Overview of smocking techniques.

Smocking techniques was born long years ago in USA. On the early days, smocking was often used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Smocking techniques is also used as decoration and status symbols of the holidays. It can be used to make Independent pattern on clothes:


Image 1: Independent smocked clothing
 
or make Valentine symbols:



Image 2: Valentine Bishop dress

or embroider Mardi Grass pattern



 Image 3: Best mardi grass smocked clothes

Click here to see more Holiday smocked clothes if you want.

Types of smocking stitches

There are seventeen types of smocking stitches used to create the patterns but today, I only tell you some most popular ones. This graph shows some standard smocking stitches.

Note:

A: Cable stitch: a tight stitch of double rows that joins alternating columns of gathers

B: Stem stitch: a tight stitch with minimum flexibility that joins two columns of gathers at a time in single overlapping rows with a downward slope.

C: Outline stitch: similar to the stem stitch but with an upward slope.

D: Cable flowerette: a set of gathers worked in three rows of stitches across four columns of gathers. Often organized in diagonally arranged sets of flowerettes for loose smocking

E. Wave stitch: a medium density pattern that alternately employs tight horizontal stitches and loose diagonal stitches.

 

F. Honeycomb stitch: a medium density variant on the cable stitch that double stitches each set of gathers and provides more spacing between them, with an intervening diagonal stitch concealed on the reverse side of the fabric.

G. Surface honeycomb stitch: a tight variant on the honeycomb stitch and the wave stitch with the diagonal stitch visible, but spanning only one gather instead of a gather and a space.

H. Trellis stitch: a medium density pattern that uses stem stitches and outine stitches to form diamond-shaped patterns.

I. Vandyke stitch: a tight variant on the surface honeycomb stitch that wraps diagonal stitches in the opposite direction.

J. Bullion stitch: a complex knotted stitch that joins several gathers in a single stitch. Organized similarly to cable flowerettes.

That’s the overview of smocking techniques. I hope that this article will helpful for people who have special love with smocked clothes and other smocked products. To complete my blog well, I’ve used some information from Wikipedia- The free encyclopedia.

Thanks for your reading. See you soon.