Smocking; Gimp Thread; Smocking With Elastic Thread - Pfaff creative 7570 Instruction Book

Smocking
Smocking is a technique with which several seams
sewn parallel to each other produce a gathering
effect which is mainly used for children's wear
and corsetry. There are different techniques:
1> Smocking with gimp thread
(non-elastic)
Gimp thread
Programs 14 orlB
For beautiful smocking effects you will need two
and one half to three times the desired finished
width of fabric.
The smocked section is usually made before the
rest of the garment. Light, firm materials such as
batiste or fine linen are best suited for this tech
nique. Draw a straight line on the fabric as a
guideline for the first gathering seam using a
disappearing-ink marker or almost invisible non-
o
greasy chalk. Insert the appliqué foot, loosen the
screw at the rear end of the sewing foot holder,
and push the edge guide through the opening.
Place the fabric to be smocked face side up
under the sewing foot and introduce the gimp
thread under the sewing foot in such a way that it
runs exactly along the groove in the foot. Now
sew the first row of smocking and leave about
10 cm (4-5 inches) of thread protruding from the
beginning and end of the seam.Then place the
edge guide at the desired distance to the first
row (approx. 2—2.5 cm
=
1/2-3/4 of an inch).
Varying the distance between rows creates dif
ferent gathering effects. Now sew the next row of
smocking using the edge guide on the first row
as a guideline. Continue in this manner until you
have sewn as many rows as the design requires.
Then carefully pull the ends of the gimp thread
and gather the fabric uniformly over its entire
width.
2) Smocking with elastic thread
Program 00
For this technique, elastic thread is wound onto
the bobbin without tension. The needle thread is
a regular sewing or embroidery thread. Since
elastic threads are much thicker than normal bob
bin threads, the tension on the bobbin case must
be set extremely loose.
However, the tighter you set the bobbin-thread
tension, the greater the gathering effect you
obtain. We recommend that an additional bobbin
case be used for this work. For this kind of
smocking, fine and light materials such as light-
knit fabric, silk or satin are also suitable.
TIP: Always sew a test seam first! Draw the first
line on the face side of the fabric and then sew
along this line. Make a knot in the thread at the
beginning and end of the seam. In the following
parallel seams the material must be stretched to
its original length as otherwise the gathering
would turn out irregular.
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