I just got done learning this awesome technique. I used the tutorial at Savvy Seams (which was awesome) but I wanted to share a more visually-oriented tutorial with ya’ll. I know canadian smocking looks crazy hard but it’s actually super simple (and fast!) once you get the pattern down. Seriously!
<3 erin
p.s. I had lots of fun messing with photoshop to makes this tutorial extra cute. Love that star stamp!
ok, Here goes…
Before I give you the step-by-step lemmie give you The Grand Scheme of Things. Basically, you’re gonna be working in a row, starting towards the top of your grid and moving downwards. You are always working on the backside of the fabric. When you get to the bottom of a row, you tie off your thread and start a new row.
Here’s the nitty-gritty:
Step 1. Figure out how big your want your finished smocked block. Multiply the length and width by 3. Make a grid of dots on your fabric square with a fabric marker/sharpie/chalk. Leave at least a 2.5″ seam allowance around all edges. Make the dots about 1″ apart.
Step 2. Knot your thread and make a tiny stitch (pick up a few fibers) under this dot:
step 2
Step 3. Make a tiny stitch under the top left dot, bring this dot and your starting dot together (forming a pleat). Make a knot over both dots to secure the pleat:
step 3
Step 4. Make a stitch underneath the next dot down. DO NOT MAKE A PLEAT. Leave the fabric flat. You’ll have some slack on the thread. This is good. Make a knot over this new dot:
step 4
Step 5: Bring these two points together. Knot:
step 5
Step 6. Just like step 4:
step 6
Step 7. Just like step 3:
step 7
Step 8: Continue working down the row until you get to the end. Once you’re done, tie off and start a new row with a new length of thread. Repeat the sequence starting with step 1 but use this dot as your starting point instead:
step 8
Once you’re done, it’s apparently common to steam the whole thing from the top without applying any pressure (like…hover over the top with your iron’s steam blaring) but renegade seamstress that I am, I skipped this step. It still looks good but I might try steaming it next time to see what the effect is like.
The end!
I hope this was helpful, folks. I’m still a novice so let me know if this tut was clear enough. If you end up trying this out, definitely send me a pic of your creation or link to one in your comment. I wanna see!
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[I think I found you through BlogHer, somehow. I'm not sure, I've been link surfing like crazy this a.m.]
Thanks for this easy-seeming tute! I’m going to give it a shot. Smocking had never really appealed to me before, or it seemed like something I didn’t really have time to learn. But now I’m game!
I’m enjoying your blog a lot. xoxo
I found your blog by searching Google for “Patchwork” and so far I am in LOVE. Thanks for the great smocking tutorial with visual aids!! I would have never tried it had it not been for the great tutorial you provided. Now I know what I am going to spend my Sunday doing. Thanks again!
Thank you!! I am a visual learner,and your tute really helps.
Thankyou so very much…I have been looking for these instructions for years but did’t know what to call it.
I had trouble understanding the instructions at Savvy Seams, but your tutorial makes them clear. Thank you!
Oh Wowza! I’ve got to try that. My friend has a pillow that features this type of smocking, and I’ve been trying to puzzle it out for awhile. Luckily, I found your tutorial before I broke my brain!
These instructions were SO HELPFUL!! Thank you so much for taking the time to put them together. I always thought that lattice smocking was something that could only be produced by an expensive machine of some sort, but now I understand how to do it myself and I got it on my first try. Hurrah!
Thanks so much! I found the original tute and it made my head spin. This is perfect for me — a fellow visual learner. I have a long car ride this weekend & wanted something to do. I think this might be good. What do you think? Too hard for the car?
Hope not, ’cause I’m giving it a try!
Thanks again for the great tute!
Thanks so much for this! I too am a visual learner and I found this much easier to understand than the other tutorials I’d seen.
thank you so much for this post. i tried the traditional smocking. lol … is it wrong to have the backside facing outward? but this technique caught my eye when i was watching Project Runway. It looks very complicated, but your tutorial will help me, i’m certain. thank you so much for the time you spent to give it to us.
I’ve been looking for this tutorial…Thanks for your clear and simple
ways….
This is an awsome tutorial. Very clear!
Got here trough lovely google.
Thanx alot!
Thank you so much.
Your instructions and your pattern was so useful and so simple to understand:-)
This is a great tute, you did a good job interpreting the one from savvy seams. I’m adding this to my sewing to-do list
Oh my Gosh, thank you so much! This is so easy now! Your diagram makes so much more sense than other tutorials I came across! Thanks!
Lovely smocked dress. I’ve been researching for some ideas for my next smocked dress project and this is just wonderful!
Would you believe someone posted this site on the Martha Stewart TV website…her instructions were horrible so a viewer/reader posted this one for those of us who want to learn. Thanks, I know it took you a long time to get it written up and finished. Good Job!
Great tutorial. The addition of the straight line down the center cleared up how to keep which dots to use in order. My eyesight is fading but I can do this type work. Thanks for making this doable for me.
Thank you so much these instructions are really good ! i had a try & it looks fab !