I picked up this great pattern for 50 pence in a junk shop in Brighton at the weekend, along with some great pre-war rayon. This pink and floral piece will be added to my growing stack of rayon, which I love and cannot quite decide what to make with…
Back to the smocking pattern – I have loved this type of smocking – often called American smocking- for ages, but am too lazy to draw out the required grids. This pattern is in fact transfers with the grids marked out ready to iron-on and sew away! I am not planning to make a cushion with my smocking, as that really will look a bit too retro for my taste, but rather incorporate it into garments.
Ruth Singer
Ruth Singer textile artist
Ruth Singer 
Fancy you finding my blog like that! Thanks for the comment. I think you must know Colette Wolff’s book on The Art of Manipulating Fabric – if not you would love it.About the only stitching I did at school was a smocked apron. My mother-in-law did piece work smocking after the war;the pieces came all marked up and then had to be stitched. Not much fun I suspect.
Yes, I certainly know that book well and use it a lot!
Surfed over from your comment at Dress a Day (I think it was). Wow, I love your work with textiles. I’m commenting here because I went back to your blog beginning and saw this entry. When I was in school (back in the early 70s) I remember someone showing me “Knotts’ Dots” as an iron-on aid for smocking. Just now, I Googled them and got this:http://www.heirloomsewingforchildren.com/smocking_dots.htmWhat would we do without Google?
Thanks, I’m glad you like my work. I’m fascinated by Knotts’ Dots. You have a really good memory! I expect i can get something similar over here and really should go looking. I still haven’t done any smocking. its wishful thinking!
I checked and that other URL I sent didn’t ship except to the 50 US states. But I Googled some more and it looks like this company in California ships internationally:http://www.smockingstore.com/pleaters.html#dotsAnyway, I only remember doing a bit of smocking and I think it was when I was 13 or 14 but I do remember it was so fun to get that accordian elastic effect. I also seem to remember that you could just use a fabric like gingham with its evenly spaced squares and so not have to use dots.Boy, this is getting me all interested in smocking! But I have too many other things on the go now to start this. Good luck to you!