Then, I’m going to ask another newbie/non-sewer question.

What is the difference between pleating/gathering and smocking?

I *thought* I knew what the first was, but now i’m not so sure. And what is “smocking” and how does it vary from gathering? I thought pleating used sharp folds as opposed to just loosely gathering cloth together. Is that right?

“stupid Lilly” trick? Is that like a stupid squire trick?

Admittedly, it seems rather stupid to criticize or make fun of someone in a dark tavern wielding a sewing needle. Unless you do it as you are leaving the tavern.

“Oops, my lord. I seem to have just sewed your ear to this cushion. I guess you are right, it is a bit dark in here."

Stefan

> On Nov 14, 2014, at 7:35 AM, Gwendolyn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> I've never used one, myself. It just does the pleating/gathering for you. All the smocking is still done by hand. 
> From what I understand, it's very easy to break the needles, so frequent threading will be likely. Fortunately, I'm good at threading needles. I joke that my stupid Lilly trick is that I can thread a needle in a dimly lit pub. (And I do it fairly frequently.)
> I sew a lot, both by machine and hand. I don't smock much. It's generally later period than I usually do, but I enjoy doing it. I don't want to spend a small fortune on a machine that won't get a huge amount of use. 
> 
> Gwendolyn
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          [log in to unmask]
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

--
Manage your subscription at  http://listserv.unl.edu.
listserv.unl.edu lists do not accept incoming email from Yahoo.com, AOL.com or Dropbox.com due to their DMARC policies.