Vol. 1 Issue 2
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Welcome to the Enhanced Version of the Gathering Thread. Please send all comments and scans to smockingstore@aol.com. All writings are my own invention. Please respect my creativity. Thank you, Beth-Katherine Kaiman. The scans in this issue are a bit weighty for clarity sake. I suggest you wait for them all to fill in before you start reading.
Smocking In Historical Paintings
With this issue we are going to begin to dive into the history of smocking through images of life in paintings beginning with German Renaissance paintings. While I was working on the text of the history of smocking a customer came over wanting me to help her create a Renaissance costume for a play she is doing. She brought over a pile of art books and when I started cooing over the photos graciously lent me one. Here I was doing major research into paintings of the Renaissance looking for smocking, bemoaning the fact that the lady ahead of me at the library had grabbed all the good Renaissance Art books from the bookshelves so I was left with one or two, and in walks my client with art books that she basically pushed on me so I could study the costume we were creating. Ah I love the synchronicity of life sometimes.
In later issues we will see that smocking wasn't just limited to surface embroidery. To quote a contributor on the Historic Needlework List: "There are some examples in portraits with sleeves which appear to be only back smocked, which creates splendid effects on medium weight to heavy fabrics, such as a doupioni silk or velvets." As soon as I find these paintings I will scan them in and share them with you. (If you happen to have an image please let me know where I might find it.)
The first painting is from the Renaissance Era in Germany. In a dialogue with members of the historic costume list one lady pointed out that she often looked at images from 16th century Germany for inspiration so when the book of the paintings from The National Gallery of Art fell into my lap I looked and found that most of the elaborate smocking was found at the neckline on men's shirts with just a hint of smocking on ladies' chemises. (Maybe it's the peacock syndrome showing itself again.)
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This painting is by Nicolaus Kremer, German, c. 1500-1553). It is titled
Portrait of a Nobleman dated 1529. If you look carefully at his neckline
you will see a simple trellis grid which has a ruffled edge and pleats coming
from the bottom. I think the top and bottom row were done with the outline
stitch. The edge of the ruffle is probably a rolled hem decorated with
embroidery. The shirt's design is probably a basic boxy raglan that was popular
during those times.
I am very interested in reading your comments on this painting. |
I thought it might be fun to start a show and share section so I invite all of you to send me scans of pictures of your work or photos, with descriptions. It doesn't necessarily have to be smocking but should be embroidery or perhaps lace work, anything really that relates to fine handwork is fine. (We have a smocked nightie and hanger from a reader in Australia for our next edition.)
Here is a sample of my SRE work. The inspiration came from a book from Australia called More Embroidered Gardens by Diana Lampe where I saw a trellis worked in floss with french knot wisteria and since I was working in SRE at the time thought I would translate the idea into a ribbon piece. It's not finished and I have to admit that my designing sense is rather flat, haven't quite accomplished perspective in my embroidery but hey it was a lot of fun and I think it looks purdy.
I apologize for the moired effect of the fabric, but hey it's a moire! As I said it is unfinished (and this one will never be as it is ruined by a rust stain that was caused by a forgotten embroidery needle, tich let that be a lesson to always put your needles away) but my plans were to keeping adding flowers and buds on the vine until it looked completed. (In the manner typical of the way I create things, I put the forefront stuff in first and added the background afterwards, which if I had thought it through first I would have put some stuff in the background to begin with.) The trellis is Au Ver Au Soie silk floss (not colorfast). The flowers in the middle are hollyhocks embroidered with petals "Tahiti Sunset" which has all the colors you see on one strand of ribbon. The hollyhocks are worked strictly with french knots. (I love working with overdyed ribbon because people think you spent a lot of time stopping and starting with lots of knots when all you did was work with one 12" length of ribbon at a time.)
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I worked the spine of the hollyhocks in two strands of green floss working
the lazy daisy leaves along the stem. Then I added the silk ribbon french
knots working the color into groupings following the color of the ribbon
being careful to make sure that the colors weren't too concentrated in one
spot and if I had some of that color left to embroider with I moved over
to embroider on another spot.
I tacked down the petals of the hot pink loop flowers with gold sewing thread and added purple french knot buds at their base. The vine winding around the trellis is simply a whipped running stitch. The leaves are ribbon stitch where I varied the placement of the center stitch from left to right to center. Sometimes I allowed the ribbon to curl over to create a half leaf. The design needs one more bunch of wisteria on the right side near the bottom and some buds embroidered all over and I was going to add a hummingbird charm on the upper left trellis. For the wisteria I used two shades of lavender, light and medium, working single lazy daisy stitches. |
You could easily work this design as smocking using floss or ribbon onto vertical pleats working the trellis in the outline stitch. See how the moire is horizontal, imagine your pleats there and you can work the design. Note: if you use Petals remember that most of the colors are non-washable and will run and ruin your work if you toss it into the washer. This design would be great as a sampler hung on the wall or worked for a pillow that will be dry cleaned.
This piece was intended for a sachet bag filled with lavender and rose petals, with a touch of bay leaf for flavor. The measurements of the bag are 6 1/2" wide by 9" long finished. To make up one of these bags you start with 1/4 of a fat quarter (18" x 22" - you can get four out of one piece) using the 18" for the length. Fold the piece in half and mark with a pin or eyeball the center of where you want your embroidery to be then start embroidering.
Finishing: To finish the bag, turn inside out and sew up the side seams, turn top under 1/4" and 1/4" stitching all around. Fill bag with your favorite potpourii mixture and tie with a multi-colored wired ribbon 2" wide with edges cut on an angle with those special paper scissors which cut a pattern or else use pinking shears. I have also seen these bags with a scallop edge finish on the top instead of a simple hem. (Note: I made up a bunch of these up for Christmas one year and sold them at craft shows at $12.00 each, of course with less embroidery. I originally saw this bag idea in an embroidery book by Jenny Bradford and just used ribbon instead of floss.)
We are going to start our pattern review section with an old favorite which needs to be reintroduced into the smocking world. It's a pattern by Yvonne Denise called Shelley, Heather, Hayley & Lacy, $9.00 retail. Sized 1-8 it is a classic romper that started the craze of wing sleeves. I don't know what year the copyright is from but I remember it from 11 years ago. (When my daughter was 5, I made her Hayley in corduroy and another one in seersucker. So cute.) This pattern is now being published by ABC Kids (Creative Smocking).
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The romper is just a perfect pattern to get to grow with your girls you smock for. It starts out with a short legged roomy bubble (Heather) that ties at the shoulder, elastic at the legs with either a cross-stitched insert (yes you can cross stitch and have someone wear it) or else smock the whole front attaching it to a band. Then as your little one grows you can make her the long legged version "Shelley". |
There are so many fabric choices you can make this romper/overalls pattern in depending on the weather. It's roomy enough to wear tights and a turtleneck shirt underneath for winter or fall and in spring and summer it's perfect for lightweight cottons and blends. Seersuckers, chambray, corduroy, polished cottons, ginghams - such a versatile pattern.The little girl in the pink seersucker is wearing the classic watermelon plate by Ellen McCarn.
Yardage for these are based on 45"
Shelley (Long Pants)
1 - 2 1 3/4 yards 3 - 4 2 yards 5 - 6 2 1/4 yards 7 - 8 2 1/2 yards |
Heather (Short Pants)
1 - 2 1 1/8 yards 3 - 4 1 1/4 yards 5 - 6 1 3/8 yards 7 - 8 1 1/2 yards |
Hayley (Long Pants)
1 - 2 2 yards 3 - 4 2 1/4 yards 5 - 6 2 1/2 yards 7 - 8 2 3/4 yards |
Lacy (Short Pants)
1 - 2 1 3/8 yards 3 - 4 1 1/2 yards 5 - 6 1 5/8 yards 7 - 8 1 3/4 yards |
