Canadian Smocking Tutorial With Graphs

Design "Flowers and buds" in Canadian smocking

In Canadian smocking “Bee cottage” design is very useful. Both right side and wrong side of the design are beautiful.
Using the wrong side of the design we can make varieties of designs. It is like our Indian “Rangoli" Once we master the technique we can create as many designs as we want. I will show you how to produce a beautiful flower pattern from the reverse of the pattern “Bee cottage”. I do not know it’s real name. I feel like naming it as” Flowers and buds”
Draw squares of the dimensions of your choice on the wrong side of the fabric.Mark X . as shown in the graph.These are the squares in which smocking is done by joining 4 points.I have explained the rest of the procedure through images.
After smocking the square marked X disappears .Width and the length of the smocked piece is equal width of the square x total number of gaps.I have posted the graph with 2.5cm squares that I have used to make the cushion.Smocked piece will be 43 cm x 43 cm .This is enough to stitch a cushion cover of size 40cm x40 cm. You can change the size of the squares or size of the gaps according to your taste and need .If you want a bigger cushion leave the border more.

 

How to get embossed effect in Canadian smocked cushions

When we do Canadian smocking by joining 4 points there will be many squares and rectangle gaps.If these Gaps are embossed cushion gets nice finish.For example ,I will choose cushion with" Flowers and buds"
continued........

 

Re: How to get embossed effect in Canadian smocked cushions

Further steps........
Follow all these steps,give thin lining to the smocked piece and stitch the cushion cover.I have done my cushion using method 2

 

Re: How to calculare material meeded for Canadian smoching?

Hi Swaran i feel if smocking is done for both body and skirt it will be too heavy.smock the yoke only See the image attached

 

Re: How to calculare material meeded for Canadian smoching?

Do a sample piece of smocking on a cheap material drawing a graph of 10 squares x 10 squares and measure it's dimension.I feel graph of square 1.5 cm x 1.5 cm looks nice.Draw the draft of the bodice .Find out its width and length. this gives you an idea how many squares you have to draw in a row and how many such rows you have to draw.Multiply by the width of the square..Add skirt length to this.smock the body portion only.Keep the bodice draft on the smocked portion .first tack and then Machine stitch all around the draft. Now cut all around to the draft.See the images also.I have given the graph for braid design also.

 

Here is the graph for making cushions with design “Bones”. This design also consists of columns marked with diagonals separated by gaps. While drawing graph we have to keep in mind the last column should not be a gap.

Method of calculating material needed

Let us consider that we smock 2 rows of squares having 2 squares in each row.
We get an equilateral triangle ABC (See figure 2) whose sides are equal to the diagonal of the square which is used for smocking. Using this we can calculate the material needed for smocking for the required size of cushion.
Size of the cushion 40 cm x 40 cm
Size of the square of the graph used =2 cm Χ 2 cm
Size of the equilateral triangles formed (please refer the chart)
Base =Diagonal of the square of square of side 2 cm= 2.8 cm
Height will be 2.4 cm.

Let us calculate the length

Every 2 rows we smock the length will become 2.8 cm
Or in other words, to get 2.8 cm of smocked we need 2 squares or 4 cm material
To get 40 cm of the smocked material we need 40 Χ 2÷2.8 = 28.5 squares or 28 full squares.
Material needed for 28 squares is 28 Χ 2 cm=56 cm
Add 2 cm for the seams on both sides
Length of material needed = 56 cm+ 4 cm =60 cm
Let us check .If we smock 28 squares we get 14 Χ 2.8 cm = 39.2 cm
There is a deficit of 0. 8 cm .This can be made up by adding 1 cm more for the seams that is ½ cm extra on each side.
Length of the material will be 61 cm.
Let us calculate the width of the material needed.
Width of the smocked material is the height of the equilateral triangle.
In this case it will be 2.4 cm
Every 2 squares or 4 cm we smock it will become 2.4 cm in width.
Or in other words to get 2.4 cm of the smocked material we need 2 squares or 4 cm of material
To get 40 cm of smocked material we need (40 Χ 2) ÷ 2.4 = 33 squares
Material needed for 33 squares =33 Χ 2 = 66 cm
By adding 2 cm on each side it will become 66+ 4 = 70 cm
If we smock 32 squares we will get 16 Χ 2.4 = 38.4 cm.
We get little more for the last line
Material needed of width 70 cm.
So the material needed for making a cushion of size 40 cm Χ 40 cm in the design “Bones “ using a graph of 2 cm square = 70 cm X 61 cm

Here is the graph for "bones" design which I had forgotten to upload