I decided that to learn smocking, I would tackle sewing an apron. I often learn best by searching out tutorials online, and teaching myself, so that's what I did with this project. The tutorial that made the most sense to me suggested using a piece of fabric that was 30 inches to a side. Since the white linen I wanted to use was 60 inches wide, I figured I might as well make two aprons.
The basic idea with smocking is that you make rows of running stitch, then pull the rows taut to create pleats, then connect the pleats. There are a variety of stitches that can be used to do that, and I chose honeycomb stitch for my aprons.
The first apron had small pleats, with the running stitches approximately 9/16" in length. I also made the rows of running stitch 9/16" apart.
I was really pleased with how the smocking looked, but the apron was a little narrow. I decided that apron #2 would have larger pleats, and decided to use 1.5" as the running stitch length and space between rows.
This apron was definitely wider, but I preferred the look of the smocking in apron #1. The solution, I think, is to start with a wider piece of fabric, and stick with the shorter running stitch and row spacing. The pictures above are of both aprons after washing, which was necessary to remove the pencil marks I used for making the pleats even.
These are the sources I used to learn smocking and do a bit of research into its historical use:
http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-1.html
http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-2.html
http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-3.html
http://www.pleatworkembroidery.com/articles/apronintwoways
http://www.larsdatter.com/aprons.htm
