How to Smock Sew

Smocking, a type of embroidery that allows a garment to stretch, was invented hundreds of years ago as both a practical and decorative technique. Although today, traditional smocking has largely been replaced by elastic and elastic faux-smocking techniques, many still practice the skill at home. With a little practice, a beginner can learn some of the easier smocking stitches before moving on to more advanced work. To start smock sewing, read the following directions for an easy cable stitch.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fabric to be pleated
• Fabric pencil
• Embroidery needle
• Cotton embroidery thread separated into strands
• Sewing pins

1. Choose the fabric on which you would like to put smocking stitches. The best choices of fabric for smocking are soft, easily-gathered materials like cotton. Often, smocking is done on shirts, especially at the chest or collar section, but can also be done on sleeve cuffs and elsewhere. Make sure that you are working on a flat fabric piece, not on a finished garment.

2. Using a fabric pencil, mark the places where you would like your smocking to begin and end on the wrong side of the fabric. At the top marking, pleat the fabric all the way across the width of the fabric, pinning the pleats in place as you go. Make sure you pin the pleats all along their length, as well. If you are working near seam allowances, unpin about 3 pleats at each seam allowance so that your smocking does not get stuck in a seam. At this point, count your pleats to make sure that you have an even number, then mark the center 2 pleats with your fabric pencil on the wrong side of the fabric.

3. Baste the pleats in place with a simple running stitch, which is done by simply passing the needle in through one side of the fabric and out the other, then repeating, removing the pins as you go. These basting stitches will be removed later.

4. Mark how many rows of smocking you would like to do along the length of the pleated area, using the fabric pencil on the wrong side of the fabric. Leave the first row blank, as this row holds together the rest of the pleats while you are working and allows you room for error when you go to sew your garment together. Thread your needle with 3 strands of embroidery thread.

5. Create an "under cable" stitch in the second row by lining the needle up on the left side of the first pleat. Line the thread up underneath the needle, then run the needle from right to left under the second pleat. Pull the stitch taut in an upward motion. Make a second stitch through the third pleat, this time lining the thread up above the needle. This is called an "over cable" stitch. Pull this stitch taut in a downward motion. You should now have 2 stitches, one higher than the other.

6. Create another "under cable" stitch in the fourth pleat, then an "over cable" stitch in the fifth pleat. Continue on in this manner until you reach the end of your pleats, then tie off your thread and move on to the next row.

Resources

• Smocking Tips
• Smock Sewing Dress Project
• Smocking Discussion

[poppypower]

on 10/11/2009 You lost me with "under cable stitch". Any way you could add pictures?