Yesterday’s migraine meant I still couldn’t do much today.
It’s frustrating when you’re too sick of head and tummy to even get things like laundry and dishes done. But at least when I’m not actively praying for trepanning to let the lightning out of my skull, I can prop myself up on the sofa with DS9 (Sisko built a boat, Julian got smashed, Quark’s mum got in trouble) and learn a new hand-sewing technique.
Smocking is the art of pleating up fabric, then decoratively sewing the tops of the pleats to fix them. The stitches and folds allow the finished panel to flex and expand, accordion-like. This makes it a good alternative to working out how the fuck to put elastic thread through a sewing machine for shirring. I have some chartreuse linen that I’d like to make a jumperskirt dress out of, and it would benefit from a comfortable flexible panel in the back.
I only succeeded at basic chain stitch today (I tried wave, but it needed more counting than I was up for) but that’s the only stitch I’d need for an unobtrusive, functional panel anyway. To make chain stitch, you alternate whether the thread is above or below the stitching line on each pleat. Doing the chain the same way on each line gives a triangular shape to the expanded pleats, while alternating the direction gives the illusion of hexagons. (This is not honeycomb stitch, which is a quite different smocking technique.) Fully contracted, the stitching itself looks like two small parallel lines. As you pull it open you see it turn into a zig-zag interrupted by fabric, and finally at full expansion it becomes a straight line with the fabric wound around it.
Aha- I think this must be the way the stitcher-ships in Kin-Bright work.
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