Tag: smocking

smocks galore!

Smocking

How exciting – I’m in a magazine!

The magazine in question is a brand-new digital publication by Kate Davies, whose blog I’ve been following and whose knitting patterns I’ve been queueing for some time. So you can imagine how excited I was when she asked me whether I’d be willing to talk about smocking, and what I learned from the collection at the Museum of English Rural Life.

Issue 1 of Textisles is available as a Ravelry download, as it also includes Kate’s Warriston sweater pattern. It talks about the etymology of the word “frock” and the gender of a garment, and there’s a really interesting article about the English Smock. Then there’s a “Meet the Maker” section… which is me!

The next issue is due out in August, and will have a nautical theme featuring Kate’s Betty Mouat design. Whether you’re more interested in the textile history or the knitting patterns, Textisles is a fabulously well-researched and thoroughly interesting magazine. I can’t wait to read the next one – and I’m not even in it!

Smocking workshop this weekend

Just a quick reminder that this weekend is my smocking workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life.

Today is the very last day that you can sign up – in fact you’ve got about an hour and a half left if you want to secure a place!

The course runs from 2:15-4:15 on both Saturday and Sunday, and you need to be able to attend both sessions. It costs £35, and you’ll be provided with all of the materials you need to make a smocked bag.

All abilities are welcome! Even if you’ve never sewn a stitch in your life, this is a simple project that you should be able to manage over the weekend. If you’re an experienced needleworker, then you can used more advanced techniques to produce an intricate design.

To book your place you can call 0118 378 8660, send an email to merlevents@reading.ac.uk, or fill in the online booking form.

Smocking, Traditional and Modern.

Smocking, traditional and modern

This is a sneaky peek at what you’ll be making if you come along to my Smocking Workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life. (It’s on September 19 & 20, and there are still places left! Book here…)

As you can see, we’ll be working the smocking stitches on gingham. For beginners it’s the easiest way to keep everything neat and lined up.

The top panel shows a variety of traditional smocking stitches – like the ones found on the smocks in the Museum’s collection.

The lower panel is made up of more modern smocking stitches that you tend to find on clothing from the 1930s onwards.

I find it interesting that the traditional stitches keep the gathering in very neat little columns all the way down, whereas the modern stitches are almost all designed to form a diamond pattern. The modern stitches are much more stretchy, but they take quite a bit longer to work.

In reality, although smocking looks very elaborate, you only need to know how to do one embroidery stitch, and you can turn it into all of these. If you can get the hang of back stitch, you can be smocking away in no time!

Sew Beautiful magazine

I bought my first copy of Sew Beautiful magazine today. It’s an American magazine, but you can order it in the UK from Magazine Café. I just happened to stumble across a copy in a newsagent that I don’t usually venture into, so that was a very lucky find!

I picked it up because the July/August issue has suffolk puffs (yo-yos) on the front, and they have instructions for making pretty embellishments with them, similar to my flower tutorial.

The magazine is primarily to do with heirloom sewing, so it places a lot of emphasis on hand sewing techniques. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that it’s full of smocking! There was a beautiful traditional Christening gown, as well as some women’s blouses which were adapted from current commercial sewing patterns.

The majority of the designs are for babies and children, but that certainly doesn’t stop me from being inspired by them. When I was looking for pictures of little smocked dresses, I came across Moxie Fab World. I’d happily wear any of the dresses featured in Cath’s Easter Parade post, despite being at least thirty years “too old”.

I’m definitely feeling inclined to make a few more incarnations of Butterick 5317, perhaps starting with a spotty one…

Still working on the smocks

MERL smocks

This is a sneaky peek at one of the object storage cases at the Museum of English Rural Life. Frances and I took out every single smock, photographed and measured it, and took lots and lots of notes.

Now the task is to type up all of those notes, which is one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately. I haven’t been doing much sewing or knitting because I’ve been hanging out at the museum, typing. Apparently there is no limit to the number of times you can type the word “smock” in a single paragraph.

I’m about half way through now, so the end is (sort of) in sight, and there are plans afoot for possible new displays in the future.

I do have some close-up pictures of a couple of the really fine and delicate smocks that we looked at, so I’ll post those for you very soon.

The smocked tunic – finished.

Smocked tunic dress

Here you go – the completed blue dress.

I showed you the smocking yesterday, and I’ve just finished the binding and the belt.

This is my usual raglan tunic dress pattern, with the neckline, sleeves and hem all finished with navy blue bias binding. I was hoping to be able to find a navy broderie anglais lace for the hem, but my local fabric shop only had white or black.

The fabric is lovely soft organic cotton from Bishopston Trading.

I’m not certain whether I’ll be making the tunics with smocking to order. Because of the amount of time it takes to do all of the hand sewing, it can make the resulting dress very expensive. In the organic cotton I think it would work out to something like £150, which is three times the price of the same dress without the smocking.

Smocking on organic cotton

Smocking

This is what I’ve been up to all weekend – working panels of smocking on the front, back and sleeves of one of my tunic dresses.

From top to bottom, the stitches are Trellis, Wave, Honeycomb, Chevron and Van Dyke.

I’m really, really pleased with how the smocking’s worked out.
Unfortunately, I over-estimated how much fabric the smocking would take up in the pleating, and I’ve ended up with a dress that’s much too big for me.

I’m going to be wearing the dress to the Albert Hall next weekend anyway, because I need to wear something blue, and I don’t have anything else. After that though, it’ll go up for sale.

(Best fit bust up to 42″, hips up to 58″, if you’re wondering!)

I’ll take some proper photos once it’s finished.

Starting on the smock

Smocking

Yesterday I spent a pleasant hour in the Reading Room at the Museum of English Rural Life, having a look at a couple of books about smocking that had been put to one side for me.

The books were Smocking: A Practical Beginner’s Guide, by Audrey Vincente Dean, and Smocking: Traditional and Modern Approaches by Oenone Cave and Jean Hodges. Both of them were really useful, and I’m currently on the lookout for second hand copies that I can keep open while I’m sewing.

As you can see, I’ve made a start on the prototype child’s dressing-up smock. It’s taken me all day to reach this point – I spent most of the morning cutting out the back, front and sleeves, and completing all the gathering. In the background of the picture you can just see the smocking dot transfers that help you to space the gathers very neatly.

My next mission is to try and find out whether honeycomb smocking is a traditional stitch used in the eighteenth century, or whether it’s too modern for me to use on this particular smock.

I’m going to be volunteering at the Museum on Monday, looking through their smock collection, so I guess I’ll be able to find out!

Still Seeing Smocks…

Yep, I’m definitely still seeing smocks – or at least some kind of smocking!

I opened up the June 2009 edition of UK Vogue last night, which featured Matthew Williamson’s new designs for H&M. This pretty blouse and dress both have smocked panels on the shoulders and sleeves.

There are some more pictures on the H&M website, including some really good ones of the detailing on the dress… but the site is entirely built in Flash, so I can’t give you links to follow. Here’s a screenshot instead:

The summer collection comes into stores worldwide tomorrow, so I might have to pay a visit to my local H&M, to have a closer look at the details.

Seeing Smocks Everywhere…

I was watching Cranford on the iPlayer, when I spotted Harry wearing a smock!

I couldn’t get a clearer picture than this, but there’s a smocked panel front and back, and at both the shoulders and cuffs on the sleeves.

Am I going to see smocks everywhere I look from now on?