Smocking
Smocking is an embroidery technique used to gather fabric so that it can stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments where buttons were undesirable. Smocking developed in England and has been practised since the Middle Ages and is unusual among embroidery methods in that it was often worn by laborers. Other major embroidery styles are purely decorative and represented status symbols. Smocking was practical for garments to be both form fitting and flexible, hence its name derives from smock — a farmer's work shirt. Smocking was used most extensively in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Materials
Smocking requires lightweight fabric with a stable weave that gathers well. Cotton and silk are typical fiber choices, often in lawn or voile. Smocking is worked on a crewel embroidery needle in cotton or silk thread and normally requires three times the width of initial material as the finished item will have. Historically, smocking was also worked in piqué, crepe de Chine, and cashmere. According to Good Housekeeping: The Illustrated Book of Needlecrafts, "Any type of fabric can be smocked if it is supple enough to be gathered."
Gather (knitting)
In knitting, a gather is a generic term for the several methods that draw stitches closer together laterally, i.e., within a row of knitting. Common methods include:
Related techniques
In the sewing technique ruching (pronounced /ˈruːʃɪŋ/, ROO-shing also spelled rouching), a large number of increases are introduced in one row, which are then removed by decreases a few rows later. This produces many small vertical ripples or "ruches" in the fabric, effectively little pleats. The technique of shirring produces a similar effect by gathering the fabric in two parallel rows (not necessarily horizontal), usually by smocking.
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by Sammi Cheng
Armed Reaction 3
by: Sammi ChengIs there something to keep a person truthful?
Does a dream have it's own direction?
Is it natural to be this resilient?
Is it good to force a relationship?
The twists and turns of the road confuses me
I turn to look back with each step I take
I have to make a decision with every half second that passes
Who can I ask for advice?
Even if I answered all 990 questions right
There were the remaining 10 questions that made me sweat
Is there a way not to change someone?
Is there a way to make your dreams come true?
Is there a way to capture love?
Is there a way to keep hope alive?
Fate is testing me, asking me how I will handle this
Right now, what is it that I need the most?
Do you know? Does anyone know?
With a blink of an eye, I will determine my fate forever
Look at how I have changed