Friday 22 June 2012

Shocking Smocking



In a previous life I did a bit of smocking. When I was doing my City and Guild fashion course, one of my projects was a bucolic, shepherdess-inspired blouse. It has been lurking in the back of my wardrobe for a lot of years. There never seems quite the right occasion to wear this beautiful but rather unusual blouse? Hubby says it makes me look a bit like a Russian cossack. Surprisingly it still almost fits. It is rather lovely, and took a huge amount of work. One of the reasons I don't wear it is that the fabric is a rather horrible polyester cotton. As part of the course you had to imagine that you had a client, and make your garment to your imaginary client's directions and budget. My imaginary client was clearly a bit of a cheap skate, and gave me a very small budget. I think if I had made the blouse in a really lovely natural fabric, I might be more inclined to wear it now. A bit of a lesson there. (I have some other unusual garments that I might photograph some time: the African-inspired beaded skirt, my 1940's-inspired jacket.)







But I do remember I really enjoyed doing the smocking. My teacher lent me her smocking machine, and you had to feed the material in to make the pleats. The embroidery was hand done, and the design was inspired by patterns found in photographs of crop circles. 

For my craft stall I sometimes make cotton hairbands, which never sell well. In fact I think I've only ever sold two. I can't understand why they don't sell? Perhaps they are hard to present nicely. The fabrics are really nice, and I have made them in different sizes. I think part of the problem is they are difficult to buy as gift for someone, unless you know their exact head size. 

So I have had this idea brewing for a while for a smocked hairband. Smocking would give it a bit of elasticity. I also thought they would look really stunning, and be unusual. I have never seen a smocked hairband, and cannot find one anywhere on the internet. So, after a few attempts here are my first efforts at hand-smocked hairbands or headbands. I may put a few more photos on tomorrow, but my model has gone to Brownies, and the sun (which we are not seeing very much of this year) has gone in. They are really easy to make. You need to use a geometric print, or something with a regular pattern. In Britain a lot of schools wear gingham school dresses, so they could be made to coordinate with your school uniform.




Eating Pineapple

In A House Made Under the Washing




This would be a really good project for someone who has not smocked before, but would like a small project to get started. When I began I did a few samplers to try out different stitches, and your headband could also serve this purpose. The full instructions on how to make your own headband will be available on Craftsy, and I may sell a few actual headbands on Etsy .....
In my new Etsy shop! I will put some links here when they're on.

My Etsy shop still looks a bit rough, as I am having problems making a nice banner. I would really welcome any tips on how to incorporate text into a photo, and then save as a jpeg or png on a Mac. It has been driving me potty all week. The only way to calm down has been to sit and do a nice bit of relaxing smocking.



22 comments:

  1. Love the jacket and those button loops!

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  2. I had a dress (handed down) with smocked parts. I loved it. Later a school friend of mine made herself a blouse with this technique. I haven't seen smocking since then.

    Thank you for bringing memories back.

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  3. What a great idea - it looks like a really easy way to start off with some smocking as well.

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  4. I've never tried smocking but your blouse is great. I think head bands with stretch would work really well, my girls can't stand thing to be tight round their heads so they never keep them on for long (we all have big heads in our family).

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  5. ooooh, beautiful!

    I love the blouse and the headband.
    I didn't realize that was called smocking either.
    Now I must learn more.

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  6. Looks very time consuming, very involved. I'd almost be afraid to wear it. Great share. I'm your newest follower.

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  7. Wow it looks time consuming but comes out beautiful. It makes me wish I could sew but it will have to wait on my to try list.

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  8. the smocked hairband looks gorgeous but I can imagine it's quite time consuming to make. Thanks for linking up to Handmade Monday x

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  9. I love the idea of smocked hair bands-they look really different and original.Are you going to be selling them as kits-that's the sort of thing I always pick up at craft fairs to give me something different to try.

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  10. Hmmm I spent hours on this too. I think we copied the photo into word - put the text on and saved as pdf file. If you open that I think you can then save it as jpeg. Not 100% sure on this but it is something along these lines. I hope this helps. Fantastic work. I think the hairbands should sell although if they will at a price that makes it worth while... (it looks like a load of work!) Good luck.

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  11. looks like it took you ages to do all that, you must have some patience

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  12. Thanks to lovely Lynn at Minding my own Stitches, who has made me a banner for my shop.

    Thanks for all the lovely comments. The hairbands really don't take that long. Probably as much time setting up the gathers as doing the embroidery. But I do like a bit of hand stitching. I'm going to time my next one.

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  13. Love your blouse - the smocking looks really great. The headbands are a great idea - I especially love the second one. Your model did a very good job of showing them off too! Mich :)

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  14. I've never heard of smocking! Your jacket is lovely - the embroidery looks like bead work. Love the head band too. Hope you have a lovely week x

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  15. Lovely smocking, many years ago my sister made dresses with smocking around the top for my daughter and her 2 girls. I've never tried it but it looks pretty. Thank you for sharing.

    Jan

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  16. The smocking on your blouse is amazing - looks great, and to be honest I would ignore your husband and just wear it. The headbands are lovely too and I think your suggestion for school uniform is perfect.

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  17. the smocking is amazing cant imagine why the headbands dont sell they are really pretty xxx

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  18. I love smocking a friend used to make lovely smocks for her g'kids in the early 80's. It must take ages to do.

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  19. Wow! That smocking is gorgeous. I've never tried it before but I would imagine it is quite time consuming.

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  20. Your blouse is so cool looking, I love it! It looks like a ton of work!!!

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