Smocking A Bishop Straight-Pleat First.

Recently my good friend and mentor Margy Hood posted the picture above on her Instagram. She immediately received tons of messages and comments asking her how she smocked her bishops. Apparently there are quite a few ways to smock a bishop! So here’s how we do it.

First things first: Some definitions written by yours truly. Pleating is the act of putting the bishop through the pleater and scrunching up your fabric. Smocking is the act of using decorative thread to create a design on the pleats. It will actually act to hold the pleats up when completed.

When I first began smocking I used the two terms interchangeably, not really knowing the difference. Hopefully this helps some of you not make that mistake. Below I will outline how to pleat and begin smocking a bishop.

1. Partially assemble bishop to prepare for pleating. Press all French seams toward the direction they will be entering the pleater.
2. When putting needles in the pleater, choose the correct number of rows for the bishop by looking at the pattern. Add one extra needle above the top needle at the “half space.” This can be seen in the image to right and will be important during the construction of the bishop.
3. Pleat bishop as written in the pattern.
   • Line the bishop up one half row above the top (extra) needle.
   • As seen in the image, the partially constructed dress is rolled, perfectly straight, onto a rod. The rod is then inserted in the pleater and the fabric fed, bit by bit into the pleater.
   • When pleating, ensure that the top of the fabric remains PERFECTLY straight the whole time. Some people even like to tie a piece of string through the groove they’ve lined their fabric up with to ensure their eyes stay on that groove. If the fabric is kept perfectly straight you can pleat anything! Even ginghams pleat beautifully.
   • As you can see, there is a white “interfacing” on the wrong side of the fabric. This is a “baby interfacing” used to help make the fabric a bit more sturdy. The fabric used above is a very thin “lawn” that can be quite the pain to smock on if you don’t use the interfacing. If using a thicker fabric, like a broadcloth, the interfacing is not necessary.
4. Once the pleating is completed, pull the bishop away from the pleater with pleater threads still attached, cut pleater threads, giving yourself about 2 feet of extra thread to work with. Flatten the bishop out and tie off threads (do this however you want, I usually just tie them all together so that none accidentally get pulled out).
5. There is NO NEED TO BLOCK at this point. A lot of people like to block their bishops prior to smocking. Blocking is the act of laying the bishop (or any pleated fabric) into the shape it will ultimately take and steaming it in place. I do not do this with my Bishops…this may seem strange but it works like a charm.

Last but NOT least: Count those pleats. While some people do not; I do. I really like precision and the only way to get your smocking to match perfectly is to center it-which requires counting. Count in groups of 10 or 25, place a pin in the valley after the last pleat you counted to help make counting easier. Once you’ve found the center pleat, place a pin in the valley to the left of it and begin smocking as the plate directs.

If a bishop is not pleated correctly, it cannot be smocked correctly. Following the directions above should help one pleat a bishop perfectly. Stay tuned for the next post with tips on smocking a bishop straight!