Stamped patterns can be had for smocking but they are not at all necessary. Nearly every little English girl knows how to smock without buying a pattern and why should not you?
The simplest form of smocking is the honeycomb or diamond ([Figure 106]). It can be any size you wish. A good size for Sally Ann's dress is the half-inch diamond smocking. The beauty of the work lies in its regularity. To keep it so, the dots must be spaced evenly. A good way is to have a marking card. Take a piece of heavy paper or thin cardboard about six inches long by an inch and a half wide. With a ruler draw a faint line one half inch down parallel with the long edge of the card. Draw four other lines below this at quarter-inch intervals. Be sure that the space between each two lines is a quarter inch, no more or no less. Along the top line measure in one half inch. From this point make dots at quarter-inch intervals all the way across. Each line is dotted in like manner, letting each dot come directly under the upper one in straight rows. If mother has a card punch ask her to lend it to you and where the dots are make holes. A stiletto will answer the same purpose as the punch; or an orange stick may be pressed into service. Your marking card is now ready.
Fig. 106. Diamond smocking
Measure the length you wish to make Sally Ann's skirt. Select a piece of material that will show pencil marks, such as lawn, pique, China silk, or crêpe de chine. It will not be necessary to gore the skirt, as the smocking will form a sort of yoke for the dress. A little frock smocked in blue or red will be nice enough for all occasions. Take the material and smooth all the creases out after it is cut the right length. You must allow about the same amount of material for the width of the hem as you do for ordinary skirts. Place the smocking card so that the edge of it is on a line with the top edge of the goods. The smocking must be done before the belt is put on. Through each of the perforated holes make a dot in lead pencil. After every hole has been dotted, move the card so that there is only one quarter of an inch space before commencing to dot again. In other words, place the card so the dots have the appearance of being one continuous design.
Thread a No. 6 sewing needle with a piece of red or blue cotton. Make a tiny knot at the end. Start from the topmost left-hand dot from the under side of the material. Draw the first and second dots together. Three stitches on the right side will suffice to hold them together. Between the second and third dots let the thread span the material on the wrong side without pulling it. The third and fourth dots are drawn together and then the thread spans the space between the fourth and fifth. Do you see how we are working? First a dot, then a space, a dot, then a space, until the entire line is finished.
The second row is worked exactly the same only instead of starting on the first dot of the second row, start with the second. The third row corresponds with the first and now at last we have formed a diamond.
