I recently decided to delete my Smocking blog and decided to continue showing the work on this blog. I had too many blogs I was contributing to as well.
My most visited and appreciated blog post was a 3-part series tutorials on how to create a Smocked Bishop's Yoke dress. I've copied and pasted it here so it will still be available to you.
PART 1:
Well, I thought it would be worthwhile to write a tutorial on how I
smock a bishop dress since I am currently sewing one for my toddler and
her 18 inch doll. The pattern entitled "Twice as Nice" is from the
magazine
Australian Smocking & Embroidery issue 95, 2011
pages 38-43. I will choose a different smocking plate for the actual
hand embroidery--I always do that to personalize my "Princess Dress" (as
my daughter calls them).
Any bishop dress pattern will work--both vintage and current publications--can be used to sew along with me.
Sew Beautiful
magazines' current issue has a useful article on how to draft your own
bishop dress, and a complete printed bishop's dress guide in their
previous issue.
That being said, I have not found an
18" doll pattern, so using a tape measure I have created a pattern which
I will share with you in this article.
Cutting Directions for the 18" Doll Bishop Dress:
- Fabric Requirements: 1/2 yard
- Note: I used a rotary cutter to cut my pieces; however,
traditionally they "ripped" the fabric squares and rectangles to ensure
the fabric was cut on the straight of grain.
- Front: Cut one 12 1/2" square, then cut out armholes from the PDF template
- Back: Cut two rectangles measuring 12 1/2" by 7 1/2", then cut out armholes from the PDF template
- Flutter Sleeve: Cut two rectangles measuring 3" by 8"
- Note: Neck will be gathered using the smocking technique into a 10" circle.
HERE IS A LINK TO PRINT OUT THE PATTERN PIECES, I
RECOMMEND YOU PRINT TWO COPIES, ONE TO CUT AND USE AND THE OTHER FOR
YOUR RECORDS.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0KRaxk3aDzkb1gtRXRoRnpReGM
Step One: Attach lace using the traditional roll-and-whip method by sewing machine to the flutter sleeve.
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With right sides of fabric and lace facing each other, sew a straight stitch down the heading of the lace. |
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Press the lace
down so the right side is up. Turn the sleeve piece over and press the
seam up. Finish the lace-fabric seam by sewing a small (stitch width
1.5-2.0) zig-zag catching the edge of the fabric and the lace. Trim
seam allowance to 1/8 inch. |
Step Two: Sew the bishop dress shoulder seams
using a very narrow over-cast seam or a very small french seam. I
prefer a narrow over-cast seam as I use a commercial pleater to pleat my
smocked dresses. The overcast seam has less layers of fabric in it so I
break less pleater needles.
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Pattern pieces
are pinned together in the following order: right back with armhole
cutout towards flutter sleeve; flutter sleeve; front, flutter sleeve;
left back with armhole cutout towards flutter sleeve. |
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Sewn and pressed with right-sides facing. |
Step Three: Pleat the Dress
There are
many methods of pleating a bishop's dress. You can purchase iron-on
transfer dots, put them on the back of your piece and hand gather your
project by picking up the dots from the fabric itself. If your fabric
is a small polka dot, you can simply gather those dots (it also works on
gingham fabrics).
Alternately, you can pleat your
dress using your home sewing machine. You will need to use a ruler (my
rotary cutting ruler is viewed here) and draw water-soluble lines every
1/2 inch (for a full space) or every 1/4 inch (for a half space--which
you choose depends on the smocking plate you choose to hand embroider).
Draw a vertical start line, then set your sewing machine's stitch
length very long--about a 4 and sew parallel lines along the drawn
lines. Gather these threads into pleats by pulling the bobbin thread.
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Marking the dress to pleat using the home sewing machine. |
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As you can see, both of these methods are very time
consuming. The benefit to using a pleater is that there is no need to
mark any lines and all the rows of fabric are gathered all together with
one turn of the handle. Since I have one, I pleated the 18 inch doll
dress in less than 5 minutes and the full size 4 dress in 20 minutes.
If I had to pleat by hand...it would be days--if at all.
I
taught myself how to smock from various magazines and books so if there
are any mistakes or if you have a tip you would like to share, please
leave a comment as I certainly am a novice.
HOW I USE A PLEATER TO SMOCK A BISHOP'S DRESS:
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Tilt the
pleater back by placing it on top of an empty spool and removed the
center brass bar. Lay in the amount of needles specified in the
smocking plate you choose to hand embroider. |
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Lubricate the
needles, and clean the brass rollers from any tarnish by rolling a
pieced of waxed paper through the pleater. I learned this tip from an
Ellen McCarn book and never forgot it--it is the best tip ever. Iron a
crease down the front center of any and all smocking panels before they
are pleated (regardless of the pattern), then take a running stitch of
contrasting thread and sew it down to mark the center of the garment.
This is beneficial in both marking the center of the garment for later
blocking and sizing--and also is the exact hanging center to being your
hand embroidery from. If done now, there is no need to count all the
pleats, divide them by two to find your center for your embroidery
designs. Genius! |
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Use a good
needle threader to fill the needles with thread. Make sure the thread
is at least as long as the garment you plan to pleat plus an extra
foot--the extra thread is needed for blocking. The pleater
manufacturers recommend using hand quilting thread for this. I've used
all-purpose thread, hand quilting thread, and machine quilting thread
all with excellent results. As you can see here, I am using machine
quilting thread as I have a lot of it lying around. |
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Roll the dress onto a dowel--good thing I mopped the kitchen floor yesterday! :) |
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As you
progress from the back to the open sleeve area, make every reasonable
effort to keep all the pattern pieces parallel to the rod, ensuring that
the neck line of the garment is even on the rod. |
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Insert the rolled up dress into the back of the pleater. |
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Turn the pleater handle and the dress will come out pleated. Always
remember to pleat the fabric with the right-side down as most pleaters
create deeper pleats going down and you want those on the surface to
show off your hand embroidery. |
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As the fabric advances, turn the handles slowly and pull the fabric gently off the needles and onto the thread. |
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All bishop's
dresses have four seams to pleat over, use your finger to smooth it down
as it goes through the rollers. If it does not lie flat, the fabric
will pucker and its thickness will break the pleater needle. |
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More views of "helping" the seam. |
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The dress had been pleated and removed from the needles. |
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Here I am rolling the 18 inch doll dress--it was a lot faster to pleat. |
Step Four: Blocking the dresses.
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To block the
dress, you will need the neckline blocking guide from the pattern (or a
neck measurement of the child wearing a dress), a steam iron, lots of
pins and yes--my husband's hair comb! :) |
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Following the
neckline blocking guide, un-pick the extra pleats to the place stated so
that a button band can be sewn into the garment. |
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Pin the button
band to the board, and the center pleat (dark blue running stitch
thread sewn in prior to pleating). Pull the pleating threads into a
circle and pin the pleats in place. Rake the fullness of the pleats
into a fan to separate them. When satisfied, use a lot of pins to
stabilize the neck line. Repeat with the other side of the neck. |
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My favorite
tip ever was from my Aunt's old smocking patterns she lent me--and it
was a "tip" on an old receipt. Use a comb to comb the pleats straight
down and help even them out. This will help them lie flat. Seriously,
one of the most useful hints ever! :) When it looks good, steam the
whole thing with a hot iron and let the dress sit pinned to your ironing
board over-night. This will make the cotton permanently press in those
little pleats to show off that hand embroidery. Experienced smockers
do not feel the need to re-tie the pleating threads to hold the pleats
in place. I do--I'm not that good yet. |
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Here is the 18
inch doll dress blocked to a 10-inch pleated circle neckline, with an
extra 1/2 inch opening on both sides to allow for finishing with velcro.
I re-tie my pleating threads to the finished size of the neckline. |
As this is my current work in progress...step 5 is to do the hand embroidery which I will begin tomorrow.
Step 6 is to sew the side seams
Step 7 is to finish the back with button band
Step 8 is to add bias tape to the neckline and raw-edge arm holes....almost there!
IF
YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO WRITE MORE HOW-TO ARTICLES ON SMOCKING, LEAVE ME A
COMMENT SO I KNOW--I AM CONSIDERING DOING JUST A BLOG ON SMOCKING AS I
GET MORE TRAFFIC FROM "GOOGLE" WITH SMOKING POSTS...BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW
MUCH INTEREST THERE REALLY IS FROM MY FOLLOWERS. I KNOW THERE ARE A
LOT MORE QUILTING BLOGS THAN SMOCKING BLOGS...IT'S BECOMING A LOST ART.
IT'S A LOT OF WORK AS YOU CAN SEE.
PART 2
In this tutorial, I will share how I smocked our 18-inch doll
Bishop's dress. I admit that I have yet to complete the embroidery on
the size 4 dress.
Since readers have asked, here are
the cutting sizes to sew a girl's dress. I do not want to infringe on
anyone's copyright so I have measured these from actual dresses that I
have sewn. I also use a rotary cutter to cut out my squares and then
cut the arm hole openings.
Size 6-12 months: Hem allowance is 1 inch and seam allowance is 1/2 inch (included).
- FRONT RECTANGLE: (Cut 1) 20 inches long by 32 inches wide
- BACK RECTANGLES: (Cut 2) 20 inches long by 17 inches wide
- SLEEVES: (Cut 2) 19 inches long by 6 1/2 inches deep. (Puffed sleeve).
- * This dress was purchased pre-sewn from SAGA (Smocking Arts Guild
of America), I only did the embroidery through their tutorial. More
information can be viewed at http://www.smocking.org.
Size
2 Toddler: Hem allowance in the original pattern was 3 inches deep (an
antique "growth hem"). I chose to only use a standard 1 inch hem with
a 1/2 inch seam allowance.
- FRONT RECTANGLE: (Cut 1) 24 inches long by 32 inches wide
- BACK RECTANGLES: (Cut 2) 24 inches long by 17 inches wide.
- SLEEVES: (Cut 2) 19 inches wide by 8 inches deep. (Puffed sleeve.)
- *This dress was sewn from a pattern featured in Australian Smocking
and Embroidery magazine which I then altered for my needs. It also
features an original smocking plate of my own design.
Size
4 Toddler: A full-sized pattern is given in the magazine Australian
Smocking & Embroidery, Issue 95, 2011; pages 38-43 and the pattern
pullout section. Their directions call for an antique hem of 5-6 inch
hem. I am unsure why--if you know why this deep of hem in needed, let
me know. My aunt who smocks said it was to have enough weight to let
the smocking lay flat. However, my dresses with only a one-inch hem lie
just fine. My cutting directions include the 3 inch hem and 1/2 inch
seam allowance.
- FRONT RECTANGLE: (Cut 1) 30 inches long by 32 inches wide.
- BACK RECTANGLE: (Cut 2) 30 inches long by 16 inches wide.
- SLEEVES: (Cut 2) 17 inches long by 6 inches deep (Flutter sleeve).
- *This is the dress I'm sewing along with the tutorial.
NOW..ON WITH THE TUTORIAL! YAY!
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To start, find
the center front pleat of the dress. You can either count the total
number of pleats and divide by two or simply find the thread we basted
through the center prior to pleating. I center the embroidery floss
here and tie a figure-8 knot. Then I embroider going to the right.
This centers the design on your dress. For this tutorial we are doing a
simple heart. A 4-step trellis topped with a baby wave. (What?
Follow along and you'll see.) |
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To secure the
bottom of the wave, pierce the pleat about 1/3 of the way down. Have
the thread "tail" (the thread you will pull through the pleat) below
your needle. This will create the bottom of your trellis. |
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Catching the second pleat, as the thread is pulled through the bottom of your trellis (also known as a bottom cable) will form. |
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I thought it
would be useful to show a photo of both my hands working together. My
right hand pulls the floss through while my left thumb-nail holds open
the pleat. |
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The 4-step
trellis fills the pleated rows. I count (bottom) down-cable, 1-2-3
(spread these evenly through the space a half-space would align the #2
count), then do the up-cable. Notice on the up-cable the thread now is
above the needle. I once read a Martha Pullen book on smocking and she
gave this advice when working cables. "Think of a cat walking up a
staircase. As the cat goes up, its tail points down. As the cat goes
down the staircase, the tail points up." Your tail of your embroidery
thread will do the same. |
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After the
right side is worked, I turn the dress-upside down and work the left
hand side in the same manner. There is no need to start another thread,
simply re-thread your needle with the long tail leftover. |
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Now that the
bottom row of the design is smocked and centered, the remaining rows can
be worked from left-to right. The next row is the top of the heart-a
baby wave or half-space wave. Simply do a down-cable, bring the thread
up and over one pleat to the top of the half-space plated row. Then go
down to the bottom of the half-space to make the middle point of the
heart. I mis-counted some of my 4-step trellis and got off...so....I
fudged a couple of the baby-waves. It's okay, it still looks good. The
only way anyone could tell if they were to count each individual
pleat--which I seriously doubt anyone would take the time. |
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The next row
up is a simple cable row to hold the pleats around the neckline. A
cable is a simple over-under. The only trick is to remember when going
"under" the thread tail is under while going "over" the thread tail is
over. These rows are good practice for picture smocking as the technique
is the exact same. |
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Once all of
your rows are completed, cut the knots on your gathering threads and
pull them out. The embroidery now holds the neckline. |
Coming up in part 3...the finishing construction!
PART 3
Yay! The dresses are complete....and here's how to finish them.
My daughter and her "baby" wearing their pink bishop's dresses.
This
is a smocking plate--or a graph representing how the embroidery should
be done. As you recall in tutorial 2, the 18 inch doll dress used a
simple heart embroidery. This is a smocking plate of the hearts.
SEWING
THE SIDE SEAMS--The side seams can be sewn as a domestic machine
zig-zag stitch or an heirloom french seam. I will show you both. The
doll's dress was done using the zig-zag method while my daughter's dress
used the french seam. They both work equally well, most heirloom
sewing patterns direct the seamstress to use the french seam. In all of
my studies, as far as I have found they are interchangeable. This seam
may also be done using a serger, but I don't have one.
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Pin the front
to the back at the underarm opening with right sides of fabric facing
each other and the wrong side of fabric exposed to the seamstress. Sew a
straight stitch 5/8 inch (needle plate #10) down the length of the
seam. |
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Adjust your
sewing machine settings to its standard zig-zag stitch and sew with the
left hand side of the presser foot next to the straight seam. It is
important for the zig-zag to not cross over the straight stitch to
prevent puckering. |
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Grade (trim) away any excess fabric to create a straight seam and press with an iron. Repeat with the other side of the dress. |
FRENCH SEAM METHOD:
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With wrong
sides of fabric touching, and the right side of fabric facing the
seamstress, pin the front to back at the armhole. Sew a narrow straight
seam. Most books say for this seam to be 1/8 inch. I like it a little
wider so it won't pull out so I use the width of my presser foot. |
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Iron the seam flat. |
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Turn the dress inside out and iron the seam open. |
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Feel with your
fingers the width of the seam and pin. Sew the seam with a straight
stitch just to the outside of the pins. This completes the french seam.
I like how it fully encases the raw edges in the garment. I think it
produces a better quality dress. Repeat with the other armhole. |
BUTTON
PLACKET INSTRUCTIONS: Sew the two back pieces together using the same
manner listed above, leaving the top 6 inches of the 18 inch doll dress
open and the top 9 inches of the toddler dress open.
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Cut four bias
strips two inches wide. For the doll dress, the neckline needs to
measure 9 inches while the toddler dress needs to be 17 inches long
while the placket lengths need to be 12 inches for the doll dress and 18
inches for the toddler dress. The remaining two plackets are for the
armholes and can be trimmed down to size. |
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Fold the bias
strip in half, then fold both raw edges to the center. Your strip will
be pressed correctly for both the neckline, placket and armholes. |
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Open the
button placket so it lies flat and pin the bias strip to the inside of
the dress. Notice that the right side of the strip aligns with the
wrong side of the dress. Sew a straight stitch down the outer bias
strip fold--not down the center. The center of the bias strip will
align with the dress' raw edge. |
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Using the pressed creases, fold the bias strip to the outside of the dress and pin in place. |
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With the dress
opened, sew a straight top stitch down the outer edge of the bias
strip. Note, a small pleat will be created at the back seam. This is
normal. |
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Fold and iron
the placket opening to the right side (for girl's clothing--note boys go
to the left). Top-stitch the placket in place where the pin is in this
picture. |
FINISHING THE NECKLINE: Apply the bias strip to the
smocked neckline in the same manner it was applied to the button
placket. Tip--don't remove the uppermost holding row pleating thread.
It will help the neckline stay in place and not stretch while the bias
strip is being applied.
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Folding the
placket opening raw-edge of the bias strip in (see pin), pin bias strip
with right sides facing the inside of the dress (look at my hand
placement in the photo, the smocked neckline curled around in the
picture making it look misleading that I pinned it to the front--it's
not, it's pinned to the inside of the dress) along the smocked neckline.
Sew down the bias strip's first ironed crease--not the center. The
center crease will align and wrap around the smocking's raw edge. |
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Fold the bias
strip to the front of the dress. It can either be hand blind-stitched
in place (as heirloom sewing instructions state) or top stitched with a
straight stitch into place. I top-stitched it in place. |
BINDING THE ARMHOLES: Still, we're using the same bias tape technique!
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With the dress
inside-out, pin the right side of the bias strip to the armhole. Tuck
in the raw edges. Sew in place along the ironed crease. |
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Flip the bias strip to the outside of the dress and pin in place. |
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Top stitch the arm hole closed. |
FINISHING: Add button holes and buttons to the
placket. Turn under the dress hem. The doll's dress is a one inch hem
and stitch in place. I like to use my sewing machine's blind hem
feature, but a straight top stitch will do as well.
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Fold, press with a hot iron and pin the hem in place, then sew! |
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The finished doll dress. |
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My daughter's finished dress. |
Hola!! Me gustó mucho toda la información y el proceso del trabajo
ReplyDeleteEstoy interesada en la guía de bloquear�� ¿En donde podría conseguirla? Porfis, gracias
Este es mi correo electrónico: mceliapguerrero@gmail.com
Delete¡Espero su repuesta por favor! :)
Hola tengo la maquina pero no se como montar la agujas e intentado se me rompe si pudiera ayudarme se lo agradecería muchísimo
ReplyDeleteI'd like to get the pdf of bishop dress blocks can you please send
ReplyDeleteI d lije to get the pdf of bishop dress blocks. From South Africa.
ReplyDelete