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!
