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
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!