready for your first blocking. Blocking before and after smocking is equally important to avoid stretching and shrinking of your smocking when either working on a straight piece (skirt front, insert or yoke) and especially when working in the round (bishop, round yoke, anything circular).
What I like to do is two blocking steps before smocking.
Pre-blocking:
First I scrunch up the pleats as tight as I can get them, pin in place and loop the loose pleating threads around so the pleated piece stays tight and then with a steam iron steam the pleats into place. When you are blocking a bishop this first blocking may seem unnecessary but trust me after all the bishops I've made this is the best way to make very nice tight crisp pleats that stay in place after the second blocking when blocking into shape of the neckline (or whatever you are working on). I may be fooling myself into thinking they have a crisper edge than pleats which have not been scrunched up and steamed and steamed and steamed but I find that with this first tight blocking the pleats are more accustomed to being pleated than those pleats which haven't been pre-blocked.
Blocking:
When the piece has dried take the pleated piece to the ironing board where the measurement of how far out will this pleated piece be is pinned to the ironing board and then unloop your pleating thread loop and loosen up the pleats and block to correct size as per measurement of the pattern piece.
Another reason for blocking before smocking is that it steams the pleats into a shape that it is going to be in for a while, similar in reason as melding your machine stitches right after sewing. If you want to avoid shrinking up of your smocking after smocking (everyone's tension is different) it is important to begin with a blocked pleated piece as you know pretty much how far the pleats should be in the first place. Blocking = steaming the pleats in place.
Also equally important is using interfacing in your yoke to stabilize the smocking. I have found that iron on interfacing tends to fray and shred after several washing while the good ole' old fashioned sew in interfacing retains it's stability for years! Something to think about as well when you are about to skip interfacing your yokes. Even a piece of combed cotton batiste is considered an interfacing, it doesn't have to be pellon. IMO a non interfaced yoke that is attached to a smocked skirt/insert with piping looks awful as the pleated piece tends to pull the yoke and make it buckle. This is especially true when smocking with delicate fabrics. You really should interface with a cotton batiste of lesser grade than the fabric you are working with, it will give your yoke a bit more body. I prefer a cotton batiste interfacing over a woven kind as it doesn't interfere with the look of the sheer fabric but yet stabilizes it. I have seen garments made without interfacing where the yoke buckles under the weight of the smocking/piping and it spoils the whole effect of the smocking as your eyes are pulled to the buckled yoke and not the smocking.
Go to Smocking Books for beginning Smocking books
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