Not much time to blog today, but I wanted to let you know about a video that I found this morning. This is such a cool technique and it will probably show up in one of my Etsy dresses very soon. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: smock
New Look #0160 – The Preparation and Smocking
The panel that I pleated in the last post is now in the process of being smocked. The pattern I chose for the smocking is a simple alternation between a half-step wave and a full step wave. This pattern can be smocked without any diagrams or guides and is very basic. I wanted to keep the color scheme down to beige and black, so the thread I am using is DMC 310 (black).
Once I have completed the smocking, I have to block it. To find the center of the panel, I have to lay out the pattern piece for the yoke on the ironing board and do some measuring of sorts. First, I use the line at the 9″ mark as my center, since my board is 18″ in length. The instructions have the front yoke piece being sewn together down the center. Since my panel does not have this center seam, I have to compensate by removing 5/8″ from the center. I trimmed a piece of paper to 5/8″ and laid it on the pattern piece. See how the 5/8″ line now runs down the point on the pattern called “center front?” This is the line I place on the 9″ guideline as my center point of the yoke.
After finding the center, I can now see how large to block out my smocked panel. It needs to be blocked 6.5″ on each side of the center line, or 13″ total across. I block the smocking panel by stretching it to the proper length and steam “pressing” the pleats in place. Once the piece is dry it will retain the shape and size blocked while you work with it in the pattern. You can see from the photo below that the smocked panel is now blocked and ready for cutting. To cut the smocked panel, I lay the pattern piece on top of the panel and line up the center of the piece. Notice that I folded back the 5/8″ seam line on the pattern piece. With a disappearing ink marker, I trace the pattern piece. Then I sew on, or just inside, the drawn line with my machine.
Once the piece has been sewn, cut around the piece on the outside of the stitching line.
One problem I ran into with this top was that I did not purchase enough fabric for long sleeves. Top A has sleeves that go halfway down between the elbow and the wrist. This is a style that doesn’t suit me. So, I had to extend the sleeve pattern piece to obtain the long look I desired. However, when I went to cut out my “long” sleeves, I was short on fabric. See how I compensated for this problem in my next post. Until then…happy sewing!!
New Look #0160 – The Plan
I thought it might help me blog more if I attempted to chronicle the steps I go through when creating my fiber items, whether it is a garment, quilt, or even stuffed animal. Some of the things I make are not gifts and so I can at least show the process for some of you who may be interested in the creative process as it relates to sewing in particular.
So, let’s get started. This pattern is a top that I decided to make for myself. I have selected top “A,” however, I intend to alter some of the pieces to suit my style.
I liked the front panel, as it could be smocked, pleated, gathered, or left plain. Any garment that has an insert of this nature allows you to substitute the insert with something else. Basically, I follow the rule to create the substitution insert fabric piece first, then cut out the pattern piece from the created “fabric.” When doing this, it is important to find the pattern piece that is the actual size for the garment. In other words, if I chose to smock the panel and then cut out my smocked fabric using a pattern piece that is supposed to have a pleat in it, it will not work. It would be virtually impossible to pleat a smocked piece of fabric. Here are the three yoke pattern pieces I had to choose from.
I chose #12. Number 8 was much larger because it allowed for the piece to be pleated after it was cut out. What I wanted was a piece that was already “actual” size. There was little difference between #2 and #12, so I started to go with #2, as you can see from the photos. However, it was important to figure out why #2 and #12 were just slightly different in size. After looking through the sewing instructions for the top, I figured out that pattern piece #2 has a single pleat in the center and pattern piece #12 is the actual size of the yoke without any gathers or pleats. I went with #12. For this top, I wanted to smock the front yoke. So, I measured the yoke piece (#12) from top to bottom, although all three yoke pieces were the same height. The measurement was 12″ and I wanted the pleats to be vertical, so I cut a strip of fabric 45″ x 12″.
I threaded the pleater and then ran the strip through in preparation for smocking the panel. The pleater can look intimidating, but it is actually a very simple device.
Here you can see the finished result of the pleating (again, I changed and went with pattern piece #12 after this photo was taken). In the next post I will cover the smocking, blocking and cutting of the pattern pieces.
University of South Carolina Fans – Showing Spirit
It seems like all I have time to post about lately is my current and completed projects. I suppose, since that is what occupies most of my time these days, it is probably a good thing that I can at least document that portion of my life. There are a few random things going on that I cannot speak about at this time, all good, but info on those will just have to wait a bit. In the meantime, I give you my latest custom creation. No, I did not actually choose the word, but it was the best one, in my opinion, that the customer offered. This bubble is for a USC fan and their mascot is the Gamecocks. So, use your imagination and you can probably understand why this was the best battle cry choice for this application. Having said that, I really do like the colors and the outfit as a whole. It is really cute and the model is just awesome!! The outfit is based on the Spirit outfit.
