What actually is "Smocking"?

Vicky • 16. Juli 2018

How an old handicraft technique is part of a Filucry® product

I came up with the idea for this bag because I had known "Smocking" for a while and was thinking about how to integrate it into a product, as I liked the technique very much.

But first to the technique itself:
Smocking has been around for a very long time and was already used on clothes in the Middle Ages. The principle is quite simple: certain dots are sewn together by hand to form a pattern. Depending on which points are sewn together and how, you will get different results.

The implementation is more difficult, because you have to make sure that you sew the right dots together. You also have to take into consideration that the fabric shrinks to about a quarter of its original size when sewn together (depending on the pattern).

Here a small sketch: You put the grid on the fabric yourself and then decide which points you want to sew together.

When the whole piece of fabric is finished (which takes a while, as everything has to be sewn by hand), you can cut it to the shape you need for your bag and then process it as normal with the sewing machine.

Even though this technique is quite elaborate and takes a long time, I think it is very nice to incorporate such "old" forms of handicraft into current products.

Combined with leatherette, this creates a very special, elegant handbag for special occasions.