Okuzeka
Fashion & Textiles vocabulary · Sewing & Construction

Smocking

Meaning in fashion & textiles, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In fashion & textiles, smocking means: Embroidery worked across gathered fabric to hold decorative folds.

In Turkish: smok nakışı, bal peteği nakışı

How it is used

Use for embroidery over gathered cloth; distinguish it from simple machine rows of elastic shirring.

Example sentences

  1. Hand smocking holds the tiny folds across the front of the child’s dress.

    Decorative stitches also control the arrangement of the gathered fabric.

  2. The smocking pattern alternates small diamonds with narrow horizontal bands.

    The term refers to a decorative technique with its own stitch patterns.

Common collocations

  • hand smocking
  • smocking stitches
  • embroideryDecoration sewn onto fabric with thread, by hand or by machine, such as a logo on a polo shirt or flowers on a blouse.
  • gatherTo pull fabric into small, soft folds by sewing long stitches and drawing up the thread, so a wide piece fits into a shorter one.

More terms: Sewing & Construction

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