Burda Style For people who sew
Description
I wanted to try my hand at smocking so I picked up a library book on it. I found that traditional smocking would be very time consuming without a pleater, but the book also described counterchange smocking. I decided to give it a try! Here’s the result.
Material Notes
Striped Cotton(?) inherited from my mother’s stash, embroidery floss, buttons, and an ancient Butterick Strawberry Shortcake pattern from my mother-in-laws stash.
Difficulty
Novice
Categories
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May 6, 2008, 06.41 PMby reneebeth
Thanks for the info! You may not be an expert, but you know your stuff well enough for me to understand it :)
May 6, 2008, 08.45 AMby maldrich
I don’t think it took me as long as regular smocking; I did the front and back pieces in about 6 hours. I’ve never smocked in any other way so I can’t be certain it was quicker. In counterchange smocking all the stitches you see are functional; in other words the stitches are what is pleating the fabric. From what I can tell, counterchange is typically done on stripes, checks, or patterns that are square. It changes the colors on stripes when you pleat with the stitches. Also, there is absolutely no stretch in counterchange smocking as opposed to regular smocking which stretches tremendously without stabilization. I’m by no means an expert since this was my first project and I picked up the book on smocking at the library. I think it was called the ABC’s of smocking, but i’m not sure.
May 6, 2008, 08.26 AMby reneebeth
This is cool! I was just looking at a smocking website but became overwhelmed! Did this one take you as long as the traditional smocking would have? I don’t understand the difference between traditional and counterchange.