Thursday, May 7, 2020

Day 128 : Smock

One Button a Day 2020 by Gina Barrett - Day 128 : Smock

Day 128 : Smock


Today's button is inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee - last night's episode had machine smocking. Had I been on it, I'm sure I would have had a Dorset wheel in my stash to use! After all, those buttons were commonly used on the farming smocks, along with a stitch known as Dorset feather stitch. I'm never quite sure how I feel about machine stitching over the pleats, I just really like the look of the old hand stitched items.

The fabric for this button is the edge of a piece of cotton I randomly dyed many years ago - putting dyestuffs into a bundle within the fabric. This one was logwood and eucalyptus leaves if I recall correctly (it was a very long time ago). 

I've hand smocked the centre area, and added herringbone stitches on each pleat with two strands of embroidery cotton. The edge is a twist of some of that linen thread from yesterday, couched along the edge. The mould is one that was cut the wrong size!

Size : 35mm /  1 3⁄8" / 54L