I finally tried Canadian (aka Lattice, aka north american) Smocking!!!

I started to follow the directions here and BOY HOWDY!  They were trickier than I initially thought when I first read over them…more on that at the end of the post.

So, it all starts with dots on a square piece of fabric.  I used my trusty fabric pen in lovely orange.  I made the dots about 1″ apart from each other, forming a grid.  I left about 2.5″ of margin (seam allowance) around the grid.  The dots are hard to see in this pic but they’re there….

First two attempts: utter failure

(First attempt so pathetic that it is not shown)

Second attempt:

oh no…that’s not cute at all.

Third attempt.  Reading through directions v-e-r-y sloooowly.

Yay!  Finally starting to look like something after the first row….

Second row.  Booya!

Backside…almost as pretty as the front!

Just a couple more rows and then…bam!  Finished square!

Show the backside some love…

Backside glamor shot….

Next steps….shhh…that’s a secret.  (It involves garage sale wool roving, sexy vintage print and smocked square.  More on this later.)

I LOVED doing this - once I got the hang of it.  Following the tutorial at savvy seams proved difficult for a visual learner like myself.  But once I got in the groove this was so much fun.  It had a mathematical pattern component to it - like knitting - but it was hand sewing which is even more relaxing for me.

Though I love the tutorial I followed for canadian smocking at Savvy Seams, I’m going to do up my own tutorial with a diagram so that you can see the over all pattern better.  I think it will work better for visual learners (like myself!)  Hopefully I’ll have it posted tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

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