Embroidery Designs Guide

What exactly is the meaning of smocking? Smocking denotes an embroidery technique which gathers fabric together at regular intervals so that it shows a stretched fabric. In yester years, this technique was used in cuffs, bodices and necklines of garments. Today, this is used in various end products which would include bedsheets, kids clothes, napkins, curtains, table covers to name a few. We have 3 main types of smocking - Latin American, English and Lattice. Latin American smocking is a technique in which the pleats are gathered and formed in the fabric by the smocking stitchwork itself. English smocking is an historic technique of sewing the embroidery over pleats already sewn into the fabric. Lattice smocking involves stitching from the back side of the fabric, creating unique effects in the pleats and appearance, and is particularly good for heavier fabrics like velvet.

Check out a cute collection of firetruck smocking embroidery designs at Sew Many Designs. Aren’t they a beauty? These form part of a smocking collection by Carol Howard. A lot of detail has gone into the machine embroidery which includes a hose pipe, ladder, wheel bumpers, simple dotted patterns on the wheel and body which makes the whole design look really beautiful.

You also have the option of designing for the 5 by 7 hoops using applique machine embroidery techniques!

I just found this great resource for firefighter machine embroidery designs at AllBrands.com - Type firefighter in the search box which would take you to Cactus Punch AM08 Firefighters Multi-Formatted CD. This CD works on all embroidery machines as long as you have a reader writer box or a machine that accepts floppys. This particular collection from Cactus Punch has 18 designs for 4″ sewing fields and 1 design for the 5 X 7 design field.

The information on machine embroidery designs would come in handy here. It would also be helpful if you had details on embroidery digitizing and you would find the information on digitizing software useful.

I was amazed at the complexity of embroidering a firefighter design. The difficulty encountered in fighting an ongoing fire pales in comparison to creating a firefighter embroidery design. A bit of exaggeration only to drive home the point! Compared to truck embroidery designs, these designs are more intricate and require good sewing skills to do it perfectly. In the adjoining design, the ladder part needs utmost attention. Generally all these designs are done using machine embroidery using formats like ART, CND, CSD, DST, EMB, EXP, HUS, JEF, PCM, PES, SEW, VIP or XXX.