THE ART OF HAND SMOCKING

Smocking is a hand sewn surface embroidery worked across pleated fabric. It is unique in being a decorative stitch as well as a construction technique that shapes the fabric by pleating it, creating the “canvas” for the smocking stitches. Our Smocks are hand smocked, as opposed to machine smocked. Sometimes called English smocking, it is the practice of pleating the fabric, then using a needle and thread to embroider the pleats with decorative stitches by hand, a ritual unchanged in 400 years.