Smocking Orange Doily

Smocking is shocking :-) I mean 'Smocking' is an art that needs patience. Just as most other arts. Well, the speciality about Smocking is that it leaves you puzzled for a while until you come to a stage where you are confident of how you are progressing. I have been trying to resume my smocking artwork for a while and have tried this an another project in this series. Thank you for stopping by and peeping into this complex yet easy project.

1. 18 inches X 18 inches orange velvet cloth

2. Needle

3. Orange thread

4. Ruler

5. Pen

6. Scissors

7. Iron (optional)

This is the first step in which I took an 18 inches X 18 inches orange velvet cloth for this project. The front and back side of the cloth is shown in images 1 & 2. I ironed it neatly. Velvet easily looks crumpled easily and ironing is a good step to start with.

In this step I marked a square grid on the back side of the cloth with 2 cm X 2 cm lines as shown in image 1. 18 lines horizontally and 18 vertically. Then I made squares with 3 x 3 dots as seen in images 1 & 2. Each square is treated as one box of pattern to be repeated over and over. Refer image 3 for the dots from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and back to 1. This how the pattern starts and end.

Always work on the back side of the velvet cloth. This is the step to create the actual pattern. I made a small stitch starting at point 1, then the next at 2, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and back to 1. Refer images 1 - 3. After returning to point 1, I then pulled the thread and tightly tied few knots as in image 5. This forms a floral on the front side. 2 such floral designs are shown in image 9.

I continued to follow the same 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-1 pattern for each of the square in a row. The front side work so far is shown in the image 1 and the back side in image 2 & 3.

Taking care to adjust the different folds and twists, I completed the 6 X 6 rows and columns. Finally the Smocking Orange, soft, silky and smooth doily is ready.

Feel free to reach out to me for any queries or questions!