Smocking Binge

From May to September this year I smocked up a storm. It was most satisfying. One of the things I like about smocking is the variety of the task - a period of finding the pattern, preparation of the fabric, reading the instructions, getting the plan clear, followed by the smocking itself, then blocking and construction. It is nicely sequenced and heads towards a finished product.

As I made this batch, I realised it is a project process, so I have now swung into project planning and execution mode. I like the order that provides me with and the sense of moving through to a finished project.

This is a bishop I made in this batch, using the Pattern African Princess in Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 46.

It is beaded in the smocking with seed beads. The fabric is cotton and came from Country Bumpkin, now at 916 South Road Edwardstown, SA.

The smocking on this an adaptation of smocking on a top, Trendy Tot, in the book Designer Smocking for Tots to Teens. I really wanted to try out the stepped Van Dyke stitch on a bishop, to capture the curved shape and fall. It proved to be rather more daunting than I had anticipated - a lot of intense stitching. I quite like the effect, but think it would have been more managable if I had left a pleat between each row.

The fabric also came from Country Bumpkin and they did the pleating for me on both these bishops.

This top and skirt was quite a special project. Both the pink hailspot voile and the butterfly print cotton were from my mother's stash, inherited by my daughters and I when she died. We have been looking for the right project for them for over 15 years. These are for one of my granddaughters. I adapted the pattern for the top from Flower Seller in Australian Smocking and Embroidery 55 and the skirt from Between Friends, AS&E 86,

Another piece of fabric from my mother's stash went into this dress adapted from Sherbet Fizz in AS&E 59. There are little yellow stars in the stripes which I used as the basis of the picturesmocked stars.  I pleated this by hand in order to get the red and blue of the stripe uppermost, rather than the white.I pleated this by hand in order to get the blue and red of the stripe uppermost, rather than the white.

I made this top to also go with the skirt above, using a piece of fabric I bought online from Tessuti Fabrics in Sydney and using the pattern Golden Sands from Designer Smocking for Tots and Teens. I smocked both the front and back, white on the back and pink on the front.

I'm pleased with the result.





Up to this point, I had made a decision to have my projects pleated at Country Bumpkin rather than take on another skillset. However, when I made a mistake with the shop opening hours, and arrived one day after they had closed, I reconsidered and about 8 weeks ago I bought a pleater.

Now I am REALLY binging!

In which I start

For over a year now I have been binging on embroidery and smocking. After nearly 30 years of being in the paid workforce, I am on long service leave, unholding some of the things I have put on hold in that time. In the late 1970s I did a Craft Certificate course with TAFE. The first year was design and drawing and the second year a craft of choice. Unfortunately, my choice of embroidery wasn't available when I came to do it. I was not interested in the only available choice - ceramics - so I didn't complete the certificate.

I am now catching up, not through a course, but by undertaking projects of my own. I have joined the Embroiderers' Guild of SA, subscribed to several smocking and embroidery magazines, purchased some kits, constructed some kits of my own with projects I have conceived, and am well on my way.

These two dresses I made recently are adapted from a pattern called Spirit of Adventure, in Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 34. The print fabric came from One Small Room in Elizabeth St Croydon, South Australia.

 I used some tulip buttons provided as an 'extra' with some buttons I bought on eBay, from HongKong.

This one took a bit of ingenuity to create a smocking design to match the women on the material. The material came from Hetty's Patch on Port Rd Hindmarsh.