Smocking - A Trip Down Memory Lane

The post I wrote about being happy to be a mother started a trip down memory lane.  In retrospect I appreciate that it was a beneficial time to be a mother.  Society accepted broader roles for women, plus many of us had the choice of staying home  with the kids or working outside the home.  I attribute satisfaction with my motherhood  to being an at home mom with the luxury of having time, money, and energy to pursue my interest in needlework.  The beginning of my serious involvement was when the boys were about 8 and 10 years old.  Initially, it was teaching classes around my dining room table.  Eventually, that expanded to evening courses at the local college campuses and then to workshop and lecture tours around the country and Canada.  As the saying goes, "If Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy".  The balance of  my home life and involvement in the needlework world made me happy.
 

During my "prime time" years (mid 70's through the 80's), English smocking dominated my life. I taught the technique in 6-week long classes on three Milwaukee Technical College campuses. The photo above is the cover and introduction page of the book I wrote.  It's in a workbook format that reflects the 6-week session for beginners.  I had intended to write another for the advanced class, Series II, but never did.  My husband and best friend posed in the photos with me to save on modeling fees.

During that time I also wrote booklets as well as designed kits (Christmas ornaments and Easter eggs) and clothing patterns for smocking.   Those were produced and published by a company called Little Miss Muffet. This one for doll clothes is based on the most popular smocked outfits for children.

The models are the first two dolls in what ended up being an extensive collection.  I named them after my niece and nephew who's mother, Dianne Durand, had introduced me to this beautiful needlework skill.  Dianne owned and ran the Little Miss Muffet company.  She and I along with several other young mothers founded the Smocking Arts Guild of America* (SAGA).

There were also two books that included the patterns for doll clothes. "Book I" featured the "Kalico Kid" doll family.

The storybook tale of the Kalico family takes place during the Great Depression. In the story a well-off aunt sends a box of cast-off clothes to her sister, which was my inspiration for making these garments.

"Book II" features the Fischer Price "Best Friends" and Sasha dolls that were popular back then ...

The back cover featured the matching dresses I had designed and made for the little girl who lived next door to us.  Here's the centerfold picturing all the outfits offered.

It pleases me to see these books listed on eBay now and then. It's a secondary market, because they haven't been published for many years ... about as many years as I haven't been smocking.


*I'm happy to report that SAGA is still going strong even though none of us founders are involved. The way I see it, that's akin to good parenting ...  we each gave many years of work and  devotion to establish a good foundation so it could survive and thrive into the future.

Still Playing With Dolls

Well, not really. I like setting up scenarios. This one is nestled in the corner on top of my bedroom dresser.
The mother and older daughter dolls were rebuilt. Their porcelain heads are from long ago while their leather bodies are about twenty years old. That's when I made them into this family. The younger daughter and baby are porcelain reproduction dolls that I bought about twenty-five years ago. The little girl is holding an old celluloid baby doll.
The table dressed with old linens is set for afternoon refreshments.
The star of this scene is Bernice. I designed and made her three dresses. The one she has on is cotton velveteen trimmed with old cotton eyelet edging.
She's also wearing fine sewn undergarments that are suitable to this period. The striped dress hanging in front is made of silk. I designed and stitched the battenberg lace collar.
The light colored dress is made from a printed linen and trimmed with silk taffeta.
The dresses were designed and sewn by me. For about five years I taught pattern making for dolls in workshops. I also restored and dressed old and well-loved dolls during those years. All of that seems a lifetime ago. Those skills are resurrected occasionally for the dolls of those who are dear to me. Such as my granddaughter's inherited dollhouse family and a friend's old family Bylo Baby doll. I'm afraid those naked baby dolls in my cupboard are doomed to stay that way.

The Doll Who Has Everything

This doll is living my childhood dream. She has toys and books. She has drawers and a closet full of pretty clothes. She has more than one pair of shoes. She has a beautiful room all to herself.
She has a smocked top to go with her pinwhale corduroy pants.
She has a smocked bubble playsuit for summer days.
She has a pretty smocked dress for cool fall days.
She has a pleated silk taffeta skirt to wear with a fine cotton batiste blouse.
She has snuggly undergarments for everyday wear.
She has pretty embroidered undergarments for good.
She has a beautiful party dress ... and a hat that goes with it.
I made the bobbin lace trim with silk thread. There's also shadow-work embroidery and smocking that adorns this fine Swiss batiste cotton dress.
She likes what she sees in her silk trimmed mirror. This doll is named Terra after the little girl in that photo on the dresser.

Terra has a silk lined wool coat and smocked velvet bonnet to keep her warm.
At the end of the day she puts on her pajamas and slippers.
...and after storybook time says, "goodnight."

I fell in love with this 8" tall doll because she looks the way I imagined my then daughter-in-law-to-be, Terra, did as a child. Kemper, her future husband helped me to construct the box in which to build this dream room. I constructed the dresser, closet, bookshelves, and bed. It was a joy to paint and wall paper and outfit this fantasy room. Her wardrobe grew until no more would fit into the drawers and closet.

More Small Dolls

In the past I have dressed other small dolls. Many of them are in my personal collection.
Beginning with the top shelf, these two dolls have the most work put into their costumes. The small doll wearing the smocked dress and bonnet is barely two inches tall.
They are keeping company with the oldest doll that I have. The black doll is so old there is no marking on the back of her porcelain head. Her composition body is jointed. The photos in the background were taken of my husband's aunts at the turn of the last century.
At the other end of that top shelf are a couple of storybook dolls, both of which date back to the era of my childhood ... the kind of dolls I yearned for back then. A doll with a composition head and felt body that I bought on a trip to England is dressed with a smocked frock and hat. She's standing behind old leather bound family diaries that are propped up with a Stieff sheep. There's nothing special about the teddy bears. I collected them for my small dolls to hold.On the middle shelf beneath those dolls is a mixed collection ... from an old celluloid naked baby to a couple that were made by contemporary doll artists to one that was made to be a cat toy. The brown skinned knit cloth one was designed and made by me. I can't recall now why I never clothed her. Under the glass bell is a porcelain reproduction doll that I dressed. She is holding an old porcelain dolly.
On the other side of the middle shelf are several ethnic dolls, an old storybook doll, a silk fabric angel made by a friend, and a very small celluloid doll under the glass bell jar. The old composition doll standing in the corner is wearing a dress made from aged silk that I made. She, too, is holding an old porcelain dolly. The cloth one in front of her is a modern artist's doll.
Beneath them on the bottom shelf is an old Madam Alexander jointed storybook doll with her original skating costume. Behind her is a modern doll that I had dressed. In the bassinet is the original Spanish doll that was copied by many other manufactures for a period of time.
Her dress and the bassinet cover are smocked. And yes, that's an old photo of me in the background.
A collection of modern/reproduction babies occupy the right side of the bottom sheld. There are photos of our now eleven year old twin grandsons along with a colored pencil drawing of their great-grandfather. The crocheted teddy bear was my baby toy made by my mother.
The pretty porcelain bowls that you see among the dolls contain lavender to keep the air fresh and deter any bugs from taking up residence among my dolls.

Playing With Dolls

My playing has involved dressing this family for my granddaughter, Tessa.
They were her mother's dollhouse family and had previously been much played with by her and her younger sister (Tessa's aunt) as well as by Tessa. Below is a photo of some of the family's original garments.
As you can see, I dressed them in contemporary clothing ... the type worn by Tessa's family. The tops of my worn cotton socks made nice sweaters. The daughter's top is a piece of left-over clothing from years ago when I had redressed another set of dolls that were this scale. Papa's pants are sewn from the excess twill that was cut off when I hemmed a pair of pants recently. The jeans are made from a lightweight denim in my stash. I was especially pleased with Mama's purple leather boots. They're crafted from a fine pair of leather gloves given to me for this kind of purpose by a friend.
Not only had the clothing been worn out, but the material for their bodies had given way. I did some reconstruction work by wrapping strips of fabric around the original padding. There's lots of stitches tacking it together. The girl's legs are wrapped with yellow fabric because I thought a bit of her leg may be exposed when I dressed her and it would appear she's wearing yellow socks.This family is packaged up and in the mail ... headed for a lot of playtime by Tessa and her friends.

Smocked Finery

This is the last doll dress that I had smocked. That was over twenty years ago. I also designed and made the Battenburg lace collar for her silk dress.
Here are a few of my favorite dolls that live in a corner of our bedroom.
The very last doll added to my collection didn't get a new dress. However, one of my first quilts is her lap robe.

Smocked Doll Clothes

This is one of the books featuring smocked doll clothes that I wrote back in the 1980's. It's interesting to see it being sold fairly often in the secondary market on EBay.
The dress on the cover eventually was produced as a pattern for girls. It was called "Allison's Dress" and published by Little Miss Muffet.

I got into collecting dolls so I could smock their clothing, since I had no daughters. I made this cutie a smocked bishop style dress with embroidery decorating the front. The fabric is a woven silk gingham. Her bonnet is a folded silk handkerchief.

Miniature Dolls

At the time I was ready for people in my dollhouse room, I was collecting old and new porcelain dolls. I took a workshop to make a miniature lady doll so I would know how and what went into the creation of good porcelain. This lady is the result.

Setting her glass eyes was the most challenging part to me ... she ended up a bit cross-eyed. Her hair is made from silk roving. Curls were made by wetting a small hank, wrapping it around knitting needles, and then baking it at a low temperature to set the curls. I enjoyed the process of creating her, but only needed to make one doll from "scratch". I purchased the already painted and fired porcelain body parts to construct the people and toy dolls for this dollhouse room.

Both ladies dresses are made from silk fabric. They're wearing all the appropriate undergarments and hooped petticoats from the Victorian era. They even have silk stockings and high-heeled shoes made from fine leather. The baby's smocked dress and bonnet are Swiss batiste cotton. I had knitted the baby blanket from sewing thread using the the largest sewing needles I had to knit it.

As you can see, the dolls are small, especially the dolly.

She's also wearing a smocked silk chiffon dress with petticoats and leather shoes. As I recall, all the dolls shoes were made from old kid leather gloves.

You may recognize that I've done English smocking, which is a surface embroidery across pleated fabric. This scale is too small to make pleats by rows of running stitches. Tiny pleats were formed by drawing up threads in the fabric weave at even intervals. It was hard to see the gathering thread as a guideline for the embroidery, so I drew chalk lines to help me evenly space the smocking stitches.

I'm glad I did all of this about thirty years ago when my eyesight was good. I could never see to work on this scale today.

Doll House Tour

The lady at the door with the baby is coming to "trick or treat". Mother doll is getting candy from the entryway table for them. The side windows at the door have curtains that are pleated silk with lace trim panels. The rug is one that came in a book of rugs printed on a fuzzy paper. I colored in the pattern with felt tip pens and then mounted it on course fabric that is fringed on the two ends. The figures on the shelves are porcelain.
I have decorations for three holidays ... Halloween, Easter, and Christmas. The only digital photos I've taken are these of Halloween.I like to think that father doll is taking a break from carving pumpkins. I don't know who was playing cards.
Under the newspaper is an inlaid chess board in the center of the table. The chess set is stored in the highboy along with a lot of other things.I made this easy chair from scratch. It's upholstered with silk fabric and trimmed with twisted floss. The protective doilies are motifs cut from lace, as is covering for the pillow. The window covering and valance are also pieces of lace trim and finished with the same floss twist plus tassels. The clock is made from a kit.

The corner china cupboard is also made from a kit. There are silver pieces, real glassware, and porcelain dishes.
I hope you're clicking on these photos to see the details such as father's pipe and pocket watch on the side table between the chairs. The smaller chair is where mother sits to stitch. There's a threaded needle waiting for her in the work in progress (embroidered by me with a single ply of fine silk thread ... but not with that needle). The hoop really does slide up and down the stand. Note the spool rack filled with threads on the end of the mantel.

The bird's name if Bob.

Philip is the young boy's name. He's in a rocking horse chair that I constructed, stained, and caned with silk thread. He's playing with his favorite toy teddy bear that I made from fine wool felt. The fur is embroidered in a straight stitch with a single strand of floss.

Lucia is playing with her dolls at the bay window seat. Her doll and trunk were made by me from kits. Although, I designed and made the doll's clothes. You'll see that up close in my next post.