Thoughts on Smocking
My eyes have been opened in recent years to the depth and
variety of expression that smocking can provide. Research for the lecture “Smocking—Yesterday and Today,” which I presented at the March 2014
opening of the exhibition “Smocking—Fabric
Manipulation and Beyond” at the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles in
Berkeley, California, turned up so much more than little girls’ smocked
dresses. For hundreds of years stitchery
has been used to control fabric fullness in decorative as well as utilitarian
(19th Century shepherds’ smocks, for example) ways. Today, we see smocking on television, in mail
order catalog offerings and used as a purely creative art form.
I have adopted a mission to open stitchers’ eyes to these
many possibilities and get them to think “outside the box” (yes, that is the
name of one of my classes!) when it comes to smocking. I also encourage stitchers to not stitch in a
vacuum, but to broaden their exposure with other types of needlework. It is amazing how one medium can transform
and enrich another.
For a complete listing of my classes, go to www.classiccreationssmocking.com
Background
We all start somewhere:
I must have started sewing when I was 5 or 6 or whenever my legs were
long enough for the old treadle sewing machine we had. I grew up on a farm in southwestern Missouri
where sewing was an integral part of nearly every woman’s life—you made it
(curtains, slipcovers, pajamas, evening gowns, patches for the men’s overalls,
etc.) or you did without. An aunt was my
inspiration—she won all sorts of awards for her sewing through the 4-H
organization where we all learned the correct way to do everything or
ripped it out! Eventually my mother got
a new Singer and we didn’t have to go to Grandma’s anymore to get buttonholes
made. I just figured I’d become a Home
Ec (that’s what it was called then) teacher but tossed out that notion after 10
weeks in junior high with an incompetent teacher. We had moved to central New York by that
time. I sewed all through high school
and college, even once designing and making a set of wrestling cheerleaders’
uniforms!
Going Green-inner detail
Hand sewing came later; though I vaguely remember my
great-grandmother showing me how to do stamped cross stitch when I was really
little. I ordered and stitched numerous
needlework kits from The Stitchery—never
allowing myself to get a new one until the current project was completed. (Whatever happened to that
discipline!) We moved to Crofton in
suburban Maryland in the late 1970’s.
There was a wonderful needlework shop where I started taking
classes: quilting, crochet, knitting,
needlepoint, hardanger, etc. I actually
avoided the smocking classes because I had an idea that since smocking went so
well with all of the sewing I had always done, I might not want to ever do
anything else if I learned to smock!
Starburst Evening Bag
Shortly before our daughter was born, though, I took my
first smocking class, and I was hooked!
I made all of her dresses—the pre-school teachers couldn’t wait to see
what Sarah would wear next! I
incorporated smocking into my own clothing as well, something that I still love
and continue to do. I had begun teaching
a variety of classes at that same local needlework shop and even seriously
considered buying it when the owner retired.
I had discovered SAGA along the way and attended my first seminar in
Baltimore in 1984 and then that huge Atlanta convention in 1985 and many others
that followed. I was so fortunate to be
able to take classes with many of the early influential SAGA teachers.
In the early 1990’s several things happened
simultaneously. By then I wasn’t allowed
to make Sarah’s dresses anymore, and I began teaching SAGA-approved
classes. I developed a series of designs
for Christmas ornament kits stitched with metallic threads to sell through my
business, Classic Creations (www.classiccreationssmocking.com).
My earlier exposure to other types of
needlework had introduced me to threads that were not all that common for
smocking, and I offer them as well as other needlework accessories.
Galaxy Smocked
Ornament, #1
The Smocking Horizons series for Creative Needle
Magazine began in 1993. This series
of articles, as well as A Smocking Primer and the Smocking Essentials
series which followed, gave me the opportunity to experiment with and try out
some of the “what if’s” I’d always wondered about. I’m basically a very practical/frugal person
(Midwest upbringing?) and could never bring myself to make something unless it
had a specific objective which the magazine articles provided.
Inflamed, a
Scarf
I love teaching, though, and am so grateful that SAGA has allowed
me the opportunity to travel across the country to share with its members. Nothing warms my heart more than when I see
the light go on and a student says, “Now I understand!” Even better is when a student from a previous
class returns to show me a completed project and/or what she was able to develop
of her own based on that earlier class.
Mother of the Groom
I do have a life beyond stitching which centers around my
love of history and passion for textiles.
As a long-time docent at an 18th Century historic house in
Annapolis, Maryland, I have researched and participated in the creation of
period clothing and needlework installations.
I am also a volunteer curatorial assistant at the Maryland Historical
Society where I am able to apply my knowledge and skills to furthering the understanding
of its collections. This all meshes
nicely with my keen interest in genealogy research. As it turns out, I come from a long line of
needle workers, one of whom may also have been named Barbara!
Barbara at a Teacher Showcase, SAGA Convention
