Smocking Tutorial

I recently made a dress for my daughter and used some smocking on top.  There aren't many tutorials out there on how to do it, so I thought I would show you how I did it.

First you need to know the size, for every inch of smocking you want 3 inches of fabric, but stop half way through smocking to see where you are at and if you need less, I did.
I made a grid of 1 inch squares with a water soluble fabric marker from Clover.

Mark on the back of your fabric, and add these dash lines through, this is the direction your needle will go through.  I did 30 inches from left to right and 9 inches down.

Thread needle and knot only 1 end

go from 1 corner to the other following the direction of the line inside the box

I went 1 row up and then the next row done, and so forth.  Make sure you use thread that closely matches your fabric.

Pull through, squishing the ends to meet and forcing the middle outwards.

Start to tie the knot

I pinched my fingers together to make sure the knot was tight

The fabric is nice and tight

Now clip (cut) AND Repeat.

and slowly

The back starts to look like this.

And the front looks like this!

Don't forget to enter in the birthday party giveaway, if you haven't already.

a Rafflecopter giveaway