What is Smocking?
What is Smocking?
All writings and images Copyright©1997-2009 Beth-Katherine Kaiman
(The main fairy starts hissing when she finds a site with her stolen information ... and a hissing fairy isn't pretty)
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There are several types of smocking that you might run into in your searches. There's English Smocking which is embroidery on pleats that have been pleated before smocking. This form is also familiar to many in America as North American Smocking (found frequently in pattern company books during the 50's-80') where you form the pleats while you embroider the stitches. They are very similar but there is a slight difference in look between them with the English Smocking is more versatile as you can readily form the pleats into round shapes (such as bishop dresses) whereas with the North American style you are conformed to a rigid grid as there are no pleating threads to shape your piece. There is also Counterchange Smocking, also known as Gingham Smocking (which is a different style than the English Smocking) where you follow the squares of the gingham in different patterns to form shapes of color. The next style is called Lattice Smocking where you follow a larger grid of about 3" squares on the wrong side of the fabric that you stitch and pull up in different patterns to create pleats on the right side of the fabric. This technique was popular in the 60's for pillows in velveteen or gingham. The last style of smocking which is not so popular is called Italian Smocking which keeps the pleating threads in but also ties them off in such a way to form shapes within the pleats. (Italian Smocking information can be found in the "Book of Smocking by Diana Keays" and in some issues of the "Australian Smocking & Embroidery Magazine".)
Smocking is an art form whose origin has been obscured in history but has been handed down from generation to generation much like the sagas, songs and myths, however it's roots are traceable to a point through looking at the art of the past and in stitchery. If you look at paintings from the Italian and German Renaissance you will see lots of examples of smocking on mens shirts and ladies chemises. Italian Shirring, which has it's roots in the basic running stitch, in my opinion is a form of smocking all dressed up with blackwork and laidwork.
Hoblein
How it all started? There are clues but not much has been written down until the late 19th century as with all fold or tucking traditions smocking was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth (or hand so to speak). We find examples of smocking or embroidery on pleated fabric all around the world tucked away in museums from indigenous cultures to examples of smocking in paintings and wooden carvings as early as the 12th century, with also mentions of an embroidered smoc in Elizabeth the 1st's household accounting. Sarah Douglas, author of the Pleater Manual, stated in a chat about 10 years ago that she saw a piece of embroidery in the Embroiderer's Collection in England (EGA) from a Danish Bog which to her eye looking like early smocking, dating back to 1175BC! When smocking really started we don't know but according to tradition in England 'smocking has been around forever'.
Besides English Smocking, the other styles of contemporary smocking can be found if you look for them, often featured in Australian Smocking & Embroidery and the other needlework magazines which cater to those interested in the subject.
The first is North American Smocking which appears to have been either invented or a form of an old style promoted by Butterick & Co. late 19th Century, which was very popular from the 30's through the 60's. This style consisted of iron-on transfers of pairs of dots formed in a pattern that while stitching made up a smocking design and pleats at the same time. This early North American style is no longer popular among the major pattern companies, much to the dismay of women who learned in the 50's and 60's and who are coming back to smocking. The pattern companies have now shifted to the English style of smocking due to it's popularity in the magazines Creative Needle, Sew Beautiful and Australian Smocking and Embroidery and are now including in their smocking patterns a sheet of iron-on transfer dots for you to make up the pleats first and then do the stitching.
The second style evolved from Smocking on Gingham, is called Counterchange Smocking where you use striped fabric, gingham or dotted fabric, and mark where you place your stitches. The history of Counterchange in America has an interesting place in pre and post civil war southern life and has advanced greatly in the past 10 years into a unique form of picture smocking without cables. Here is a new design by Pat Garretson which takes the old style of gingham smocking into a new realm. You should look at her other gingham smocking designs, very clever.
Pat Garretson's "Irma"
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Here is an image of a counterchange design plate by Ann Halley, a smocking designer responsible for bringing counterchange to all of our attention, called "Ring around the Rosey". As you can see the designer utilized and manipulated the uniformity of striped fabric to create teddy bears, waves and hearts. Very clever.
Ann Hallay - Rosie the Bear
(To order click on the name and a new window will pop up)A third style is known as Lattice Smocking and is familiar to those who had smocked pillows during the 60's and 70's. This technique is worked on the backside of the fabric creating the unique and consistent folds on the front. While not as popular a style as English Smocking Lattice Smocking is gaining acceptance as a way to embellish fabric on sleeves and bodice fronts, especially in the heavier fabrics such as velvet and velveteen. The contemporary smocking designer, Laura Jenkins Thompson has written a booklet on the technique.
What ever the technique, anytime you take a needle to fabric, gather it in and embroider upon the gathers it's smocking.
Laura Jenkins Thompson's Lattice Smocking Book
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We also carry a purse pattern now for Lattice by Debbie Glenn of Love 'n Stitches
More 'Ancient' History
From the late 17th century to the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century the Smock Frocks were a very popular piece of clothing for the rural peoples of the British Isles to wear. These garments were made out of Linen (either flax or common linen - nettles or hemp, which ever was around) and were made water proof by wiping them down with linseed oil. The big collars added protection from the changeable British weather and kept the wearer warm. These smocks were often embroidered with symbols of what trade the wearer did (bakers, farmers, blacksmiths etc.) and were worn to protect the underclothing as garments took a long time to hand sew as well as making the fabric. (Of course since writing this as fact it has been disputed as gospel truth, sometimes the patterns embroidered along side the smocking have no bearing whatsoever on the wearer's occupation but it is kinda fun to speculate that there were people who did this as "tribal or cultural symbols".)
Folkwear #221 "English Smock", courtesy of Folkwear Patterns
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It was the Industrial Revolution that brought about the demise of the smock frock as a utility garment. The big voluminous smocks were a hazard to the new reaping machines and they quickly became obsolete for everyday wear. They were still worn on Fair Day or to church but the style soon evolved to be a 'fashionable' garment for the female gentry. The new Aesthetic Dress movement took hold and the two styles of the smock evolved into fashionable garments such as bishop blouses & dresses while the smock frock became basic square yoke dresses for young girls. These garments were readily available through mail order catalogs as well as major department stores throughout America, as well as pattern companies and magazines.
The smocking that most people remember from the 50's and the 60's (this century) where you ironed on transfers and picked up the pattern is called North American Smocking which was created by the Butterick pattern company in the early 20th century to make smocking more accessible to the general public = more profits.
Grace Knott, smocking pioneer
GK The Flower Basket - GK The Butterfly
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In the 1950's there was a woman from Canada called Grace Knott who pioneered the smocking movement as we know it today. She along with an author named Chela Thorton inspired hundreds of women with the technique known as English Smocking, which differs from N.American style in that you make up the pleats first and then do the embroidery stitches. The effect is basically the same but the look is much different. Around the same time the smocking pleater, (invented in South Africa in the 1950's by Read Company, was readily made available to the American and Canadian public through Grace's Company "Grace Knott Smocking'.
Amanda Jane Super Pleater
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Smocking has become much more sophisticated since then, the 1980's brought about Smocking Guilds all across America and the world and many talented women took up the challenge to bring smocking into the patterns and smocking plate designs that you see today.
Smocking has come a long way since the bold, heavy geometric designs of Grace Knott. Nowadays geometric designs are delicate and complex, often covered with bullion roses and leaves and other embroidered embellishments like beads and buttons.
Little Memories - The Promise
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Picture smocking has also become extremely gorgeous and clever. Embellishments are another love of smockers - especially bullions in the form of roses, leaves and other flowers. The Brazilian Embroidery craze of the '80's has worked its way onto our pleats and I have noticed that in the past issues of Australian Smocking that other stitches of this type of embroidery are being experimented with. The latest trend is mixing Silk Ribbon Embroidery with your smocking as in this design plate by Lou Anne Lamar.
Lou Anne Lamar - Anne Franklin's Garden
(To order click on the name and a new window will pop up)
Smocking has travelled from England & Spain to America and Australia, each country developing their own style and patterns. Today you can find magazines in America which cater to the smocking and heirloom sewing enthusiasts, Creative Needle and Sew Beautiful, in Spain there are publications called Mani di Fata and Frunces Smok, and in Australia you will find Australian Smocking and other publications all of which have smocking designs and ideas in each issue.
And recently Pat Garretson has been experimenting with Gingham Smocking treating it like Counterchange with some interesting results. Gingham Smocking is easy to do, you just follow the squares in a specific pattern to create geometric patterns from the 3 different shades of thread that make up the gingham fabric. Pat has taken it one step further by creating shapes out of the squares. Here are a couple of examples:
Pat Garretson's Birthday Cake & Gingham Bunnies
(To order click on the name and a new window will pop up)
My first smocking project - 21 years ago: Daughter's dress.I made a lot of mistakes, like messing up the top row but I covered that up with baby lace, somehow the placket ended up lumpy and the design didn't meet at the back - but HEY! it was my first project so all that didn't matter. However, what did matter was the lesson I learned when my little girl wearing her newly smocked dress sat down in a plate of spaghetti with pesto and I couldn't get out the olive oil stain: a child's feelings and sense of self worth is much more important than some silly, stubborn stain on a piece of clothing. Since then I have found a product called Nana's Vintage Soak which has taken the olive oil out after 20 years! (See conservation supplies)
Here are some closeup photos of the smocking. If you look carefully under the lace you can see my mistake! (hahahaha) which I covered up by handstitching lace edging under the bias. The stitches I used are the cable, outline (under lace), two step & four step wave combination done in mirror image, finishing off with three trellis stitches. All of these stitches can be found in the many instruction manuals I carry. With A to Z Smocking about the best in all the stitches show in step by step photographs.
I hope you have enjoyed the journey of smocking's history, there's more of course but that's another story for a later time. Meanwhile we hope you are inspired enough to want to start smocking.
Beth-Katherine Kaiman, Main Fairy
Appliques
Battenburg Lace
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